On Sleep
Most when trying to understand sleep look for its function, "what is it FOR". A question which has so far not yielded to inquiry. I personally take a different approach. What do we HAVE when asleep vs. when we are awake. The only thing that comes to mind is conscious control of our minds and motor functions. "Conscious" control is important because as seen in many species (birds and dolphins notably) full, normal activity can be maintained even while sleeping. Some migratory birds sleep while flying, and dolphins sleep while swimming and are able to avoid predators and remain aware of their environment.
This opens to me one interesting possibility. Consciousness, that is the state we are in while "awake" is not the "normal" state, but rather sleeping is. It can be understood in this way: when asleep animals are acting as they did before beginning to develope higher thought. Unconscious processing and calculation of information brought in from the senses as an intermediate step between perception and response.
This also gives us a good theory on evolution of intelligence. We begin with chemical reactions, to the formation of basic life which "responds" with no internal effects to stimuli. Think of it as direct cause and effect. You get event and response with nothing in between. From that evolved an unconscious processing which does no more than allow a specific PART of an organism to respond, such as a bird's wing, based on stimuli recieved anywhere on the organism. Event - transfer of stimuli - response.
From there we get slightly more complex. Expand the "transfer of stimuli" into an unconscious calculation. Sensing and reacting in an indirect manner without thought. Think of lizards catching flies. The fly moves, the tongue lashes out and catches it before conscious thought of any kind could come into play. It is not obvious that because there is motion the tongue should go catch it. There is required a minimal processing that identifies the source of the motion, and triggers the response as appropriate. Event - transfer - unconscious consideration - transfer - response.
We can think of the first two stages mentioned certainly, and quite possibly this third as "sleep" stages. This could go a long way towards understanding why sleep's important. It is in fact the natural state for maintaining life.
Next we expand further able to react not just to stimuli, but assumed or learned stimuli or expected future stimuli. If the event is not so urgent that it requires the speed of unconscious decision, it can be consciously considered resulting in a possibly far better response. This would be like suddenly finding yourself being chased by a lion. The first instinct would be to just run. When higher thought kicks in you might realize the lion is much faster than you are and you'd better find another way out, like climbing that tall tree instead, or grabbing that rock to throw as you're running.
This level of thought requires conscious awareness and one to be "awake". Thus the state of being "awake" is in fact the evolved stated of consciousness allowing for better functioning through abstract thought which would not have existed earlier. This also provides an evolutionary framework to describe how consciousness could in fact evolve.
This opens to me one interesting possibility. Consciousness, that is the state we are in while "awake" is not the "normal" state, but rather sleeping is. It can be understood in this way: when asleep animals are acting as they did before beginning to develope higher thought. Unconscious processing and calculation of information brought in from the senses as an intermediate step between perception and response.
This also gives us a good theory on evolution of intelligence. We begin with chemical reactions, to the formation of basic life which "responds" with no internal effects to stimuli. Think of it as direct cause and effect. You get event and response with nothing in between. From that evolved an unconscious processing which does no more than allow a specific PART of an organism to respond, such as a bird's wing, based on stimuli recieved anywhere on the organism. Event - transfer of stimuli - response.
From there we get slightly more complex. Expand the "transfer of stimuli" into an unconscious calculation. Sensing and reacting in an indirect manner without thought. Think of lizards catching flies. The fly moves, the tongue lashes out and catches it before conscious thought of any kind could come into play. It is not obvious that because there is motion the tongue should go catch it. There is required a minimal processing that identifies the source of the motion, and triggers the response as appropriate. Event - transfer - unconscious consideration - transfer - response.
We can think of the first two stages mentioned certainly, and quite possibly this third as "sleep" stages. This could go a long way towards understanding why sleep's important. It is in fact the natural state for maintaining life.
Next we expand further able to react not just to stimuli, but assumed or learned stimuli or expected future stimuli. If the event is not so urgent that it requires the speed of unconscious decision, it can be consciously considered resulting in a possibly far better response. This would be like suddenly finding yourself being chased by a lion. The first instinct would be to just run. When higher thought kicks in you might realize the lion is much faster than you are and you'd better find another way out, like climbing that tall tree instead, or grabbing that rock to throw as you're running.
This level of thought requires conscious awareness and one to be "awake". Thus the state of being "awake" is in fact the evolved stated of consciousness allowing for better functioning through abstract thought which would not have existed earlier. This also provides an evolutionary framework to describe how consciousness could in fact evolve.
posted by cyber-mountain guru at 8:48 AM
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