New favorite example of ‘undecidable’:
My imagination is quite good. So when I recently read how people are liable to discount the likelihood of what they find hard to imagine and overestimate the likelihood of what they find easy to imagine, I tried to imagine what I would find hard to imagine… and found this hard to imagine.
Which means I find it easy to imagine something which I find hard to imagine, since I just imagined it! But then it is no longer hard to imagine, so I can’t have found it… But if I haven’t found it, then it’s hard to find; so I can imagine it...
This was very strange for me to read. I don’t think I can quite imagine what it must be like to not be conscious all the time (though I tried).
Let me explain why, and how I experience ‘being conscious’.
For me, being conscious and aware of myself, the world aroung me and what I am thinking or feeling is always ON. Being tired or exhausted may narrow this awareness down, but not collapse it. Of course, I don’t remember every single thought I have over the day, but asking wether I’m “conscious right now” is pointless, because I always am. Asking that question feels just like every other thought that I deliberately think: a sentence appearing in my awareness-of-the-moment, that I can understand and manipulate.
I’m also almost always aware of my own awareness, and aware of my awareness of my own awareness. This is useful, because it gives me a three-layered approach to how I experience the world: on one level, I simply take in what I see, feel, hear, think etc., while (slightly time-delayed) on another level I analyze the contents of my awareness, while on a third level I keep track of the level my awareness is at. For example, if I’m in a conversation with another person, there is usually only one-to-two levels going on; if I’m very focused on a task, only one level; but most of the time, all three levels are ‘active’.
The third level also gives me a perspective of how ‘involved’ I get over the day. Whenever I pop out of being immersed in one-to-two level situations, I immediately notice how long I was ‘in’, and wether it served the goal I was following at the time or if I lost track of what I was doing.
Over the years I learned to use my consciousness with more deliberation: I can mark certain thoughts I want to contemplate later; I have the habit of periodically checking wether there is anything in my ‘to think about’ box; I can construct several levels of meta-structure that I can pop in- and out of as I complete tasks; I can prompt my subconscious to translate intuitions into more concrete models for my contemplation, while I think on other things; …
On summaries of thought:
I use this summary function in order to remember the gist of my detailed thoughts over the day. When the theme of my thought changes, I stick a sort of ‘this was mostly what I thought about’ badge on my memories of that time. Depending on how important the memories or the subject are to me, I make an effort to commit more or less details of my conscious experience to memory. If it is more feelings-related or intuitive thinking, I deliberately request of my unconscious (in the post: subagents) a summary of feelings to remember, or an intuitive-thingy I may remember it by. This works surprisingly well for later recollection of intuitive thoughts, meaning thoughts that aren’t quite ready yet for structured contemplation.
There are other functions, but those are the ones I use most frequently.
I would be curious to hear what you thinking of this. By the way, I am greatly enjoying this series. Especially the modelling with robots helps to recognize ideas and think of them in a different perspective.