Ned Block - Does Human Consciousness Have Special Purpose?

Scientists say our consciousness is the product of our brains, with purposes set by evolutionary fitness. Theologians believe our consciousness reflects the God who created it, with majestic purpose of eternal life. Mystics hold my consciousness is a drop in the ocean of cosmic consciousness, with cycles and return. For sure, consciousness is a test case.

Ned Block is an American philosopher working in the field of the philosophy of mind who has made important contributions to matters of consciousness and cognitive science.

Closer To Truth, hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn and directed by Peter Getzels, presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

[bparcej]

We are the self awareness of the cosmos💫

[Nword]

Consciousness arises from the influx of ideality with its contrast of reality, with the purpose of reshaping the latter into a finite select appearance -- A.N.W

[JONSEY]

I think when it comes to consciousness and attention or focus, there are a few things we need to remember.

While we can be completely focused on some, it can have our full attention.
It is possible, however, to do something a little different.
For example, you can be driving from one place to another, changing gears, watching for the stop light at a crossing, reading road signs, etc, and even checking out the view around you.
You can, though, then reach your destination and not remember the journey.

If we look at it from the point if view of sleep, there is a point between being awake and sleep where you become unconscious.
You can then have a dream, taking in what the dream shows you and, in some cases, even being aware that you're dreaming.

When it comes to consciousness, it's a little tricky to define, but I guess the best way perhaps is to look at the difference between being conscious and unconscious.
It's something that needs compleat definition to define it.

I often see people trying to break it down into one thing or to try to find it in one part of the brain.
While completely understandable, it's also possible that it takes many parts for consciousness to happen and possibly uses many parts of the brain.
I feel this is more likely.

We often incorporate feelings into consciousness. When I'm conscious, I can feel this or that which of course, is a chemical process.
We, at least most people but not all, hear their own voices in their heads when they are thinking.
I think if we were able to hear our own unconscious mind thinking, it would drive us crazy as it would most likely sound like white noise with all the information it has running through it every moment of every day.

The brain looks at, thinks about, and sees the world in two impoertant ways.
From a conscious and unconscious point of view, logical verses creatively, solid verse abstract and so on.
It's as if there are, and it could possibly be right, two versions of you within your skill.
Those two versions speak to one another, compare information, and come to some conclusion who's is what we might call consciousness.

[javiej]

Consciousnes also give us the "understanding", which provides a clear evolutionary advantage. Understanding how the environment works give us a fuzzy intuition to predict other individuals behaviour and how and when to act, well beyond the capabilities of a non concious specie.

[sylvestermumba]

Consciousness is there to help us evolve, like mystics say, we are born then we die and cycle repeats. Until we attain spiritual perfection. This is consciousness' special purpose. It acts like a cloud through which we store progress in every stage.

[JeffBedrick]

Interesting to parse the difference between consciousness and attention. Consciousness is the more generalized state which can be passive and receptive, OR focused and active - which is what we call "attention." If you are able to quiet your active attention from thought to thought like a butterfly flitting from flower to flower, (such as in a state of meditation), then that is a more pure state of consciousness in which you still feel like you without necessarily being preoccupied by any particular thought or narrative. The value of this is a state of serenity in which one can step back from over identifying with any particular narrative which can often involve conflict or confusion.

[BrockLanders]

The evolution of consciousness is the purpose/process of the universe.

[boatman]

I’m with Donald Hoffman. Consciousness is fundamental.

[Jinxed]

We're meat filters and data collectors for a single, ubiquitous consciousness. There's my speculation.

[Dion_Mustard]

Consciousness has purpose ..I think it's to evolve infinitely ..namely consciousness is eternal and cannot be destroyed.

[kevinhaynes]

Can Robert do an episode at some time, to say whether, after all these years of searching, he is actually any closer to truth...
Thank you

[kallianpublico]

I was responding to a post on Camus derived from his "Myth of Sisyphus". I thought myself bright when I wrote that Camus was basically morality or happiness for the obtuse. A sort of how to for bureaucrats.
I then realized or wondered, aren't we all obtuse? Isn't what we don't know controlling what we do, or SHOULD BE controlling what we do? Isn't ignorance the "ought" of morality more than ethics.
Consciousness? Why does the "bird sit on the nest"? Why are you only that smart? Why aren't you smarter?
In the military there are 3 classifications: classified, need to know, and secret. I think there are 3 types of consciousness, maybe more, but which consciousness is best? The one that has access to the classified, the secret or the need to know? Could it be that the best consciousness is the need to know one? That, in fact, the one with all the secret information is the one least equipped by evolution to adapt?
Why would eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil be responsible for man's Fall? Did it increase our secret clearance and increase our consciousness? Or did it relegate us to the need to know aisle and decrease our consciousness?
Nietszche said what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. In this world what you don't know makes it easier to live with yourself.

[mobiustrip]

I think therefore i am
Wrong!
I am therefore I think

[-by-_Publishing_LLC]

(0:50) *NB: **_"Everything that anybody will say about it is pure speculation"_* ... My speculation is that consciousness acts as a self-policing filtering agent for "Existence." Self-aware humans can issue subjective *value judgmnts* for everything that exists and every experience we have. Each value judgment that's generated gets added to all others to form a *spectrum.* We do the same thing with rock bands when we create a spectrum of the _"Top 50 Rock Bands."_

"Exictence" has evolved ten billion years of _inanimate structure_ into four billion years of _living structure_ and has now employed self-aware humans to evaluate it all (like art critics would do at a new exhibit).

Our value judgments are then used by "Existence" to orchestrate the next major stage of universal evolution.

[rc]

0:50 from the physical perspective, it seems as consciousness is necessary for the animation of the physical structure and its meaningful interaction with its surroundings... but the quest for purpose leads to a new question: what is the purpose of a conscious physical structure or life and what/where is its source 🤔

[RecklessG]

The apex directive of consciousness is to remain conscious

[tedgrant]

Bees are conscious for a special purpose.
It enables them to find flowers so they can collect food.
They try not to visit the same flowers twice (intelligent design)

[jennymiko]

Attention is also affecting growth, if something does not get attended to, it dies!

[dr_shrinker]

If consciousness were independent of physical brain, then why would anyone ever be wrong about a physical fact? If two people stood in a field and one person blinked as lighting struck on the horizon, both person’s experiences would differ. One person saw the lightning, the other didn’t.

Consciousness IS dependent on physical processes.

[mcmg-museudacriacao.melind]

Meu amor … já disse que só eu tenho as respostas sobre consciências e suas funções …!