Consciousness and the illusion of choice

[iNow]

By the way, is dopamine the same as serotonin, as you have mentioned both together in an earlier post?

No

[DrmDoc]

I work in electrical engineering. It is fairly common for me to have several corrective maintenance projects go at a time. Not always, but often enough, I find that complete solutions to problems will come to me all at once. I will spend hours on a monday troubleshooting a project unsuccessfully and am forced by my schedule tomove on. Then later in the week I will be drinking coffee thinking about what I need from the grocery store and BOOM, the answer to solution will come to me. I know many engineers who as a troubleshooting technique with stop thinking about the problem they are working on and intentionally focus on something unrelated in hopes the answer will emerge on its own. Back to the OP, that is the mechanism this thread is about, the emergence of thought which is not consciously controlled.

 

If I understand correctly, your perspective regards ideas and thoughts that appear to emerge without conscious effort, direction, or interference. That perspective is analogous to being tapped on the shoulder and asked to turn and intake a different view of some focal interest; i.e., take in a new idea. From my perspective, there is no tap on our conscious shoulder by some unknowable influence (i.e., the unconscious) presenting us with a new perspective or idea. In my view, the conscious realization of that new perspective or idea is initiated by merely turning around without that shoulder tap and revisiting an old idea with a fresh, uncluttered perspective. Thoughtful solutions emerge from a conscious intake of all data with components that may have a lingering unconscious affect on our cognitive processes. New perspectives and ideas emerge from that data when we consciously take notice of that data's lingering effects, which involves making conscious connections between this emerging data as its extraneous components dissolve. Our conscious realization of new ideas that arise from accumulated data is analogous to noticing how cream rises to the top of our beverages.

 

As for evolution I simply don't view it as an all or nothing thing. Every gene, every mutation, is not and did not have to be useful. There are many inherited cancers, brain diseases, and disorders which do not become pronounced or realized until old age.. Up until a few hundred years ago humans weren't living long enough for many to impact populations in anyway. If I carry the autosomal dominant pattern for Alzheimer but die at 24yrs after being trampled by a mammoth than the disease I was carrying never impacted anything. It is a disease humans could have passed down for hundreds of thousands of years and not one person ever lived long enough to be impacted. We all have mutated genes. Some provide a survival advantage. Some don't add in survival yet don't inhibit survival enough to be weeded out either. My guess is male pattern baldness was around for millennia before anyone lived long enough to notice.

 

 

As I now understand, your perspective is that "Every gene, every mutation, is not and did not have to be useful." I agree; however, certain genes and mutations that do persist in a population may indeed have previously had a significant survival impact, IMO. Mutations such as cancer are endemic to the nature of cell replacement and persist because our cells have yet to adapt to our increasingly extended life. 60% of all cancers can be traced to natural mutations rather than lifestyle or carcinogens. Cancer persists as a cellular survival influence by compelling further adaptations against that mutation thus extending survival. Diseases happen in nature and sufferers who survive could pass on increasingly stronger genes.

Edited May 9, 2017 by DrmDoc

[Ten oz]

@DrmDoc, I am not implying it is "unknowable". I am saying the that thought isn't being consciously generated. Unconscious or conscious it is still me, still my brain doing it.

[tar]

Goldglow,

 

I have not worked serotonin and norepinephrine into my dopamine theory yet. My subconscious is working on the problem. I have a feeling it is something like an itch/scratch thing.

 

You get this need, then you take an action that satisfies the need. The "need" and the satisfaction of the need together cause the pleasure/reward system to be functional. You do a good thing, (brush off the bug that is about to suck your blood) and you feel good doing it. You see a crooked picture hanging on the wall and you feel "better" once you straighten it,

 

Problem solving and completion and victory give you a dopamine reward and you do the thing again, related to memory, and motivation, habits and exploring.

 

The serotonin is associated with mood and memory processing, sleep and cognition, so might be somehow related to this subconscious puzzle doer we are talking about.

 

The Norepinephrine, related to attention, concentration and energy might be more associated with the "conscious" mind, the thing that initiates the action that engages movement through and manipulation of the environment.

 

But, all together, one can talk about the chemicals in terms of their bottom line results. We are not the only living thing that uses these chemicals. At least I have heard that dopamine has roles in the body outside the brain, and is used in moving muscle and the like.

 

Other living things, after all, "know" how to survive. Or want to survive.

 

How do you figure a dogwood "knows" how to flower in the spring?

