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I have been thinking lately.. if there is any significant distinction between humans and other animals I wonder if it is not "consciousness" or even "intelligence" but rather simply that we have a separation of conscious and subconscious minds. It seems to me that most animals are just a direct expression of their subconscious with no conscious component acting as a filter. Or at the very least their conscious component is greatly minimalizaed
@freemo I don't think this works -- the "subconscious" is a whole heap of stuff like raw signal processing that would utterly swamp minds without layers of abstraction.
I don't think we can know what layer qualifies as conscious without direct internal experience of it.
I dont think we have good words to explain this, like that is certainly beyond conscious access, but its not what I think of when I think of the subconscious.
The subconscious is a part of my brain that seems to be seperate with its own thought patterns and processing. I can only access it with deep meditation... it feels like it has its own level of awareness and thought and is much like my conscious mind just seperate and compartmentalized and unfiltered (yes it would drive me mad).. but it is seperate from skills.. both my conscious and subconscious have access to the same skills, and that is where the skill processing takes place, on a base level abstracted away fromthe conscious and subconscious minds themselves.
@freemo I don't think that sort of unconscious is actually very different from many things we do, like motor control, which is mostly unconscious, but can be made conscious with some effort.
Most vertebrates seem to have a mode of normal locomotion (which is probably unconscious), and controlled motion when trying something novel or difficult. What's the difference? I'd say it's bringing in some sort of executive (conscious?) control.
I think we are talking about different types of subconscious and using the word different..
You are using subconscious to mean "everything we are unaware of". I am using it to mean "a seperate active thinking but compartmentalized entity in our head". It would likely have awareness much like the part that we call "us" is aware.
@john Right, and I guess i am saying I disagree... your motor functions dont have creative active thought that is then presented to the conscious mind for consideration.. the skills obviously can autonomously process but they wont actively go off and create complicated ideas on their own.
this can be seen
@freemo I'm saying there isn't a fundamental difference between the the thing's you're drawing a distinction between, in relation to conscious thought.