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From: Mark Isaak <specimenNOSPAM@curioustaxon.omy.net>
Newsgroups: talk.origins
Subject: Evolution of consciousness
Date: Mon, 29 Apr 2024 16:36:45 -0700
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My views on the evolution of consciousness are starting to gel.

1. Rudimentary nervous systems evolve.
2. Brains evolve, capable of memory and of decisions other than reflex.
3. Those decisions probably work better if the brain has a model of the 
world to work with. So such a model evolves.
4. Some creatures live socially. Their brains need a model of that 
important aspect of the world: the fellow beings one lives with, 
including how they think.
5. So we've now got a model of minds. How about if we apply it to *our 
own mind*? That might make our thinking about interactions with others' 
minds more efficient.
6. Viola! Consciousness!

Does that make sense to people?  Is it time for me to write a book on 
the subject? (Do you think publishers will want the book to be more than 
106 words long?)

There's also the problem of testing it. I'm open to suggestions there, 
too. Step 4 implies that the model of how we think need not agree with 
how we think, much as the mental model of our world is flat, not 
spherical. This has at least some confirmation (e.g., blindness to many 
biases). More would be better.

-- 
Mark Isaak
"Wisdom begins when you discover the difference between 'That
doesn't make sense' and 'I don't understand.'" - Mary Doria Russell