{"id":17187,"date":"2024-09-01T13:59:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-01T13:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/?p=17187"},"modified":"2025-10-16T09:35:58","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T09:35:58","slug":"components-of-consciousness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/consciousness\/components-of-consciousness","title":{"rendered":"Components of Consciousness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(Self-)modeling + attention + information complexity + drive = consciousness. This isn\u2019t merely a sum of parts but a synthesis, where each element reinforces and amplifies the others.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The first three elements describe intelligence, making consciousness \u2013 such as yours \u2013 essentially intelligence driven by purpose.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

An entity is conscious if it intrinsically knows what to do and why.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider this within yourself: Imagine existing without the \u2018what.\u2019 Now, envision yourself without the \u2018why.\u2019 Would you still feel conscious? Bring them back together, and you\u2019re already there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ‘intrinsic’ quality arises from the dynamic interplay of these elements. The process of combining them is what we might call the “alchemy” of consciousness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continua everywhere<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gradualness is critical to all these elements \u2014 starting from nothing, then to almost nothing, and progressively becoming more. Thus, in organic consciousness, there\u2019s no sudden, magical \u2018light switch\u2019 moment, at least in organic forms of consciousness. More generally, consciousness is no magic<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout animal evolution, we can trace the gradual emergence of consciousness \u2014 from simple sponges to hydras, trilobites, and beyond. Then, from the early stages of neural pre-attention to the centralization of neural patches and ganglia toward brain-like structures and growing complexity \u2015 all the way toward increasingly complex forms of awareness. This slow development showcases how consciousness is deeply embedded in the natural evolutionary process rather than being an abrupt occurrence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an individual person also, consciousness is not an all or nothing. A coma may mean the absence of consciousness, but even in a vegetative state, there may be some subtle form of conscious awareness and even communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Self-)modeling<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no consciousness without self-consciousness \u2014 which is logical because without self-model, there is no \u2018I\u2019 to be conscious. Focusing on \u2018I\u2019 is mandatory. Conversely, the ability to model anything naturally extends to modeling oneself. It may seem like a metaphysically daunting step. Practically, self-referenced models in thinking are essentially just models like other models \u2015 always simplified and schematic, therefore always wrong but possibly usefully wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, self-modeling is one key to consciousness, particularly when it includes a drive for self-preservation. Interestingly, do we\u2014conscious beings\u2014use self-modeling to understand others (known as \u2018theory of mind\u2019), or is it the other way around? The answer is both. fMRI studies show that the same brain regions activate whether we think of ourselves or others. Moreover, humans are social animals, and our intelligence and consciousness have markedly developed as a consequence of this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This accords with Graziano\u2019s Attention Schema Theory (see addendum).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attention<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within consciousness, the term \u2018attention\u2019 is generally used for focusing, which is more ground-level. Even a camera can focus \u2015 especially if it\u2019s one with an automatic focus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Central to attention and pre-attention is the straightforward mechanism of lateral inhibition. Simply put, this is about the winner taking it all by inhibiting nearby competitors. The winner gets into the full spotlight. As a result, we can be conscious of a few things (the momentary winners) at once, but not too many.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lateral inhibition is a widespread principle in the brain, even in areas not typically linked with consciousness, like the retina. In consciousness, it operates on multiple levels, directing our focus to specific stimuli while filtering out others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Information complexity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the presence of a drive, complexity can lead to emergence, where new patterns and order arise from apparent chaos, much like distilling hidden order from disorder. In this case, knowledge is formed. Note that in this formation, nothing is fundamentally added that can then influence matter independently from what it emerges from \u2015 no magic needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Focusing channels our efforts into manageable parts, harnessing complexity more effectively. By refining this focus, we unlock even greater potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In life on Earth, this drive has always been oriented toward self-preservation\u2014present even before self-modeling evolved. Or, one can say that a bacterium is so primitive that it is a model of itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anything we call \u2018drive\u2019 has evolved from the most primitive form, which can still be discerned. With the advent of a dissociated ego, this drive also becomes egotistical. Still, the drive itself needs to be valued. Without it, there would be no life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will the same drive also bring the end of (human) life? We don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The alchemy of consciousness<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nature didn\u2019t engineer animal consciousness. The latter is a natural and gradual outflow of the four elements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although this text offers a brief overview, consciousness might still seem like alchemy. However, the result is both real and comprehensible. Each element can be explored in depth, but it\u2019s crucial to remember that they\u2019re best understood in relation to each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about subjectivity?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some argue that subjectivity is the hallmark of consciousness, distinguishing humans from machines that might mimic human behavior perfectly but lack authentic subjectivity \u2014 hence, they claim, such machines “cannot be conscious.