This is another one relating to how suffering seems to be inherent in existence.
As experienced adults we tend to have well-developed automatic processes to deal with many of the complexities of life. When things are going well we can essentially retreat into unconscious auto-pilot and let the machine do what we programmed it to do. This generates feelings of easy passage, pleasure, peacefulness and tranquility.
And it’s a good thing because life is complex, and both quick adaptation and writing new unconscious routines takes energy. (And depending on our mindset be seen as a bother or even genuine suffering).
So essentially we are in standby mode. We only kick into full consciousness when some error or anomaly is detected that needs addressing beyond the automatic systems we have programmed.
And depending how “unconscious” we have become in the presence of comforts and conveniences, the sudden awakening to full consciousness can be alarming and even unpleasant.
© 2026 – SoulSequel
5 responses to “Human consciousness is essentially an error detecting and correcting phenomena”
whoa, that heading got my attention. Now I gotta figure out what it means.
What does this make me think about? Hmmm…I am only fully conscious when am solving a problem. I can accept that, because I experience that. I find it hard to take vacations. Being unproductive is very boring for me, although I do it, I generally feel a sense of guilt. If I am watching someone else be productive; I feel envy.
I think it comes down to a constant question I am always experiencing. How can I make something better, a process more efficient, an environment more welcoming, a communication more effective… It goes so far as to brushing my teeth. Do I put the cap back on before I start, or during, or after. How many things can I multi task seems to be a constant question that I am asking myself and when is total concentration the route to go?
THAT is why I love baseball. The singular concentration that is required to a task at hand when in the batter’s box, or the pitching mound, and then the ability to broaden an awareness to make split second decisions, because you know what’s going on around you. Hockey is a little different (awareness aside) To me, that game is about just giving it all you have for every moment you are on the ice, but your productivity is worthless, unless you know where everybody is.
I think that last paragraph relates to the question. Maybe sports is a perfect metaphor for the point being made.
@spitfire3dc
The Swiss philosopher/psychologist Jean Piaget produced a philosophy centred very much on games as a very effective process for developing skills (automatic responses) that would lead to success both personally and socially.
So sports are awesome games, each structured specifically it seems, to deal with specific skill-sets of success. Most of them overlap on critical skills, like focus. But then as you’ve pointed out, baseball branches off into planning and strategy for a goal in the near future. Hockey tends to be more “in the moment” — and therefore more action, more conflict.
And a sport like golf would exist perhaps at the other extreme end of the spectrum! (Golf-brawl anyone?? Oh, hey, that’s punny!)
Here’s an interesting video from one of JP’s psych lectures dealing focus:
I think if people come into full consciousness, they run the risk of becoming nihilist.
@Scarlett
Perhaps only if one has no meaning beyond themselves. (An unbalanced concept of “being”).
I studied this just the other day, so let’s see if I remember it. It uses the same perspective of phenomenology, and the German terms I introduced you to in another thread.
Nihilism takes the inner personal world (Eigerweldt) as all that matters/exists. But without the balance of the Midweldt (shared social existence) and the Umweldt (transcendent environment), the Eigerweldt has to become twisted and misshapen to keep standing.
(The more traditional psychological disciplines are not quite so elegant in their understanding of nihilism.)
BTW, let me know if using my responses as a study tool is bothersome.
@Scarlett
Oh, and for some contrast: totalitarianism happens when the Midweldt (shared social construct) is taken as all that really matters, or what should supersede all else.
Trying to stand without the other two elements of phenomenological existence, the Midweldt becomes warped and twisted.