Human Consciousness: The Evolution of Our Sensor of Society

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This book is about the evolution of human consciousness, but the evolutionary path that the author describes is not precisely in accordance with Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection of biological adaptation mechanisms. A biological adaptation entails the accumulation of a progression of genetic changes in multiple systems before the next step in an evolution of life forms. The likelihood of all the required random mutations occurring simultaneously in all the systems is infinitesimally small, so something else had to have influenced the evolutionary process. The author maintains that there is more to evolution than the traditional Darwinian concept of natural selection of random genetic mutations. The author describes a broadened version of Darwin's concept of evolution supported by recent research, that says, 'learning' brought intelligent design to the evolution of both biological and behavioral adaptations.Additionally, since the days of Hippocrates, consciousness remains an elusive enigma and the subject of controversy. Hundreds of studies have not brought consensus on what consciousness is, what it does, why we have it, and how the subjective experience can be explained in terms of brain activity.In this book, the author looks at how consciousness came into being to get a sense of its function and of the complex ways it has evolved in human society.Scientists generate knowledge; engineers organize knowledge. The mélange of scientific data, theories, concepts, and speculations cries for organization. Scientists have been generating knowledge about various aspects of consciousness for centuries, each from his or her own perspective; it is time and appropriate to organize those bits and pieces of knowledge into a coherent history of the evolution of consciousness.The book provides a consistent rationale for the evolutionary progression from the simple, primitive, isolated organism to the complex, intelligent, and social primates. A coherent explanation of why and how human consciousness evolved from elaboration of primary consciousness is given. The question, 'What does human consciousness do and why does it do it?' is answered. The book also offers a solution to the dilemma, 'How can anything material be conscious?' from my evolutionary approach to understanding human consciousness.