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Graziano\u2019s vein, I object to this. Indeed, subjectivity is necessary for consciousness. Moreover, subjectivity is<\/em> consciousness \u2014 just another word to denote the combination of our above foursome, only with some more focus perhaps on the self-preservation aspect. \u2018Subjectivity\u2019 may seem even more impenetrable, but it\u2019s the same thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no \u2018hard problem\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The much-bespoken \u2018hard problem of consciousness\u2019 is what we imagine to be precisely that. Its popularity comes from being attractive to many magic-wishers. Part of why it appears hard is the fact that nature is no engineer. Nature necessarily builds things on top of things without logical insight or planning. It gets somewhere, but that takes a lot of time \u2013 in our case 4.2 billion years. Nature is an alchemist, blending and layering elements over time to create the complex phenomenon we recognize as consciousness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast, developing \u2015\u2015artificial consciousness could take just a few years. Given its potential to be either profoundly beneficial or dangerous, we must urgently reflect on who we are, what A.I. can become, and why it matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2015<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addendum: Graziano\u2019s Attention Schema Theory<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Graziano\u2019s Attention Schema Theory (AST) proposes that consciousness arises from the brain\u2019s ability to model its own process of attention. According to this theory, the brain not only directs attention to specific stimuli but also creates an internal model\u2014or “schema”\u2014of this attentional process. This self-model allows the brain to monitor, predict, and control attention, leading to the subjective experience of awareness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essentially, AST suggests that consciousness is the brain\u2019s simplified representation of its own complex attentional dynamics, rather than a mysterious or magical phenomenon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Michael Graziano is a neuroscientist and professor at Princeton University, known for his research on the brain’s mechanisms of attention and consciousness, particularly through his development of the Attention Schema Theory.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few quotes from Graziano:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theories of consciousness, because they are effectively theories of the soul, tend to have far-reaching cultural, spiritual, and personal implications. If consciousness is a construct of the social machinery, if this social machinery attributes awareness to others and to oneself, then perhaps a great range of attributed conscious minds\u2014gods, angels, devils, spirits, ghosts, the consciousness we attribute to pets, to other people, and the consciousness we confidently attribute to ourselves\u2014are manifestations of the same underlying process.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Attention is not data encoded in the brain; it is a data-handling method. It is an act. It is something the brain does, a procedure, an emergent process. Signals compete with each other and a winner emerges\u2014like bubbles rising up out of water. As circumstances shift, a new winner emerges. There is no reason for the brain to have any explicit knowledge about the process or dynamics of attention. \u2026 I am suggesting, however, that in addition to doing attention, the brain also constructs a description of attention, a quick sketch of it so to speak, and awareness is that description. A schema is a coherent set of information that, in a simplified but useful way, represents something more complex. In the present theory, awareness is an attention schema.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It is difficult to figure out how a physical machine can produce what is commonly assumed to be a nonphysical feeling. Our inability to conceive of a route from physical process to mental experience is the reason for the persistent tradition of pessimism in the scientific study of consciousness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Yet Libet and colleagues performed an experiment that suggested the order may be reversed. 1681<\/a> \u2026 The result of the experiment was counterintuitive. People confidently reported a particular time on the clock to be the instant, the key moment, when the conscious choice to act entered their heads. Yet the activity in the motor cortex consistently rose up a moment earlier. The order was backward. First motor cortex planned the action, then the conscious decision kicked in. By implication, the human brain chooses an action by means of unconscious processes. A different system in the brain then obtains information that the action is about to occur and constructs a story about how and why the act was intended. Consciousness, and in particular the conscious intention to act, is after-the-fact and indirect, as if we were observing ourselves and inferring our reasons.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Traditionally, scholars assumed that something as amorphous and slippery as consciousness must be impossible to understand scientifically. But given recent insights, I am now pretty sure that it is as understandable and buildable as visual processing, memory, decision-making, or any other specific item that makes up its content. \u2026 I am now pretty sure that a scientific understanding of consciousness and an ability to engineer it artificially are rapidly approaching.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/a>
<\/a>

Please login to bookmark<\/h3>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/form><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Self-)modeling + attention + information complexity + drive = consciousness. This isn\u2019t merely a sum of parts but a synthesis, where each element reinforces and amplifies the others. The first three elements describe intelligence, making consciousness \u2013 such as yours \u2013 essentially intelligence driven by purpose. An entity is conscious if it intrinsically knows what Read the full article…<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/a>
<\/a>

Please login to bookmark<\/h3>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/form><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/2611.jpg?fit=1500%2C874&ssl=1","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Fdiq-4td","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17187"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17187"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25330,"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17187\/revisions\/25330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aurelis.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}