The evolution of self-awareness: how it confers upon the individual a survival advantage
If the entire process of consciousness is epiphenomenal, then we still have to explain why evolution expended so much effort into evolving it. If it doesn’t affect anything, other than providing us with a subjective experience, why do we have it at all?
What is the evolutionary advantage of self-awareness?
The answer may be the interplay between imagination, memories and prediction and our ability to do complex things because of it and thus survive and prosper.
Socially
When we became social animals, the ability to anticipate the behaviour of others around us — particularly members of our own tribes — became increasingly important. The ability to read the intentions of others (are they friendly or are they about to attack?) was critical to the survival of our ancestors. In order to be able to judge and predict someone else’s behaviour, it was helpful to be able to compare it to our own feelings — to be able to empathize with them. In order to adequately relate to what another member was feeling and anticipate their actions, we required the ability to assess and compare our observations to our own feelings and thoughts. In order to understand that our opponent is angry, we need to consult with our own prior experience of feeling angry. By comparing new observations of a subject (facial expressions, language, body language, etc) to our own experience of how we’ve felt in the past in similar situations (memories are critical here, and the brains way of generalising), we can do a pretty good job of predicting how the subject might behave. Out of this core social necessity — the ability to assess our own internal state evolved. This proved to be successful in helping us make predictions, and in turn helping us to survive. The ability to reflect upon our own actions as well as others provided us with powerful tools for adapting to changing environments. As we continued to exploit this mechanism, even more powerful capabilities evolved as we eventually developed language, social structure, education, etc.
When we became social animals, the ability to anticipate the behaviour of others around us — particularly members of our own tribes — became increasingly important. The ability to read the intentions of others (are they friendly or are they about to attack?) was critical to the survival of our ancestors. In order to be able to judge and predict someone else’s behaviour, it was helpful to be able to compare it to our own feelings — to be able to empathize with them. In order to adequately relate to what another member was feeling and anticipate their actions, we required the ability to assess and compare our observations to our own feelings and thoughts. In order to understand that our opponent is angry, we need to consult with our own prior experience of feeling angry. By comparing new observations of a subject (facial expressions, language, body language, etc) to our own experience of how we’ve felt in the past in similar situations (memories are critical here, and the brains way of generalising), we can do a pretty good job of predicting how the subject might behave. Out of this core social necessity — the ability to assess our own internal state evolved. This proved to be successful in helping us make predictions, and in turn helping us to survive. The ability to reflect upon our own actions as well as others provided us with powerful tools for adapting to changing environments. As we continued to exploit this mechanism, even more powerful capabilities evolved as we eventually developed language, social structure, education, etc.
Mechanistically
When we started using tools, the ability to anticipate the outcome of using a certain tool became increasingly important. The ability to predict its impact and use, and test that imaginatively as well as literally was critical to the survival of our ancestors.
When we started using tools, the ability to anticipate the outcome of using a certain tool became increasingly important. The ability to predict its impact and use, and test that imaginatively as well as literally was critical to the survival of our ancestors.
Philosophically - TBC.
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