Here we are using the traditional form of the term “consciousness” in its conventional usage, and wish to expound upon its arising from a strictly evolutionary biological point of view. Conscious awareness exists as an evolutionary byproduct for good reasons, and is not merely arbitrary. It enables an organism to systematically observe what is happening within the present moment, in order to respond in a way most optimal to different situations, in promoting its own survival, for the purpose of heretical transference, and arose like other biological features through natural selection. The distinguishing of various external and internal stimuli floods the brain with relational importance to the wellbeing of the genetic material underlying the biological organisms Being. These many factors, are hierarchically selected for, and we cannot possibly compute and react upon all of them. Only those most in line with our belief structure, which is fundamentally tied to an underlying evaluation system, arise into consciousness. It is this propensity to act on singular goals, rather than upon every stimulus, that necessitates the system for a central operating system, one centralized in the brain, but which is only aware of the contents which are deemed most important by the subcortical connections, in reference to the organism’s suffering and wellbeing. This system where the most important phenomena are represented, is consciousness, and the emergence of phenomena therein, and then our propensity to direct actions based upon the conscious content (and our ability to reason and contemplate within the sphere of consciousness) drives optimal solutions of what to do next.

This process exists within a mechanical system, following a deterministic directed array of stimuli and prior causes on which it is dependent on for its arising, just like all other phenomena in existence. It has a reason for its existence, it has physical properties, and the subjective experience it gives us is determined by the state of the present physiological structure of the brain and nervous system, as well as interoceptive senses (internal), coupled with that of our 5 standard sense organs and their corresponding stimuli (external). We subjectively experience consciousness as a direct response to these two general factors (which contain many other specific parts, most noticeably mental, thought, emotion, etc). The reason why it was necessary for consciousness to be an evolutionary product, rather than the organism existing in the present moment yet unaware, points to the benefit it must have generated in improving survival and providing sufficient future genetic propogation, or else it never would have proliferated. The embodied perception that is filtered through the value system antedates the conscious presentation of stimuli, the bodies perceptive system inputs the data, the value system hierarchically organizes and the resultant most significant (individually judged as to most relevant meaning), dependent on many factors, is presented into conscious awareness, which potentially can be transferred to conceptualized form using language. Humans needed a more abstract processing mechanism to solve more difficult problems, and we developed it. Other animal life, and life in general, and really all matter, I believe, as later pointed out in the essay “What it means to be Conscious” has degrees of consciousness, but in a form which is far from our standard defining of consciousness, which is used in the biological sense in this essay.

Conscious awareness exists as a process determined by external and internal conditions, for the purpose of increasing survivability in analyzing the present moment as a whole, for the continuity of its genome. Its main feature is that it is a module of the organism which is to analyze, edit, and respond to other modules, much like how in DNA there is a mechanism that similarly cuts out parts, duplicates, and changes its structure to be most beneficial to the organism, I believe consciousness has a similar role on a larger scale in the observation of phenomena so that other mechanisms can act towards a unified purpose. This is a wholly deterministic process, which, if we understood more about the brain, we would be able to map onto the brain with increasingly more accurate measures. Yet emergence of this trait gave rise to many other similar behaviors not originally considered by the forces of evolution, which arose out of its selection, such as the psychological subjective idea that this consciousness is ruled by a controller, who dictates its actions, in order to be in the best interest of the organism, which turns out to be beneficial to the survival of the organism, while not reflecting any resemblance of the truth of the situation, or accounting for the individual, and his surrounding societies wellbeing, happiness, or reduction of suffering. 

