Conscience/ consciousness as a survival mechanism

[paigetheoracle]

Conscience is a survival mechanism - why have it if it is self-defeating? To be conscious, is to be aware and conscience is telling you what you're aware of plus how to deal with it. The less conscience you have, the less conscious you are and the more 'unknowingly' self-destructive your acts are within the bigger picture of existence. If we cannot understand the world, we cannot control it and if we cannot control it, we become a victim of our own failure to connect and work with it - dying as an individual and dying out as a civilization or race.

[Cephalover]

First of all, what?

 

Are you saying that consciousness works as a survival mechanism, or that it is paradoxical because it in fact is self-defeating?

 

I'd argue that the former statement must be true, because consciousness would not have evolved if it were not advantageous to organisms.

 

That said, I'd also argue that consciousness is not at all necessary for the success of a species (that is, to avoid dying as an individual or an aggregate.) Just look at insects - a long way from what we can clearly identify as conscious, but capable of navigating their environments well and surviving in a variety of ecological niches.

[Boerseun]

An argument can be made that what we might perceive as consciousness is merely an artifact of our ability to speak. The ability to speak and clearly declare your intent to bystanders is a great survival aid, however - and consciousness might merely be a an unintended and redundant by-product thereof.

[Michaelangelica]

http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/31181/there_s_No_such_Things_as_Dragons/

http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/31181/there_s_No_such_Things_as_Dragons/

 

[joekgamer]

Conciousness seems (to me at least) to be more of an anti-survival mechanism than a survival mechanism.

 

Conciousness means you think things through, while instinct means you don't.

 

Acting on instinct is faster.

 

However, it is less able to learn.

 

People probably evolved conciousness after conditions started to become safer (fire, anyone?).

 

For a metaphor, think of coding languages.

 

You have low level ones (binary, BASIC, etc.) that are kind of like instinct, and you have high level ones (D, F#, Javascript, Scala, etc.) that are the equivilent of conciousness.

 

Or did you mean conscience?