Evolution & Consciousness…

 

  As a wise man once said, “You are the story brain tells itself." The human brain is by far the most complex organ ever to exist; it is the most expensive organ in the human body, as it should be. You are not your brain; you exist inside your brain as an idea, as a concept, as a construct, as a manifestation of itself. You are not it, you’re a part of it…

 

  it responds to things you don’t even pay attention to. it responds to what people around you expect of you, for it is wired that way (tribal roots.) it does a lot of things behind the scenes, including keeping you alive and well. All this processing without you ever acknowledging. And i’m saying this in the strangest way possible…

 

  it is not a bug; it is a feature. imagine keeping track of all the things you see in only a day; it’s too much. There are too many things happening at any given time, and keeping track of all the things happening is just next to impossible. Needless to say, it is not perfect. Nothing is… Evolution is all, but it isn’t perfect.

 

  So, we need to guide it through the things it is not very good at. Consciousness emerges from it, but it is not limited to it. it is supposed to be better than that, it is supposed to be an extension of that, it is supposed to fix the things evolution alone can’t. They are supposed to complement and take care of each other, for one cannot continue to exist without the other. Looking at it, kind of beautiful in its own way… don’t you think? Like, Romeo & Juliet, Bonnie & Clyde… not really, but kind of.) You get it, right?

 

  The human brain is amazing at what it does, but it is not perfect. it is not limitless; it has certain constraints that limit its capabilities, and so, it has to get creative; it has to be efficient with resources, for computation is expensive and requires energy. The human brain consumes the same amount of energy as it takes to power a light bulb of only about 20 Watts. in which only about 3 Watts (15%) is allocated to Communication & Computation. The rest is just the cost of doing business, baby.) So, you see why it has to be very efficient with energy. in other words, computation. The human brain is the most efficient biological model to have ever existed since the dawn of mankind as a part of the dynamic pattern that exists on this planet, which we call life on Earth…

 

  The brain just does its thing — keeping us alive, responding to ancient imperatives, running on 20 watts and a prayer... Consciousness rides along, sometimes steering, sometimes just narrating, and often just confused about what's happening.)

 

  Anyway, the point is that the human brain does a lot of processing behind the scenes that you’re not necessarily aware of. it is known, “You are the average of the people around you.”, Your brain literally responds to what others expect of you (subconsciously.) it is constantly gathering information from multiple endpoints and seeking patterns to make sense of the world around you. it is constantly constructing a grid of perception through which you see and understand the world. A biological model, really, through which it processes the data it gathers, for it has to be efficient like that…

 

  it automates a lot of processing behind the scenes. it predicts whether you’re about to fall, and balances itself… All this processing before you even had a chance to realize the fall. it is only when the balancing equation is resolved, or it fails and you face the bare ground, that you realize that you fell, or you almost did.) That’s just how fast and sneaky good it is at what it does. it serves its function very well, and therefore, here we exist, still… for some reason…

 

  Anyway, as you already know by now, evolution isn’t perfect, and therefore, evolution gives rise to consciousness to override the things that it is unable to improve on its own with its basic function of survival. And so, here we are… consciousness guiding evolution, and evolution grounding consciousness. A feedback loop, endlessly refining itself…

 

  And so, we are all, but a complex arrangement of atoms that, over time, evolved into something more, and learned to care about something beyond its own continuation. And that — that might be the most beautiful and terrifying thing of all…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A question trying to answer itself…

 

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Sources:

 

  – Cover image (images.nasa.gov)

 

 

 

Until Next Time... ✌️

 

❤️