I thought it was interesting when the question was brought up of where does consciousness begin? I had never really thought about it before, but watching the video is was interesting to see that it develops when we are about 18-24 months old. Also, that other studies show it's only found in more intelligent animals like Chimps and Orangutans and dolphins, and that separates us from the rest of animal kingdom. It makes me wonder what part of the brain gives us this consciousness, and why do other animals not have this? Why is it only seen in mammals? The older man brought up a good point that with self awareness, we also have death awareness, and can think about ourselves in different ways. It made me think, would it almost be better to not be self aware? What would our views of death be if we didn't have a conscious mind, if we even had any views on it? I found that the BBC video gave me more questions than answers about the conscious mind, and how it is formed and why we have it. What benefit does it give us to be self aware?
Becoming Self-Aware
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Self awareness is, in my opinion, always an interesting topic to even run "thought experiments" on. It's amazing how consciousness works and that we even have such a thing. The fact that at between 18-24 months we develop a "little voice in our head" that is tells us what's right and wrong and that it stays with us for our entire lives (with obvious exceptions of course aka mental illnesses). It's absolutely mind-blowing for me, pun completely intended, that humans are this advanced and how such a relatively small thing like the brain is so advanced and so in control of everything we do.
I think self awareness is a very complex topic. There are many positives and negatives to being self aware and not being self aware. I think it needs to be there as a reason for the actions we make. I can't imagine not thinking about my actions and realizing the possible outcomes of every situation. This would be nice for some events, but other events the self awareness needs to be there to keep us from endangering others.
I love that video! It is very interesting and you bring up lots of questions that are making you think more about the topic. What do you think are some of the answers to your questions? Do you think consciousness is tied to memory or language development? Is it necessarily a bad thing to have death awareness?