Consciousness Comprehended

Consciousness is a profoundly relevant aspect of life. The distinct presence is of course relevant, because without it, a being is either dead, or in a deep dormant sleep. But the degree and quantity of which consciousness is applied, seems as though it should also be considered quite important. I believe with a better comprehension of consciousness, the understanding can be applied to be beneficial –as with most concepts-. The degree of consciousness is perhaps typically understood as being divided into 3 generalized categories, being; fully-conscious, subconscious, and unconscious.

From my understanding, the category of conscious would be considered to be distinguishably unique to human beings. I see consciousness as a gift to be very grateful for –whether you believe in God or not-, as without it the world would seem very dry, shallow, meaningless, and potentially completely pointless. To be outright conscious, is to be aware and capable of comprehension, understanding and retaining knowledge (at least as far as I am aware). Any animal (at least on Earth, and to our knowledge), may be considered conscious, but that is only in the more generalized distinguishment between conscious or unconscious. In those terms, it refers to the animal of being awake, and is conscious, but only to the (considerably) lesser degree of subconscious, when evaluating at that more specified degree of consciousness. 

Subconsciousness would be the capability of an entity to have a reaction -which is controlled by a preconditioned memorial system- to an effect (At least that is the most accurate definition, from what I can understand at the moment and relay into words). This would not include most awake, calm, and alert humans, because –being fully-conscious- their reactions are controlled by an over-writing, predominant, active action decider system, rather than the preconditioned memory system (ie. part of the brain). And this would not include unconscious entities or inanimate objects, because their reaction is controlled by the default of reactions, being the laws of physics, rather than a memory system. By my assumptions, subconscious would include: -Animals which are awake,

-Humans which are sleeping –but in the shallow state of dreaming-

-Humans temporarily inattentive or influenced by an external effect -to a point of lack of active decision capability (ie. Drugged, nutrient deprived)

-Humans underdeveloped in the reaction control system (ie. Children, mentally ill)

-last (and maybe least), theoretically by my standards- computers (until we develop them to the point of active, comprehending processing, where as they would become outright conscious and virtually capable equivalent in most relevant aspects to humans).

There seems to be a surprisingly distinct line between subconscious and outright conscious. Considering no other animal has crossed the line of fully (or at least as full as we know it for now) consciousness, in which the ability is gained to problem solve, adapt momentarily to changing circumstances/ surroundings, and intentionally/ purposefully alter variables. These abilities, gained through our consciousness have of course allowed humans to completely overpower and reign over every other animal (of equal opportunity but lack of that one aspect of life).

The line between consciousness and subconsciousness is actually crossed almost every day by every living person, multiple times. It is crossed every time you fall asleep -switching to subconscious (until you’re in a deep enough sleep to no longer dream and be technically unconscious)-, and vice versa. It’s crossed every time you get drunk enough to lose control, then back again when you sober up. And, perhaps most commonly (and… perhaps not so distinctly of a line after all), every time you lose focus or stop paying attention to what you’re doing, to enough of an extent that you’re not aware of what actions you are making. This actually likely happens numerous times throughout the day, with many repetitive tasks being acted upon without regard as habit and routine. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as most of the time your subconscious reactions will be the most beneficial reaction. But, where understanding of all of this comes in to be potentially productive and constructive application with positive outcomes, is those circumstances where a conscious decision would be superior to a subconscious reaction.

The benefit of consciousness is often differential distinguishment (as I’ve come to remember it). Where in, you have the ability to actively distinguish minor differences in a scenario, in which a subconscious reaction has not developed that distinguishment through its inferiorly slow-learning process of conditioned memory reaction. This extra capability of distinguishing those minor differences, acquires the benefit of acting more accurately to the current set of circumstances, by analyzing the probable effect caused by those differences which were detected.

If you can understand these properties of consciousness, perhaps you can perceive the potential positives and take advantage of having consciousness comprehended.