Consciousness is an extremely interesting, however, confusing topic. This is due to the many different views and opinions toward it in what it really means. One of the simpler approaches to consciousness is awareness within oneself to their thoughts, memories, sensations, feelings, etc. (Consciousness in Psychology) More complex definitions extend beyond the individual internally and into awareness of external existence as well. An additional definition can be taken from PBS’ episode “Your Brain: Perception Deception” which leans towards the simpler end saying that consciousness is “internal experience.” This definition also shows that the individual is vital to consciousness as what is taken from the external world is then made unique to the individual through their senses, thoughts, and so on. The emphasis on the individual also brings up the question of other species potentially having consciousness in a similar way us humans do. Similar to what makes up general consciousness, this can also be a confusing topic based on certain things that humans and mostly mammals share that could represent some aspects of consciousness, but not all of them.
Now, diving a little deeper into the given definitions of consciousness, we see that the internal awareness within the individual is vital. Some definitions make a specific note of “external existence” as well, but it is directly implied in those that don’t mention it at all. This is because awareness within oneself involves the aspects mentioned earlier such as feelings, sensations, memories, etc. and those need the external world present in order to occur. They cannot simply appear within the individual without something to base them upon. This is exactly what Perception Deception described in saying consciousness is an “internal experience.” Although an individual does not need to explicitly have each aspect to be conscious, just one or two of them allow for an “internal experience” and therefore consciousness. And these are different for everybody because although everything in the world is fundamentally the same, everybody will not share the same feelings towards those things. The fact that this results in everyone having different experiences, is what makes up consciousness as defined by Perception Deception.
Perception Deception also notes that the world we experience every day is not the real one that is there. By they way they describe it, it is most certainly true because if we were to take all of the information from the world around us, our senses would become overwhelmed and have trouble computing anything meaningful. Instead, our brain in conjunction with our senses allow us to only take in enough informations for us to handle at one time. One simple example of this is if you try to focus on one object while trying to identify the objects around it that aren’t also in focus. It is a very difficult task and nearly impossible to correctly do. But that’s okay because that shows how our brain and sense of sight work to only take in information that is important to us at that very moment. This same phenomenon occurs across all of our senses and with our brain as it is constantly analyzing what’s important and what’s not throughout our daily lives. And by this logic, the world that we take in is never what is actually there and never the same as someone else. This is part of what makes us unique as humans and our conscious experience.
Generally, Perception Deception explains consciousness to an educational extent where many people can understand the points it makes without much knowledge in psychology. It uses relatable concepts like senses, feelings, thoughts, memories, and experiences that viewers can connect to and realize how they are conscious beings. When it comes to being educational and within only a given time frame, as the episode was, there are some things that cannot be covered either at all or in much depth. Each topic that was discussed was given a good amount of depth to not overwhelm the viewer. However, there is only one point that was missed which could be added in as a continuation of Perception Deception. I realized when it was pointed out to me and it was higher order thinking or critical thinking. This is basically what we do when we are given facts and asked to do something with them. It is basically creating something “new” from what we are given, and for humans, this is a very significant aspects of consciousness to factor in. My source for aspects of consciousness was from ChatGPT where I asked it “What makes up consciousness?” It responded with a list of 10 aspects, many of which I felt were either directly addressed or implied from what was discussed in the Perception Deception. Only the “higher order thinking” stood out to me and that’s why I chose to address it because I feel that it is a significant part of our consciousness as human beings. However, it is clear that some aspects of it surely are present in other mammals and we should at least recognize that.