Your Brain Knows a Lot More Than You Realize

Re:Your Brain Knows a Lot More Than You Realize by extension on Tuesday November 08, 2011 @05:39AM (#3210221)

I'm awfully skeptical that there is some part of the mind called "consciousness" that is distinct from all these other "unconscious" things. I suspect that what we think of as conscious thought is just a frankenstein of these same little faculties, that just happen to have control of your mouth. The sensation of unity and free will is just that: a sensation, nothing more. I'm not even sure we would claim to have the sensation if we didn't learn about it from our culture.

The story about the judge is great evidence of this. He knows what an injury is, and all his senses tell him he is injured, but somehow he still can't know that he is injured. Or at least, he behaves like he can't know it. The conscious/unconscious model of the mind just can't reconcile this.

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Re:Your Brain Knows a Lot More Than You Realize by maeon3 on Tuesday November 08, 2011 @07:35AM (#3210472)

The words "Conscious" and "unconscious" to describe thought states is like trying to cram an array of ints into a boolean. I always saw my mind as a collection of states ranging from "Front and center, obvious when I'm wide awake" to "mysterious process I cannot control". Like night time brain optimization strategies, night time breathing, squeeze-loosening process to get the small intestine to flow, etc.

We need a better resolution picture of "Conscious" and "Unconscious".

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Re:Your Brain Knows a Lot More Than You Realize by tqgupta on Tuesday November 08, 2011 @01:51PM (#3212161)

http://www.quora.com/What-is-consciousness

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