Like the eye was a product of evolution for the benefit it gives to an individual in order to observe its surroundings, to increase fitness and survival, consciousness evolved for the same purpose. Now its functionality can be altered to be used towards different ends than it once had. This change in goal of conscious was, or in usability, is itself a product of prior causes such as evolution, but still holds many of the original groundwork upon which it was constructed upon, such as the lower brain, reptilian brain, and other parts behind the frontal cortex, so the ability of consciousness has grown with time as its physiological underpinnings have grown, and has altered itself through the experience it itself has been aware of. Sort of like a self replicating machine, or the future AI commonly referred to in modern literature, the human species has already carried out similar processes in its own growth thus far. If all before goes unaccepted, with the most doubt and the highest skepticism, it must be an infallible assumption to assume consciousness in its current state was bound to arise in the way it did from the cause effect nature of the universe, and the subjective proof we have of its contents within the present moment, as being a product of a series of prior causes, to deny this would to deny physics and hundreds of years of scientific progress giving to our current understanding of the universe.

The capacity for complex language which allows us to retain a higher magnitude representation of reality influenced this conceptualization of biological “conscious” development that wasn’t originally intended by the ancient underlying structures. Improvement in language has had a huge impact in our expansion of knowledge and perhaps even the future growth of the brain, as well as how we perceive the world, our place in it, and how to optimize that place, lending to not only the original evolutionary benefit, but also to extracurricular endeavors such as fun, beauty, flourishing, inner peace, non anger, psychology, philosophy, science, and almost all aspects of scholarly study. This fundamental change, that of the goal of consciousness, is like any other skilled endeavor we choose to pursue, it entails the possibility of change from purely survival based interests to anything else, which is a first for any species. In addition, it allows another possibility of increased concentration towards academic pursuits in finding the truths of reality, which is a scientifically feasible process of such a biological process, which we can take to understand things much further removed from our immediate survival, to increasingly greater degrees.

My main emphasis is in the training or development of the mind in such a way that optimizes the experience of Being towards the navigation of life, in understand reality farther on the spectrum towards objective truth itself and lastly to improve morality so as to act virtuously in order to improve the well being of other organisms. This type of autodidactic self conditioning is done just like any other training, through repeated practice and exposure to that which you wish to improve, in this case consciousness, or awareness, or the brain, or martial arts, or anything else of value to you. As far as I can see, this practice and training we can do mentally exists as expanding the minds knowledge through secondary sources, critical thinking, and introspection, as well as meditation and observance of the phenomena arising in the present moment, the contemplation and effort given to increasing beneficial states of existence, and how to further cultivate them. I say autodidactic, because the emphasis is here upon the mind’s own desire directed towards improvement in topics of his own choosing, using methods and tools he directs himself to be influenced by. Of course the knowledge comes from experience, and external sources, but the framework from which he learns is selected by himself with an intention of improving character, skills, and virtue. This includes concentrated goal oriented study towards the knowledge we wish to obtain, as well as the implication of continual striving towards purity and moral excellence obtained by virtuous action in every moment of life, with higher degrees of moral shame and dread towards smaller faults, so that our actions reflect the mindset or the memes you wish to spread and implement. The moral aspect of the expansion of the mind is not arbitrary, it is necessary in its expansion. We must develop this aspect due to its ability to harness cultivated intentionality in providing a mode of consciousness that allows more abstract modes of being from which solutions to set of problems, rather than individual problems, becomes optimized. This allows skills and traits such as single-pointed concentration or discipline to be more readily accessible, and not as hindered or fettered by the transgressions against our conscience. We must support the growth of our conscience by defining what it is we value, what is good and bad, what we value, the hierarchical placement of these things, and then we can pursue those with value and are able to continue along on our road to expansion. This topic is explained in depth in the essay “Value System Instantiation, Meaning Pursuance, and Progress through Overcoming Difficulty”. Throwing morality into the mix of aims of improvement in terms of conscious direction isn’t necessarily just an interest of mine, or something I value highly, it is something with an objective benefit to the totality of the individual in an objectively beneficial way in which we each ought to figure out and work to improve. Actions that disregard the conscience are proven in our experience to disrupt consciousness, and in the pursuit of expanding consciousness, disruptance is a hindrance. In this way the content of your consciousness, and the brains ability to effect speech and actions, effects the universe in a way that is beneficial and in line with the highest form currently conceivable of human usefulness. Every moment is a moment to practice, to improve, and to transcend our current biological state towards the next generation in a way which we believe to be best.