Starting new OT thread:

n Wed, Jan 02, 2019 at 07:42:51AM -0500, Hendrik Boom wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 02, 2019 at 02:50:27PM +0300, Andres Suarez wrote:
> > В Ср, 02/01/2019 в 00:48 -0600, golinux@??? пишет:
> > > On 2019-01-01 23:46, Edward Bartolo via Dng wrote:
> > > > On 02/01/2019, golinux@??? <golinux@???> wrote:
> > > > > On 2019-01-01 21:37, Steve Litt wrote:
> > > > > >     The degree of attentiveness we now
> > > > > >     demand in our workplaces has been a positive trait for only a
> > > > > >     couple centuries, and genetics hasn't caught up. So blame is
> > > > > >     counterproductive.
> > > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > I beg to differ. It's not in the genetics.  It's in how we choose to
> > > > > live. The level of consciousness in parts of the world hundreds of 
> > > > > years
> > > > > BC surpasses what we are capable of today. Our individual
> > > > > traits/skills/talents are the resultants of the quality of our past
> > > > > actions over millennia. IOW we start a life with what what is
> > > > > commensurate to whom we have been. So choose wisely.

I certainly am not millenia old; my actions don't data back even a hundred years,

> > > > >
> > > > > golinux
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > What 'consciousness' you are talking about?!
> > > >
> > >
> > > I am talking about the consciousness/awareness that receives data in the 
> > > form of eye:sights, ear:sounds, nose:smells, tongue:tastes, 
> > > body:physical sensations and mind:thoughts. It is the mere reception of 
> > > these stimuli that turns our inner world and outer world so it's to our 
> > > advantage to get to know the interaction between stimulation and 
> > > response intimately.
> > >
> > > Without great awareness in the present moment, we are carried along by 
> > > emotional reactions to events instead of actually knowing and 
> > > understanding them. More often than not, that impulsive reactiveness 
> > > brings us much misery and pain. But if that same consciousness is 
> > > harnessed to focus on this never-ending stream of events moment to 
> > > moment, it begins to understand them in a very different way and changes 
> > > the mind at a fundamental level.
> > >
> > > The ability to touch that understanding has declined over the last 2500+ 
> > > years and there will come a time when that knowledge will be forgotten.  
> > > But it will be rediscovered sometime in the very distant future because 
> > > it it cyclical as all things are.
> > >
> > > golinux
> > >
> > Beg pardon for the interruption: but actually that ability has increased in 
> > the last millennia. What hominids had 2500+ years ago was a primitive sense
> > of reality, which gave rise to all that mysticism which prevails so far.
> > Consciousness, defined as advanced awareness, was the last part to develop.
> >
> > That function allows you to build "Devuan Linux" instead of mixing with 
> > the sheep.
>

THose interested in looking into the development of consciousness further
should probably start by reading "The Strange Order of Thinkg" by Antonio
Damasio.

It is speculative, but at least grounded in what's currently known about
evolution and neuroscience.

-- hendrik