 

Do you think perhaps in some way, a tree is rewarded for putting out its leaves, that absorb the energy of the sun...does a tree "feel good", on a sunny spring morning?

 

Evolution wise, the need for survival, probably coexists with the ability to survive. That is, one component of life, is "wanting to" live.

 

Regards, TAR

[goldglow]

 

 

Evolution wise, the need for survival, probably coexists with the ability to survive. That is, one component of life, is "wanting to" live.

 

Regards, TAR

Yes. Every creature loves it's life. Thanks.

[tar]

Just had a thought.

 

Noticing movement, or change, is something of a decision. You have this memory of the world, which you constantly match against your sensory input. When something matches, you feel good. (dopamine?) You like it, when you see familiar faces and the old giant Oak standing guard next door. When things match, we like it. We see faces on toasted cheese sandwiches. We like both when the waking world matches our memory, and when our memory matches the waking world.

 

Change in the environment is noted. Something does not match our memory and we have to update our internal model of the world. We "decide" that a change in the waking world has occurred. There is a certain survival benefit, almost a requirement, that we be able to note changes in the world. Not only do we decide how to affect the world, but we decide when the world has been modified by some other factor.

 

Regards, TAR

[goldglow]

 

 

You have this memory of the world, which you constantly match against your sensory input.

 

 

I plucked out this short sentence from tar's post because it reminded me of an incident from many years ago. I was on a long bicycle ride and at some point i began to think about something or other.( Day-dreaming probably ). A long time after, i " came to my senses " and realized i had ridden many miles on a busy, twisting road without being consciously aware of my surroundings! It came as quite a shock and a fright to me. I can only guess that my unconscious was steering me safely through any potential danger to me, or anyone else, purely from sensory input alone, without any conscious involvement ,and it was making Freud's " real-time reconstructions " of a road i had travelled along many times before. It was, in fact, " re-minding " itself, quite separately from any apparent conscious input. It still puzzles me.

[tar]

Thread,

 

I chose to take this picture this morning, of the giant oak just putting out its leaves. Not particularly sunny, but feels pretty good outside this morning.

I have been conscious of this tree for quite a few years. Now you are.

Regards, TAR

[goldglow]

Ha,ha. Beautiful. Thanks,tar. Check out Joyce Kilmer's poem " Trees ".

 

" I think that i shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree............"

 

I have recently been wondering about the role the unconscious plays, if any, in sexual orientation. I'll have to start, hesitantly, from the wide-sweeping presumption that the unconscious is both male and female, in equal balance. Not a scientific hypothesis, i know, and the unconscious is a parallel process, not just male/female, but it does intrigue me. I just happen to be " straight " myself, but , physiology apart, is my particular sexual orientation a personal "choice ", or does the unconscious play a bigger role in this decision than i have been aware of? Is anyone's sexual orientation something imprinted upon the brain by unconscious influences at birth, or a personal choice made in later life, apart from any unconscious involvement ? Or, if the conscious choice does come later, is this choice illusory as we are choosing something that was already there, just waiting to be " chosen "? Was i born " straight " so i really had no conscious say in the matter- just like someone else who happened to be born "gay "? How, too, does this idea impact on the relationship, if any, between physiology, the human physical organism, and the unconscious, for those people who feel they have been " born in the wrong body "?

 

In a lighthearted coda, allow me to paraphrase Shakespeare: Was i born straight, did i achieve straightness, or was straightness thrust upon me?

( Malvolio in " Twelfth Night ". Act 2, scene 5. " Some are born great........etc." )

Edited May 10, 2017 by goldglow

[DrmDoc]

@DrmDoc, I am not implying it is "unknowable". I am saying the that thought isn't being consciously generated. Unconscious or conscious it is still me, still my brain doing it.

 

Given the nature of brain function, not even consciousness is consciously generated. Consciousness arises from a confluence of unconscious brain functions, which is a confluence of neural activity that occurs below the threshold of conscious awareness. Therefore, all thoughts emerge from an unconscious process.

[Ten oz]

@DrmDoc, I agree with that. Walk it back and it all comes from unconscious processes. However there are thoughts we perceive in real time as we think them. As stated in the title "illusion of choice". We imagine our thoughts are consciously produced. As you outlined the origin is not. There is a separation between what we perceive and what actually is. That dichotomy is what this thread is about. Am I consciously making choices or does my conscious merely realizes decisions that way?

 

*additional info, I do not believe in a soul, spirits, or any type of extra sensory perception. I mean for all conscious, unconscious, subconscious, or etc I have referenced to be understand as a biological process of the brain.

