DrmDoc

From a part of my previous post: All behavioral aberrations humanity engages essentially serves the survival of our species including aberrations such cannibalism. Though it pains me to say, even suicide serves the survival needs of our species by either weeding out the weak or by compelling stronger survival efforts against that behavior; i.e., what doesn't kill us, makes us stronger.

Your OP, if I understood correctly, regarded self-awareness as a device of mind for the purpose of choices. Conversely, my comments regarded my perspective of self-awareness as a device of survival compelled by evolution. We would not be self-aware, if not for the survival needs compelling that evolutional development. All traits have some evolutional origin and even blue eyes gave those with that trait some reproductive advantage. We would not have blue eyed populations if their ancestors didn't find that attribute reproductively preferable. If we agree that reproduction serves survival, then that which gives an advantage to reproduction does indeed help or serve survival.

What need have we for reproduction if not for the survival of our species? Therefore, I think most will agree that survival does indeed drive reproduction. If you truly believe reproduction drives evolution, then ultimately it is survival that drives evolution. It's a simple equation for me: If a = b and b = c, then a = c. For better or ill, this algebraic expression points to a route of logic our thoughts should follow as it relates to the basis for our ideas on the emergence of certain qualities of consciousness. I'm certain that most of us will agree that survival is at the evolutional root of all behaviors, which would include both conscious and unconscious behavioral responses. Very often, we do make choices contrary to our survival, which is merely evidence of the sort of developmental mutations that can lead to the extinction of a behavioral line; i.e., survival of the fittest.

It isn't simple but, if I may join your discussion, I believe the answer is provided by how that quality likely evolved. I've often been accused of being a purveyor of reductionist views but, in my view, we would not be self-aware without the demands of survival. Self-awareness is merely a mechanism for survival and choice is a tool of that mechanism. Although all our choices may not involve life and death issues, they all emerge from our survival needs and desires. In mediating those survival demands, we've evolved or acquired several distinctive attributes of consciousness to efficiently effect our choices. I perceive those attributes as a divide between those that involve instinctual responses and those involving responses employing conscious consideration; i.e., thought. I envisioned our matrix of choice as addressing our most urgent survival concerns first and primary followed by those concerns without urgency that permit time for thoughtful consideration.

Here's a link to a prior SFN discussion where we talked about a relatively recent article on this very subject. That discussion's OP contains a link to an article that discusses a theory regarding a collision between Earth and a sister planet, Theia. I don't think anybody knows for sure, but there's a couple of good theories and a lot of research on the subject.

I do think it's preferable and more expedient to look for those types of bubble inclusions before purchasing amber. I cringe at the thought of having to atomize a sample for authentication.

Today I learned that nearly two-thirds of all cancers are caused by natural mutations amid our body's cellular replication process. Our body replaces trillions of cell throughout our lifetime. Essentially, the shear number of cell replacements predisposes the process to errors that can produce cancerous mutant cells regardless of our lifestyle or exposure to carcinogens. It seems, in a majority of cases, getting cancer might just be bad luck rather than an unhealthful lifestyle.

It's likely that the age of this particular specimen was determined by radiometric dating methods other than radiocarbon dating. In this case, the age of the of the amber was used to determine the age of the fossil it contained. For example, radiometric dating methods such as uranium-lead dating can yield dates between 2 million to 2 1/2 billion years.

I disagree; those who don't know why people dream haven't sufficiently studied or understood the neuroscience of the dreaming brain. Those who have studied that neuroscience and understand its complexities concurrently with a perspective of brain evolution, do know why people dream. Dreaming is a byproduct of the metabolic processes of sleep, which necessitates brain activity that produces dreaming. What most people don't know about dreaming regards the genesis of dream content. We have knowledge of why we dream but little agreement on how the content of that experience emerges. After nearly a lifetime of study, I can say with some confidence that I have a very good idea about how dream content primarily emerges. In my opinion, our dreams emerge from a combination of our unconscious perceptions during sleep and our final thoughts before sleep onset.

I found this Paleo Direct article on a proliferation of "FAKE CHINESE FOSSILS" that doesn't specifically discuss a proliferation of fake amber fossils. However, I did find this eBay article that describes fake amber, as the "Biggest Scam No One Talks About", which does indeed discuss China and India as major suppliers. That National Geographic article contains a link to a paper published in Current Biology that, presumably, regards peer-reviewed tests and findings legitimizing this particular amber fossil from China. Presently, I don't believe forgers have the ability to encase bogus specimens in amber that can pass the fossil dating rigors paleontologist currently employ; therefore, IMO, it's likely this specimen is a genuine find.

I read somewhere that amber doesn't preserve DNA very well. But it remains a remarkable discovery. Equally as awesome and amazing to me was that 99 million year old ant apparently trapped in the pictured amber sample along with those dinosaur remnants. It must have certainly been a thrilling find for its discoverers.

"The tail of a 99-million-year-old dinosaur, including bones, soft tissue, and even feathers, has been found preserved in amber, according to a report published today in the journal Current Biology." That was from a National Geographic article published December 8, 2016. How did I miss this incredible find? Enjoy!

I speculate that the OP doesn't understand that even speculations involve a discussion of supporting evidence to either be proved or disproved.

