tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post5796030205151581888..comments2024-03-28T13:30:35.074+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: Why is higher consciousness 'higher'? Bruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-22011986239446125602018-07-03T20:35:29.979+01:002018-07-03T20:35:29.979+01:00I would refer all questions of 'better' an...I would refer all questions of 'better' and 'worse' to matters of individual preference and actual possibility.<br /><br />God has not designed for all things to develop consciousness to even the human level, let alone the divine level possible in Heaven. Therefore it seems most likely that those spiritual beings that have been chosen to become humans (or any other species capable of conscious mortal life in preparation for an even more conscious eternal status) should have been distinguished by a greater desire for consciousness.<br /><br />The grand problem for us is that we can have desires that contradict one another as well as desires that contradict themselves. The essentially wicked desires are generally for present satisfactions which will inevitably be at a disproportionate cost to future ones. Since all action towards a desire in the short term is predicated on the <i>near</i> future becoming the present, it should be logically impossible not to be aware that the more distant future must also succeed the near future and eventually become the present in turn. But all wicked behavior seems predicated on the assumption that this will <i>not</i> be the case, that the near future will become the present without the distant future ever drawing any nearer.<br /><br />While not the whole of consciousness, awareness of the relationship between the present, near future, and distant future would seem to be one of the crucial dimensions of what we understand as the feedback loop (sometimes termed OODA, for observe, orient, decide, act) which is the essential functional sign of consciousness. That is, we cannot directly experience the qualia of another person's mental activity to judge whether they are conscious, we must observe the presence of an autonomously directed cycle of adaptation to their environment.<br /><br />Where there is a lack of adaptive activity or it is clear there is no autonomy to its direction, we cannot infer consciousness. I have no difficulty asserting for myself that, when I fail to consider the future, I seem to be really less conscious in my own experience. So it seems that this dimension of consciousness is generally, though probably not solely, determinative of total degree of consciousness.<br /><br />Even if not, the wicked desires to limit consciousness in other dimensions probably also results in contradictions with the fundamental desire to enjoy full consciousness.Chiu ChunLinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03519192610708043962noreply@blogger.com