[goldglow]

DrmDoc.

 

I'm quietly looking at your post now, " thinking " of an apposite reply, but this thinking is silent, inwardly invisible to me, and i'm really waiting for an answer to present itself

out of this silence, which is the absence of conscious thought, which, in turn, allows the unconscious to supply an answer without any conscious distraction. So i agree.

 

There is a famous quote from " Aspects of the Novel ", a book by E. M Forster........" How can i tell what i think till i see what i say ? ".

 

I think his unconscious put it a little better than mine did.

 

Edit. A puzzling thought just came to mind: as i have just written above, my conscious, was in abeyance, awaiting a response from the unconscious, and when that

response came it was, i hope , logical, reasonable and understandable, What puzzles me now is why that same unconscious cannot communicate in the same way

in the dream process when what is communicated is, at best, symbolic and, at worst, completely chaotic and confusing to the waking consciousness? To add

further confusion,( to myself ), is it the unconscious asking this question of itself? As Alice said: " Curiouser and curiouser " !

Edited May 11, 2017 by goldglow

[DrmDoc]

@DrmDoc, I agree with that. Walk it back and it all comes from unconscious processes. However there are thoughts we perceive in real time as we think them. As stated in the title "illusion of choice". We imagine our thoughts are consciously produced. As you outlined the origin is not. There is a separation between what we perceive and what actually is. That dichotomy is what this thread is about. Am I consciously making choices or does my conscious merely realizes decisions that way?

 

*additional info, I do not believe in a soul, spirits, or any type of extra sensory perception. I mean for all conscious, unconscious, subconscious, or etc I have referenced to be understand as a biological process of the brain.

 

I think if we accept consciousness as a manifestation of unconscious processes, then our conscious expressions and choices are also manifestations of those very same unconscious processes. Our realizations and conscious decisions all emerge from an unconscious process; therefore, the question we may ask is how do the results of this unconscious process pierce a perceived conscious/unconscious divide or barrier to become conscious thought? I try to reduce complex questions like this in to simpler terms rooted in my view of brain function. In my view, consciousness emerges from an interaction between our brain's afferent (input) and efferent (output) systems. Our thoughts and behaviors arise from our brain's efferent systems in response to the afferent stimuli we perceive. What this means is that what we think and do comes from something within in response to something without or perceived as external input. The unconscious processes that produce thought do not become thought responses without piercing an unconscious divide I perceive as a barrier against inappropriate responses to stimuli. Our thought responses to stimuli do not emerge as thoughts unless those thoughts somehow address the stimuli (input) that initiated our response processes. Consciously, you are making choices; however, the entire process is merely the responses arising from our unconscious systems.

DrmDoc.

 

I'm quietly looking at your post now, " thinking " of an apposite reply, but this thinking is silent, inwardly invisible to me, and i'm really waiting for an answer to present itself

out of this silence, which is the absence of conscious thought, which, in turn, allows the unconscious to supply an answer without any conscious distraction. So i agree.

 

There is a famous quote from " Aspects of the Novel ", a book by E. M Forster........" How can i tell what i think till i see what i say ? ".

 

I think his unconscious put it a little better than mine did.

 

Edit. A puzzling thought just came to mind: as i have just written above, my conscious, was in abeyance, awaiting a response from the unconscious, and when that

response came it was, i hope , logical, reasonable and understandable, What puzzles me now is why that same unconscious cannot communicate in the same way

in the dream process when what is communicated is, at best, symbolic and, at worst, completely chaotic and confusing to the waking consciousness? To add

further confusion,( to myself ), is it the unconscious asking this question of itself? As Alice said: " Curiouser and curiouser " !

 

What we think and feeling emerges from an unconscious. What we perceive as a divide between our conscious and unconscious is not really so. I think of our conscious self like the peak of a mountain with our unconscious at its base. The entirety of that mountain encompasses the whole of consciousness.

Edited May 11, 2017 by DrmDoc

[goldglow]

Thanks, DrmDoc.

 

You wrote of a "....perceived conscious/unconscious divide or barrier....... against inappropriate responses.. " within total consciousness. Would i be correct in thinking that, in rare cases of what we call " madness ",( severe schizophrenia, for example ), the" barrier " has somehow been breached, and the whole or part of the content of the unconscious has flooded the mind and overwhelmed rational thought? I readily accept consciousness as being a whole ,single movement, but, among the good genies, there must also be many bad genies bottled-up in there that have to be kept at bay. We do need a " Guardian at the Gate ". It helps me if i imagine this whole consciousness as an engine: when we turn it on we turn on the whole engine - we can't just turn a part of it on without the rest starting too.

