The Unconsciously Unconscionable You
Science now suggest that 90% of everything we do, we do unconscionably ... unconsciously unconscionably. Our hearts beat, we breath, we sweat, all without a conscious thought. But we do more. We walk without a though of doing it or even how to do it. The door bell rings. We may think about whether or not answer to the doorbell, but never about the process of actually answering it. Our conscious mind is too busy wondering who at the door. We drive an automobile without "giving a thought" to how we do it. We type on a keyboard without consciously thinking of which key is where.
Did I mention that our brain was aware that the door bell was ringing BEFORE we were conscious that it was ringing? It took about a third of second for the brain to process the sensory, evaluate the results and UNCONSCIOUSLY decide if it is important enough to pass to pass it along to the part of the brain responsible for consciousness. While all our sensory inputs reach the brain, very few ever get pass the gatekeeper to our conscious state of mind. We hear background noise but block out to read a book. We smell food cooking but don't notice it until the dinner bell rings. We feel that the temperature has risen but pay no attention until we begin to sweat. We see clouds in the sky but ignore them until it rains. Indeed, our conscious self misses nearly everything around us.
Now here is the interesting part: MORALITY pays no role in what the sensory gatekeeper does with the sensory inputs. It just processes them, decides which inputs to keep, and passes the kept ones along to another part of the brain that decides what to pass along to the "conscious" part of the brain before they are stored in memory. Only after the processed input reaches the cortex -- the evolutionary newcomer that deals with reasoning -- can the brain rationalize the morality of what the brain has sensed. The "old" unconscious parts of the brain has already decided unconsciously unconscionably what, if anything, to do with the inputs and will do so unless quickly overridden by the conscious mind.
This raises any number of conundrum. Your unconscious brain sees a potential murder taking place and finds it significant enough to pass along to your conscious brain. Your "old" brain tells you flight is better than fight in this situation. The "new" brain demands a moral judgement of whether to run and try to help the victim. What do YOU do? Who wins? The "old" brain or the "new" brain? The emotion of fear or the morality of of the Ten Commandments?
Did I mention that our brain was aware that the door bell was ringing BEFORE we were conscious that it was ringing? It took about a third of second for the brain to process the sensory, evaluate the results and UNCONSCIOUSLY decide if it is important enough to pass to pass it along to the part of the brain responsible for consciousness. While all our sensory inputs reach the brain, very few ever get pass the gatekeeper to our conscious state of mind. We hear background noise but block out to read a book. We smell food cooking but don't notice it until the dinner bell rings. We feel that the temperature has risen but pay no attention until we begin to sweat. We see clouds in the sky but ignore them until it rains. Indeed, our conscious self misses nearly everything around us.
Now here is the interesting part: MORALITY pays no role in what the sensory gatekeeper does with the sensory inputs. It just processes them, decides which inputs to keep, and passes the kept ones along to another part of the brain that decides what to pass along to the "conscious" part of the brain before they are stored in memory. Only after the processed input reaches the cortex -- the evolutionary newcomer that deals with reasoning -- can the brain rationalize the morality of what the brain has sensed. The "old" unconscious parts of the brain has already decided unconsciously unconscionably what, if anything, to do with the inputs and will do so unless quickly overridden by the conscious mind.
This raises any number of conundrum. Your unconscious brain sees a potential murder taking place and finds it significant enough to pass along to your conscious brain. Your "old" brain tells you flight is better than fight in this situation. The "new" brain demands a moral judgement of whether to run and try to help the victim. What do YOU do? Who wins? The "old" brain or the "new" brain? The emotion of fear or the morality of of the Ten Commandments?
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