A Consideration of Self-Awareness
by Melanie
Anne Phillips
Consciousness has often been defined in a broad
manner that includes both awareness and self-awareness. As such, it cannot be clearly
understood. Awareness requires only a reaction to the present situation, self-awareness
requires anticipation based on experience.
Mass and energy are what Awareness measures. They
can be measured either by their arrangement or the order of events. To measure by
arrangement requires an appreciation of Space. To measure by order requires an
appreciation of Time. A mind that is only Aware, need only measure its observations by one
or the other. When such a measurement is made, Space is not related to Time and therefore
one measurement is not compared to the other. This creates an Awareness of how things
relate, either by Space (pattern) or by Time (process) at the present moment.
How can Time be seen to measure by the present
moment only? Order, which is the Temporal measurement is only concerned with labeling
priorities such as "first" or "not first" (which may be seen as
"now" or "later". A measurement of this nature allows a mind to pick
or respond according to the most immediate priority, without ever considering how those
priorities might change.
Similarly, a Spatial measurement will allow an
Aware mind to respond according to the immediate potential which is the most important,
without ever considering how the relative value of potentials may change.
In short, the aware mind will select by Space or
Time an appropriate response, with no consideration to how patterns or orders have been
experienced to change. As a result, such a mind has no clue as to what the future may
hold.
In contrast, when BOTH Space AND Time are used, the
mind may anticipate by looking at the order of arrangements (how the situation changes)
and the arrangement of orders (how priorities change). These evaluations are based on
familiarity with past experience, which indicates that a certain arrangement is NOT ALWAYS
followed by a different specific arrangement, or that a current priority may be supplanted
by a different specific priority in the next order.
Independently, each of these two views considers
iterations, and can therefore be described by non-linear equations. When one view is
compared to the other, however, a relative impact between the two is determined, and so
only equations of relativity can describe this relationship between non-linear equations
which are not directly connected.
It is the mind's ability to apply Space to Time and
Time to Space that allows anticipation. And it is that quality of anticipation that allows
a mind to become familiar with the results of its own responses in the past, thereby
building up an understanding by the mind of its own effect on the environment.