[DrmDoc]

Thanks, DrmDoc.

 

You wrote of a "....perceived conscious/unconscious divide or barrier....... against inappropriate responses.. " within total consciousness. Would i be correct in thinking that, in rare cases of what we call " madness ",( severe schizophrenia, for example ), the" barrier " has somehow been breached, and the whole or part of the content of the unconscious has flooded the mind and overwhelmed rational thought? I readily accept consciousness as being a whole ,single movement, but, among the good genies, there must also be many bad genies bottled-up in there that have to be kept at bay. We do need a " Guardian at the Gate ". It helps me if i imagine this whole consciousness as an engine: when we turn it on we turn on the whole engine - we can't just turn a part of it on without the rest starting too.

 

We are all born, in my opinion, with some measure of outwardly perceived madness until we've amassed, via life experience, the unconscious perceptual filters comprising our mental barrier against inappropriate behavioral responses. These are the unconsciously accumulated behavioral filters we acquire as our brain develops and we mature. Either by defect of brain function or life experience, these unconsciously install filters may not properly serve our behavioral response needs. Consequently, aberrant behaviors arise from defects in this perceived process. The entire engine, using your analogy, essentially operates as a whole but uses filters to maintain peak and proper performance.

[goldglow]

Thanks.

[Ten oz]

 

I think if we accept consciousness as a manifestation of unconscious processes, then our conscious expressions and choices are also manifestations of those very same unconscious processes. Our realizations and conscious decisions all emerge from an unconscious process; therefore, the question we may ask is how do the results of this unconscious process pierce a perceived conscious/unconscious divide or barrier to become conscious thought? I try to reduce complex questions like this in to simpler terms rooted in my view of brain function. In my view, consciousness emerges from an interaction between our brain's afferent (input) and efferent (output) systems. Our thoughts and behaviors arise from our brain's efferent systems in response to the afferent stimuli we perceive. What this means is that what we think and do comes from something within in response to something without or perceived as external input. The unconscious processes that produce thought do not become thought responses without piercing an unconscious divide I perceive as a barrier against inappropriate responses to stimuli. Our thought responses to stimuli do not emerge as thoughts unless those thoughts somehow address the stimuli (input) that initiated our response processes. Consciously, you are making choices; however, the entire process is merely the responses arising from our unconscious systems.

I think that is a bit too binary. Conscious thought (thought I perceive or am aware of having) is not always present as we take action. I think we have all found ourselves doing things without making any conscious choices or decisions. Not only that but we have the ability to put ourselves into what can best be described as auto pilot mode. I can wake up, shower, make breakfast, brush my teeth, get dressed, and travel all the way to work without once taking my mental focus off some specific thing I am thinking about. Matter of fact I have actually arrived at work before surprised I was there already there and had to take a quick second to recall my travels. Meanwhile to get from home to work I had to make numerous decisions. I don't think we simply have unconscious processes that produce thought and thoughts.

 

I envision what what you are describing as the our unconscious functioning like an isolation transformer. Suppressing the noisy signals from our unconscoius processes and producing a cleaner signal. What that makes sense and clearly there must be parts of our mind doing that I envision it as having additional steps. We have unconscious thought (thoughts we are not aware of) that move to our conscious. Our unconscious thought processes acting akin to a semi conductor. The output varies basedonthe inputs. It thinks and decides what to make of knowingly aware of. From there we consciously interact with the world. Sometimes the input and output through our unconscious it euqual, 100% fully realized. Other times it may merely but but a small fraction.

[DrmDoc]

I think that is a bit too binary. Conscious thought (thought I perceive or am aware of having) is not always present as we take action. I think we have all found ourselves doing things without making any conscious choices or decisions. Not only that but we have the ability to put ourselves into what can best be described as auto pilot mode. I can wake up, shower, make breakfast, brush my teeth, get dressed, and travel all the way to work without once taking my mental focus off some specific thing I am thinking about. Matter of fact I have actually arrived at work before surprised I was there already there and had to take a quick second to recall my travels. Meanwhile to get from home to work I had to make numerous decisions. I don't think we simply have unconscious processes that produce thought and thoughts.

