Post by lvenegas9 on Oct 10, 2016 2:25:50 GMT
Week 5
The virtual simulation theory of consciousness is the ability to produce different images and outcomes in the human mind and therefore determine and act out the best possible outcome before it is acted out in the real world. In the book Is The Universe An App? Andrea and David Lane write “Arguably, consciousness is a virtual simulator, apparently evolved over eons of time to enable mammals with higher brain functions to “in source” varying options of how to respond to a disparate array of problems before “out sourcing” them (hence the Darwinian advantage)”(Page 107). This ability allows the human species to make better decisions and therefore allowed the human species to survive and evolve this ability further. Other species that do not have this ability acted out prematurely and most resulted in death. In the video Brain Burn, it states “And therein lies its Darwinian advantage, since most of our awareness is “in” our head it doesn’t have to face the very real and empirical and deathly consequences of being “without”. Being within survives. Being without tends to end up dead”. This virtual simulation gives rise to self-awareness and survival, which leads to a conscious mind.
2. How does the brain trick us and for what benefit is it for our genetic survival?
Our human brain ticks us by making us think that we are in control of all our actions we partake, in order for us humans to survive. In the book Is The Universe An App? It mentions “The brain tricks us into believing its own machinations as something that is not sui generis. All this trickery does serve one underlying purpose: keeping our organism intact long enough to recapitulate itself”(page 102). Our brain observes the world around us in a superior way, and therefore makes the decisions instantaneously for us rather that allowing us to make a delayed one. Also in the book The Universe An App?, it reads” Even when I am supposedly making a conscious decision of whether to go right or left in my car, unconscious processes (for which I remain dutifully unaware)are determining my eventual turning of the wheel” (page 98). Our brains ability to make us think we are in control has allowed us to survive throughout the years. If we were to make delayed responses, most likely the outcomes would not have ended in our favor and our species would not have survived throughout the years.