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p. 54
Consciousness is a new kind of organ. Biological organisms evolved to different kinds of organs. One kind, such as the liver or the heart, forms part of organism’s hardware. Organs of this type or permanently realised. Then there are virtual organs – feelings (courage, anger, desire) and a phenomenal experience of seeing coloured objects or hearing music or having a certain episodic memory. The immune response, which is realised only when needed, is another example of a virtual organ. Vital organs are like physical organs in that they fulfil a specific function; they are coherent assemblies of functional properties that allow you to do new things. Though part of the behavioural repertoire on the macro level of observable traits, they can also be seen as composed of billions of concerted micro events - immune cells or neurons firing away.
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… making a world appear in an organism’s brain is the new computational strategy. Flagging the dangerous present world as real kept us from getting lost in our memories and in our fantasies. Flagging the present enables a conscious organism to plan different and more efficient ways of escape or of deceiving or stalking its prey, namely by comparing internal dry runs of the target behaviour with features of a given world. If you have a conscious, transparent world model, you can, for the first time, directly compare what his actual with what is only possible, the actual world with simulated possible worlds you have designed in your mind. After you have found a path from the real world into the most desirable possible world in your mind, you can begin to act.
Thomas Metzinger
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