from [Marc Abrams (2003.12.03.1221)]
Bill, In LCS II, The 'hidden'chapter of B:CP, That is Chap. 26 on Emotions.
How current are those thoughts? I mean _all_ of the material you presented
in that chapter. It goes quite a bit beyond emotions and I think it's
pertinent to this thread
[From Bill Powers (2003.12.03.0829 MST)]
Awareness, attention, and consciousness -- I agree mostly with all your
comments. In my experience, awareness seems to indicate the condition of
knowingly "receiving" from the world of perception, with "attention"
referring to the selectiveness of this reception process as well as the
fact that there are perceptual activities going on both within the field
of
attention and outside it.
This of course is dealing with _cognitive_ awareness. Physiologically, many
bodily systems are 'aware'of any number of things without our conscious
knowledge and are controlled without our ever being aware of it.
You vaguely hear someone talking, but say "Sorry,
I wasn't paying attention -- would you say that again?" (Why do we need to
hear it again? Is it treated differently when we're conscious of it?)
Let me take a stab at this. Yes, I think this goes back to what Bruce was
saying yesterday in his initial post. If it does not cause any error, you
tend not to 'notice' it. When someone initially try's to make contact with
you and you are cognitively controlling for something else, that interuption
causes an error. Your conscious attention is now drawn to it and to correct
for the error your attention and control are refocused. I think this kind of
thing happens all the time. It's one of the reasons long term goals are
difficult to achieve as initially planned. _Something_ always seems to get
in the way. 
I proposed a meaning for consciousness: the combination of awareness with
peceptions in the hierarchy.
I liked that and still do. I would simply add the notion of 'emotions' and
'feelings' to the mix of perceptions and awareness. Again I refer back to LC
S II and the chapter on emotions.
We can perceive, I think, in either of two
mental states: automatic operation, and conscious operation. When we
perceive (and control) in the automatic mode, I think that what goes on is
very different from what happens in the conscious mode -- but I have a lot
of trouble saying just what is different. Possibly that's because I
experience only what goes on in the conscious mode! The automatic mode is
something I see only in others, or infer after the fact in my own
behavior.
Why am I standing here looking into this closet?
I think this might be on a continum. From highly focused to your last
question. But I think we can in fact be in any number of different states.
Awake, deep sleep, REM sleep, drugged, and any in number of 'higher' states
of consciousness (meditation,yoga, etc)
When I control consciously, the only control processes going on,
seemingly,
are those I am conscious of.
Bill wouldn't it be more accurate to say controlling 'cognitively' rather
than consciously
Just then I was conscious of making that
sentence (which I had already formulated in some sense) appear on the
screen, and then, abruptly, I was conscious of my fingers moving and of
the
pressure of taps on the keys, conscious perceptions which were initially
not there (though obviously the finger-tapping was happening). Only after
writing all that and pausing to consider it for a minute did I become
aware
of the original intent, which was to describe an experience in my own
world,for others to read. Um ---
Your attention here seems to have preceded your awareness
Oh, yeah, the point is that as I experience these phenomena, there is a
continuous presence of a conscious focus, a field of attention, a set of
objects of awareness, which changes its boundaries from moment to moment.
Yes, this is what I was talking about before.
It's not that I am conscious only when something unusual happens or when
there is an error or when I'm shifting from one subject to another, or any
of those things. I'm either conscious or asleep, and even asleep there are
only intermittent periods that have simply disappeared or never existed in
consciousness.
Yes, I agree.
I wonder how many of you have experienced similar things.
Yes, we are all control systems and i don't think you have experienced
anything different than I have on many occasions. But coming from me you may
not consider that a good thing.
I also wonder if
any of you have experienced changes in the quality of consciousness
itself,
depending on what you're doing. It seems to me that when I'm writing on a
subject like this, I look on everything from a particular point of view,
but when I'm doing the dishes or putting a hose away for the winter the
world seems different (yesterday; I know it's not winter yet but what the
heck). Of course I am aware in the same old way, and I'm still the one
being aware, but the activity I feel I'm doing is different, and to that
extent I feel like a different self, a different consciousness. It's like
looking at the world though different glasses: same looker, same world,
different eyes.
Is this a quality of consciousness issue or an awareness and attention
issue?
It's really hard to think of good experiments for testing the effects of
awareness, attention, and consciousness. In fact I find it hard to keep my
attention on doing that! Somehow I'm not asking the right questions yet,
so
nothing grabs my imagination. All this is just too close to home to get a
good look at it. Ideas, anyone?
I'm working on it.
Marc
