Why was consciousness naturally selected?

[shawn001]

Perhaps

NOVA


The Electric Brain

• How does a three-pound mass of wet gray tissue (the brain) succeed in representing the external world so beautifully? In this interview with noted neuroscientist Rodolfo Llinás of the New York University School of Medicine, find out how the rhythm of electrical oscillations in the brain gives rise to consciousness, and how failures in this rhythm can lead to a variety of brain disorders.
  
  "
  NOVA: Let's start by talking about why one needs a nervous system—or a brain—in the first place.
  Rodolfo Llinás: That's a very intriguing issue. The nervous system is about 550 million years old, and it first came about when cells decided to make animals. Basically there are two types of animals: animals, and animals that have no brains; they are called plants. They don't need a nervous system because they don't move actively, they don't pull up their roots and run in a forest fire! Anything that moves actively requires a nervous system; otherwise it would come to a quick death.
  
  Why would it die if it didn't have a nervous system?
  Because if you move, the variety of environments that you find is very large. So if you happen to be a plant you have to worry only about the very small space you grow into. You don't have to do anything other than maybe move up and down. And you're following the sun anyhow, so there is no planned movement, and therefore there is no necessity to predict what is going to happen if, which is what the nervous system seems to be about. It seems to be about moving in a more or less intelligent way. The more elaborate the system, the more intelligent the movement.
  
  So you need a nervous system in order to be able to predict the future?
  Yes, and in order to predict you have to have, at the very least, a simple image inside that tells you something about the purpose of the outside world. That is common to all nervous systems of all forms that we know of. Each animal has a different universe—the universe it sees, the universe it feels, the universe it tastes. Earth probably looks very different not only for all of us as individual humans, but also for different animals."
  
  NOVA | The Electric Brain
  

 

[bobhikes]

On the materialist view, consciousness is considered an epiphenomenon. That is, it is a causally inert by-product. (To argue otherwise is to presuppose free will and therefore dualism.) So, this raises the question: Why was consciousness naturally selected?

I thinks consciousness is a by product of speeding up the minds reaction time. The reaction series is immediate. You feel pain you react the brain in lower animals(my opinion) has to act and then resolve the action. The animal see, feels, hears, etc the result. We(Humans) can actually process the result without action through a feedback loop. We can attach emotion to it to prioritize it. It is much quicker and efficient. However the thought is not caused by senses. There is no correlation to the outside world it comes directly from another part of the mind. Because we are use to thoughts and corresponding senses like eyes, ears and such we feel this thought is something else a dualism as you say. It was originally caused by senses but they no longer correlate with it.