Beyond his moronic tweets, Trump has a penchant for making vacuous statements to the press. Most recently, Trumps claim that Andrew Jackson (7th president of the U.S.) was "really angry" with our country's Civil War. A more knowledgeable and apt statement should probably have suggested Jackson turning in his grave at the time of that war because Jackson had been dead some 16 years prior. The depths of Trump's apparent ignorance makes his election to the presidency even more astounding.

That's quite an incentive. Let's hope that such a prize stipulates that the animal be left alive, free, and unharmed in the wild by its discovery.

I've forgotten more thing about dreaming than some professed experts claim to understand and your dream experience isn't very complex from my perspective. The key to understanding your experience resides in an empirical truth, which is dreaming regards a mental reality rather than one that is physically or materially real. Empirically, dreaming is an immersive mental experience and, therefore, all aspects of that experience regards something that is mental in nature. As an immersive mental experience, our actual experience of being physically at rest or asleep in material reality doesn't reach our awareness the way it does when we are fully awake. Consequently, our dream perceptions are incongruent with our actual physical experience of being at rest or asleep. It's that incongruence that makes our dream experiences more difficult to recall in detail than those experiences we have that are congruent with our actual physical/material perceptions and consequences. Unfortunately, far too many of us don't think there's value in any efforts to understand an experience that doesn't appear to have any real physical/material impact on our reality. I believe differently because I understand that impact regards our mental reality, which is equally as relevant and important to our health and overall life experience. To understand the unconscious implications of your dream, you'll have to translate its content first. A library, for example, is an environment of collective works of knowledge and, if this were my dream, It would likely reflect my thoughts on such a mental environment. The darkness of this environment would regard my thoughts on its less than illuminating quality. Blocked stairs leading upward would regard my thoughts on how I perceive some barrier to the steps I might take to reach some higher level of edification within that environment. Overall, it would be clear to me that this dream experience is a reflection of my frustration or disappointment in some experience that should be more illuminating, mentally, than it seems to be. Our repeated frustration and disappointment with certain conscious experiences can and do manifest as recurring dreams. Dreams tend to convey something we already know but in ways that can be perceptually clear. I hope this helps.

Correct me if I'm mistaken, but isn't resisting everything the president proposes regardless of public benefit a tactic first employed by the Republicans and continued throughout Obama's presidency--including Obama's tremendously qualified and universally praised final Supreme Court nominee? It seems to me that Obama was merely acknowledging their position in the eyes of then Republican presidential nominee and now president of the United States, Donald Trump. As I recall, he considered Mexicans "bad hombres" and even disparaged a federal judge of Mexican heritage. Although I don't presume to know your mind, it's quite clear from your post that you may not be aware of or concern with certain realities yourself.

Which explains why accessing the unconscious via hypnosis can sometimes elicit forgotten details of prior experiences.

That's a good analysis and one I haven't considered. I think Warren would be a stronger candidate against Trump but, unfortunately, the Democrats in general are a weak bunch. Their continual capitulation to Republican strategies and policy efforts, indifferent to the mandate of their constituent base, makes Democrats appear particularly ineffectual. In case you haven't read, here's 100 days of Trump whoppers according to FactCheck.org.

Jung didn't have access to the kind of neuroscience we enjoy presently and his ideas were heavily influenced by his religious upbringing. What Jung concluded as evidence of some Unconscious Collective was merely evidences of the extraordinary perceptual capabilities of our unconscious mind individually. Individually, our unconscious brain function is capable of extraordinary feats of perception and analysis that can give the appearance of otherworldly insight when it is merely insight derived from an altered state of awareness and perceptual experience in brain function. It's not about accessing some cloud collective or mystical record, it's about accessing, perceiving, and assessing previously experienced but consciously ignored perceptions. Although our conscious mental and perceptual processes may be unremarkable, our unconscious mind is extraordinarily eidetic and savant-like in nature--in my opinion.

I think the process is more like the removal of obstructions that impede connectivity between neural chains of memory rather than a type of reorganization. It happens during the conscious state as well but this waste removal process is likely more efficient when the brain is unconscious and not as actively producing cell waste as it does during its waking-state. The evolved nature of sleep primarily regards the efficient mediation of our metabolism during periods of rest and between feeding cycles. During the sleep process, the brain doesn't consume as much energy and its volume actually shrinks. This suggests that the brain doesn't produce as much cell waste and has more time with less constricted pathways to flush away toxic byproducts.

Trump ridicules Warren with Pocahontas reference. Yet another reason why he is so undeserving of the presidency.

Overall, I think evolution pretty much explains our existence. As for consciousness, brain evolution provided me with that particular breakthrough moment. Functionally, from spinal cord to cortex, our brain contiguously reveals its evolutional steps. From its ancestral notochord emergence to its most recent cerebrum development, our brain's functional construct suggests quite a lot about how it evolved consciousness--in my opinion.

I think the article hinted at migration perhaps across a land bridge that might have connected Asia to North America before sea levels rose. Still, no hominid remains were found. So, the jury's still out on this one for me.

A very interesting article with compelling content but I remain somewhat skeptical. I think more evidence that just a few broken mastodon bones is needed.