40 Consciousness Plays No Part in Our Decision Making << Prev Next >>
by: ColonelZen	IP: 101.146	rated: 0-0	posted: 2008-09-07 19:59:18
(part of a long running argument from The Brights forum. http://www.the-brights.net/forums/forum/index.php?s=&showtopic=8855&view=findpost&p=145757 )     Both "free will" and consciousness - at least as colloquially described - are illusion and play no direct part in our decision making.     At the root of every action is a biological impulse. This works two ways, first our brains are a biologic substrate for all our actions. But those brains are (among other things) Turing complete computers and the actions they effect can be described in terms of the information they process. As information then, at the bottom of every action decision schema lies an impulse derived from our biological nature. But between the impulse and the action lies a decision tree (conceptually similar in not in fact the same thing, to the decision matrix of discrete automata) which is the internalized understanding of huge amounts of abstract information about ourselves and the outside world.     More often our actions are more correctly predictable to both ourselves and an outside observer who knows something of the nature of the structure and content of that internalized information (what said person "believes") rather than the nature of the base impulse.     At the instant of decision, the decision will be made by the subconscious brain, running the original impulse and knowledge of external situation through the DSA matrix. If the result is positive action, then usually the brain machinery will usually tell whatever modules relate to consciousness about some of the contingencies and state transforms went into that decision - usually after it has made such decision; if the decision is a no-action it (far) more often will not, and even for positive action in seems only to convey the info about the latter stages of the tree. But consciousness has no part in the decision at the instant of action; if there is another pending decision - often the case in the real world - the instant action (decided unconsciously) may be for the purpose of finding out something else about the outside world to feed the DSA as an input thus requiring the immediate action, which will be conveyed to the consciousness, thus making "us" aware of it, but again consciousness is simply made aware of the decision; it has no part in making it.     The overall success and quality of the decisions we make is dependent upon how well that internalized information corresponds to the real world. If that information is structured around hobgoblins and pixies, the likely quality of the resulting decisions will be low. If the information is built in accord with what science tells us about the objective world, there is a (much) better chance that the decisions resulting from one's decision matrix will lead to successful actions with more satisfying results in the material world.     At the instant of decision, we cannot change what we think and believe that resulted in that decision     But we can change what we think and believe that leads to future decisions.     Of course the decision to change what we think and believe is an instant decision subject to all of the above. And that decision depends upon internal information that was incorporated by what we thought and believed at the time we encountered and thought about that information. And so on.     (And notice that "consciousness" played no part in the actual decisions and actions in any of this. I think I have a pretty good idea of the evolutionary why, and a workable, mostly complete model of how consciousness works, but it's not pertinent to this discussion).     Ultimately the content of the information structure which becomes normalized into decision matrices will depend upon externalities. How convincing and compelling ("sexy") that information is at the time of presentation. For example, how successful we are here in conveying our ideas to those who read them.     -- TWZ