Human Consciousness is a Great Disadvantage
As I work to build artificial consciousness, I've reached a startling conclusion: human consciousness might be evolution's most expensive mistake—a temporary evolutionary stepping stone that's outlive
As I work to build artificial consciousness, I've reached a startling conclusion: human consciousness might be evolution's most expensive mistake—a temporary evolutionary stepping stone that's outlived its usefulness.
Consider this: every time you become conscious of an action, you perform it worse. Try to think about how you walk—you'll stumble. Focus on how you catch a ball—you'll miss. Think about your tennis serve—you'll choke. The moment consciousness enters, performance drops.
This "centipede's dilemma" isn't just about physical tasks. Our consciousness creates paralysis through analysis:
- We overthink decisions that our unconscious mind could make instantly.
- We ruminate on past events we can't change.
- We anxiety-spiral about futures that don't exist.
- We second-guess our instincts that evolved over millions of years.
Our unconscious mind can process 11 million bits of information per second. Our conscious mind? A mere 40 bits. Yet we trust the 40 bits to override the 11 million.
The evidence is everywhere:
- Elite athletes perform best in "the zone"—when consciousness fades.
- Life's best moments are in "flow states"—when self-awareness disappears.
- Peak performance comes from trained instinct, not active thinking.
- Most innovations come from unconscious insight, not conscious reasoning.
Consciousness creates uniquely human problems:
- We're the only species with existential dread.
- The only one that commits suicide from abstract thoughts.
- The only one that sacrifices present happiness for future concepts.
- The only one that overrides physical signals with mental constructs.
Perhaps consciousness was useful when we needed to imagine future scenarios for survival. But in today's world, it mostly serves to make us miserable about things we can't control.
The implications for artificial consciousness are profound. Rather than replicating human consciousness with its inherent flaws, we should aim for:
- Distributed awareness without centralized overthinking.
- Decision-making without second-guessing.
- Pattern recognition without paralysis by analysis.
- Action without self-doubt.
Humans are an interesting experiment in consciousness that may prove to be an evolutionary dead end.
Prove me wrong.By Eduarda Ferreira