Both Douglas Hofstatder’s I am a Strange Loop and Jeff Hawins’ On Intelligence maintain that our consciousness is the sum total of the operations that take place in the brain, and that the I that is observing your hand, is just the result of recursive patterns within one’s brain.
But I would agree with this. Consciousness is the sum total of the operations (or most operations—things go on when you’re unconscious) while my self-awareness is some subset. ‘Rercusive patterns within one’s brain’ and ‘simulations of reality’ sound like they could be the same thing to me.
Later edit: Aha! I think I understand your point. I didn’t intend to define consciousness in any limited way.
It’s not me “looking at my hand”—if by ‘me’ I mean my conscious self.
Place much more emphasis on the word ‘self’ than ‘conscious’.
That is, my conscious sense of self never gets to look directly at a hand—it only gets to experience a simulation of me looking at a hand.
But I would agree with this. Consciousness is the sum total of the operations (or most operations—things go on when you’re unconscious) while my self-awareness is some subset. ‘Rercusive patterns within one’s brain’ and ‘simulations of reality’ sound like they could be the same thing to me.
Later edit: Aha! I think I understand your point. I didn’t intend to define consciousness in any limited way.
Place much more emphasis on the word ‘self’ than ‘conscious’.
That is, my conscious sense of self never gets to look directly at a hand—it only gets to experience a simulation of me looking at a hand.