body

Consciousness = a very complex way of feeling our body.

Free will = epiphenomenon. Our brain chooses a course of action and consciousness "wills" it (we feel our body choosing).

max tegmark's "shut up and calculate"

http://arxiv.org/pdf/0709.4024v1

multiple consciousnesses

Multiple universes are created each time an electron has to choose the slit on the L or R to go through.

In the same way, multiple universes AND MULTIPLE CONSCIOUSNESSES are created each time our brains make a choice.

The illusion of free will comes from the fact that we are not aware of the splitting of consciousnesses and the creation of multiple universes.

What is in fact going on is that an endless number of universes is continuously being created and an endless number of consciousnesses are also being created at the same time.

This explains the illusion of free will.

We think we are choosing chocolate ice cream but another self is simultaneously choosing vanilla and creating a universe in which that choice took place. But we are unaware of the splitting that happens each time we make a choice.

winnowing

Consciousness is part of a winnowing mechanism. There is too much information and processing for an unconscious mind to deal with. Thought would become de-centered and our survival would become threatened (the Hamlet syndrome). Because we have a body, we need the brain to focus. Consciousness (with its limited capacity = attention span) automatically limits what we focus on. It's the limiting that is crucial, not so much the focus. Intentionality may boil down to a mere forced narrowing of focus (as in bandwidth). The brain focuses but also moves on. Threshholds are reached and decisions are made and new pressing issues rise to the surface. There is limited computing time and it needs to be managed.

interface

Consciousness is a synthesis of very complex calculations (most of them unconscious); it is like a Mac interface: a simple model of the world for the brain to use.

mind/brain

Mind = bunch of circuits that uses language to deliberate.

Brain creates a "synthetic" mind and gives it the complex problems to deliberate on and solve. Then brain takes output of "mind."

Our synthetic mind feels a "virtual" body created by nerve inputs.

All we are aware of are 1) the deliberation circuits using language "out loud" to make decisions 2) virtual body mapping.

Language area was not conscious at first. It was used to make decisions with other people. The brain ran decisions to this area to get output of other people. Then it started "talking to itself" = consciousness.

countermeasure?

Could consciousness have evolved as a countermeasure the phenotype could use against the tyranny of the genes?

Or is consciousness just another tool of the genes (intelligence / free will as just a puppet government ultimately controlled by the the genes following the agenda items the genes care about most: survival, reproduction)?

If consciousness allows us to override our genes then maybe we have free will. It would not be true freedom, but rather freedom to choose pleasure, happiness, virture, etc., and freedom to forego reproduction, survival...