 

Give it a thought; as you acquire the language you are using to compose your thoughts, from where does that language come? How is its use in composition of your thoughts formed? You're not conscious of every single word you've ever learned until you are compelled to some response requiring their use. It is that compelling influence (input), in my opinion, that initiates and defines your thought responses--responses that remain submerged until called upon by the demands of some input.

 

I envision what what you are describing as the our unconscious functioning like an isolation transformer. Suppressing the noisy signals from our unconscoius processes and producing a cleaner signal. What that makes sense and clearly there must be parts of our mind doing that I envision it as having additional steps. We have unconscious thought (thoughts we are not aware of) that move to our conscious. Our unconscious thought processes acting akin to a semi conductor. The output varies basedonthe inputs. It thinks and decides what to make of knowingly aware of. From there we consciously interact with the world. Sometimes the input and output through our unconscious it euqual, 100% fully realized. Other times it may merely but but a small fraction.

 

 

Our choices and decisions are responses, which aligns with and emerge from the efferent systems of the brain. These systems are exclusively reactive, which means that they do not engage without some stimuli or input. The reactive, reflexive nature of these systems gives us the illusion of some consciously directed selection process when that process merely involves pairing an input with a previous stored and appropriate output as defined by that input. If we take conscious cognition out of the process, our responses are merely a process of inputing the right codes to liberate an output.

[goldglow]

 

Give it a thought; as you acquire the language you are using to compose your thoughts, from where does that language come? How is its use in composition of your thoughts formed? You're not conscious of every single word you've ever learned until you are compelled to some response requiring their use. It is that compelling influence (input), in my opinion, that initiates and defines your thought responses--responses that remain submerged until called upon by the demands of some input.

 

 

 

I've underlined the last sentence above just to illustrate my reply a little better: if i am sitting quietly in my garden, feeling the heat of the Sun, smelling the flowers and listening to the birds sing and i go into a reverie, start day-dreaming or just thinking about something i have to do later, then all my sensual perception stops, and i am only conscious of my thoughts until i " come back to my senses " and my thoughts go quiet again. So, i imagine that if thought was never " submerged " in the unconscious there would be no chance of any active perception, and the brain would be totally occupied with conscious thought all my waking hours. Does that seem at all relevant ?

[DrmDoc]

 

I've underlined the last sentence above just to illustrate my reply a little better: if i am sitting quietly in my garden, feeling the heat of the Sun, smelling the flowers and listening to the birds sing and i go into a reverie, start day-dreaming or just thinking about something i have to do later, then all my sensual perception stops, and i am only conscious of my thoughts until i " come back to my senses " and my thoughts go quiet again. So, i imagine that if thought was never " submerged " in the unconscious there would be no chance of any active perception, and the brain would be totally occupied with conscious thought all my waking hours. Does that seem at all relevant ?

 

Indeed, thought responses that emerge without stimuli doesn't leave perceptual room for our full mental consideration of external stimuli. It's schizophrenia. However, when listening to our inner thoughts to the exclusion of external stimuli--as if in a sensory deprivation tank--what we hear emerges because of the void created by the absence of that stimuli. Essentially, in my view, this sensory void is a stimulus begging to be filled as if re-pressurizing a vacuum.

[Ten oz]

There have been a couple good threads recently which deal with awareness and consciousness which has gotten me thinking a bit about the function of consciousness and what it actually does and doesn't do. I consciously reason and make choices in life but only after I have unconciously interpreted things. I know instantaneously without any thought what I do and don't want or how I feel about everything. My consciousness chooses an action but the action chosen seldom ever changes what I want or feel.

 

Simply examples of this happen all day everyday. While walking down the street I see a jacket in a store window and immediately am aware that I want it. The desire to have it comes without any thought. Then I consciously tell himself that I don't need it because I have others,can't afford it, don't have time to go in the store, or whatever and continue walking. Despite making the choice not to obtain the jacket the desire to have it, which sprung from up without any thought I was aware of remains. A stronger example would be a homosexual who spends decades of their life trying to consciously suppress their desires yet is unable to. Why would one be unable to change that which they desire if one has conscious control over their own mind?

 

If I am fully self aware and consciousnessly control my own mind than I should be able to choose to desire healthy food, choose not to fear spiders, and etc. Instead I have the ability to ignore my desires and fears. I cannot control what those fears and desires are. Which means I actually have limited influence over what things I will be making choices between. I do not consciousnessly determine what captures my attention, what pops into my mind. Instead my unconscious interprets the world and presents me with actions and ideas which I consciously reason through. My consciousness is led by unconscious thought I do not control and prehaps have no influence over.

