What is Consciousness?

Consciousness is the tiny small voices that only you can hear. Other than that, I don't know. But why must find the meaning of things we simply cannot find instead of finding something that we can? :)

In the evolutionary cybernetic approach, consciousness is not some kind of mysterious entity that evades all forms of scientific analysis. Consciousness is rather a subtle and complex form of organization characterizing cybernetic systems or "agents". Consciousness allows these systems to interact in a purposeful, intelligent and sensitive way with their complex and changing environment. Because consciousness in its every-day sense is such a vague and ambiguous concept, we will try to explain it by subdividing it in its different aspects, starting from its most simple and universal properties, that are shared by all cybernetic agents, and building up towards its most advanced features, that can as yet only be found in humans, who occupy the provisionally highest level of the metasystem hierarchy. A cybernetic agent is defined as a control system that interacts with its environment in such a way as to maximally achieve its goals or values. For natural systems, these goals are all derived from the overriding goal of maximizing fitness, i.e. survival, growth and reproduction. A cybernetic agent steers towards it goal by executing the appropriate actions, taking into account the feedback it gets through its senses.

hi mylotters the oxford dictionary say that it is the state of being able to use your senses and mental power to understand what is happenning the wikipedia says that it is a type of menatl state, a way of perceiving,particularly the perception of a relationship between self and other.. consciousness may involve thoughts,sensation,perception,moods,emotion,dreams and self-awareness. as far as my personnal experience i lack consciousness

You're correct, consciousness is an exclusively personal experience. I assume that the people I interact with are "conscious" in the same way I am, but can I ever really be sure...can anyone? Your post seems more like a statement than a question seeing as there is no real answer to "What is consciousness?" There are couple of resources that you and any other readers might want to check out though. 1. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0962687499/growthyorg-20 2. http://www.faculty.virginia.edu/consciousness/ Both of these texts contributed to my personal exploration tremendously, and while I'm certainly a ways away from "enlightenment", perhaps they will help someone else as well. Cheers! RM Gray http://www.GrowThyself.org