WEEK NINE: WHAT IS CONSCIOUSNESS?

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In order for me to better understand the implications of the interface on people, it seemed relevant to begin with understanding human consciousness.

Consciousness refers to individual awareness of ones unique thoughts, memories, feelings, sensations and environment. Conscious experiences are constantly shifting and changing, however the experience of these is smooth and effortless.

I urge you to click this link, which outlines various definitions and ideas regarding what consciousness actually is.

There is much debate about what consciousness actually is; science doesn't really have it figured out.  It is awareness, but it is more than just that- it also includes free will, reasoning, visual imagery, recall and making choices.  Human consciousness is a "special quality of mind" that allows us to understand both that we exist, and that things around us exist. Consciousness is different to our mind- our mind allows us to portray different sensory modes, but the quality of subjectivity, the "I am here", "I exist", "I like",the "I" part, the "me" part, is what constitutes consciousness.  Subjectivity, then, is the heart of consciousness.

Our consciousness is what translates our experience of reality, however this experience is often different between people, and even the degree of acuteness varies. And often, our conscious translates the world we live in differently to how it actually is- for a real mindf**k, have a look at the videos on this playlist.  Or have a look at this one, which looks at what it means to be "you". (sorry, it won't embed, but is here)

So, what does this have to do with my project? I wanted to understand what exactly consciousness is in order to understand how exactly this project was to work on the user side, and to be quite honest- now I am even more confused.

http://bigthink.com/going-mental/what-is-consciousness?page=2
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/gelernter10.1/gelernter10.1_index.html
http://www.lifepositive.com/mind/consciousness/human-consciousness.asp