 

Some will agrue that a person can tap into or learn to control their fears, desires, and etc. I am very skeptical of this. There are millions of depressed people who would strongly prefer not to be depressed. Millions of people who suffer form one of a thousand personality disorders who would prefer to just make them go away. It isn't simple. Is self awareness simply a mechanism our minds use to make choices?

The OP for the thread.

 

 

 

Give it a thought; as you acquire the language you are using to compose your thoughts, from where does that language come? How is its use in composition of your thoughts formed? You're not conscious of every single word you've ever learned until you are compelled to some response requiring their use. It is that compelling influence (input), in my opinion, that initiates and defines your thought responses--responses that remain submerged until called upon by the demands of some input.

 

I don't disagree with that. Do you think I am implying otherwise? This seems to be another situation where we are posting past each other. I believe all, 100%, the totality, the sum, every, etc conscious action, thought, decision, choice, belief, idea, etc we have first exists unconsciously. I feel I have already made that clear in several previous posts going back to the OP.

 

I am asking what pupose perceived awarenesss serves. What its relationship is. It doesn't seem to be a requirement as our unconscious seems fully capable. Separately I find your thought and language example a bit messy as not all thought is in the form of language. Sometimes I internalize lanuage when I think but not always. Something my thoughts are images and feelings without any associated language. Some thoughts are totally indescribable which is why we have the sayings like "words do it no justice", "words haven't even been invented yet", "I am at a loss for words",and etc. Thought can come in many different forms. Sometimes they require assembly and other times they are fully realized instantaneously. An author can have a thought which is realized in his or her mind in seconds yet takes a year to writer out into language.

[DrmDoc]

I am asking what pupose perceived awarenesss serves. What its relationship is. It doesn't seem to be a requirement as our unconscious seems fully capable.

 

As I perceive, consciousness is comprised of two basic components in brain function, which are its conscious and unconscious attributes. In my view, our brain's conscious functions are how our overall consciousness interfaces our reality with its unconscious functions. Essentially, as I understand the answer to your query, conscious awareness serves as an interface between perceptual reality and our unconscious processes. Our conscious awareness filters and focuses our unconsciously generated responses, which can be scattered, inappropriate, and unfocused. If the question regards what is conscious awareness, it's the focal of our perceptual experience.

[goldglow]

 

Indeed, thought responses that emerge without stimuli doesn't leave perceptual room for our full mental consideration of external stimuli. It's schizophrenia. However, when listening to our inner thoughts to the exclusion of external stimuli--as if in a sensory deprivation tank--what we hear emerges because of the void created by the absence of that stimuli. Essentially, in my view, this sensory void is a stimulus begging to be filled as if re-pressurizing a vacuum.

 

As they say, " Nature hates a vacuum ". It seems a little like the tide coming in and going out - it's impossible for the tide to stay in all the time, or out all the time. I've been researching just a little bit further, Ten oz, if you're reading this ,and it seems to me, at least , that your OP boils down to a straight choice ( that word again! ) between Determinism: " All events, including moral choices, are completely determined by previously existing causes " , so denying free will; and Indeterminism: " Events have no deterministic cause but occur randomly, or by chance ". so implying that free will is possible ". ( Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica ). But, of course, one of those statements has to be wrong.

[Ten oz]

 

As I perceive, consciousness is comprised of two basic components in brain function, which are its conscious and unconscious attributes. In my view, our brain's conscious functions are how our overall consciousness interfaces our reality with its unconscious functions. Essentially, as I understand the answer to your query, conscious awareness serves as an interface between perceptual reality and our unconscious processes. Our conscious awareness filters and focuses our unconsciously generated responses, which can be scattered, inappropriate, and unfocused. If the question regards what is conscious awareness, it's the focal of our perceptual experience.

So with our perceived consciousness you don't think our unconscious is able to interact with the world?

[goldglow]

So with our perceived consciousness you don't think our unconscious is able to interact with the world?

 

If active,conscious perception is a mechanical process of the experiencing brain, then there is sometimes a need for conscious thought to interact with that process. So ,if thought does spring from the unconscious, then it is obviously the unconscious interacting with the perceived world, through the medium of conscious thought: e.g. if i see someone in the street, to simple mechanical perception it could be anyone, but my unconscious recognizes that someone and tells me " That's my sister ". But, without that mechanical perception, there is no outer world for the unconscious to interact with, so i think it must be a symbiotic relationship between perception and the unconscious.