Discussion on Explicit Consciousness, Sub-Consciousness, and Self-Awareness in a Conscious System

摘要

What is “self-awareness”? How can explicit consciousness and sub-consciousness be mapped in relation to each other? How are they related to the self? How can these entities be represented in an artificial conscious system? These questions are the focus of this article. People are aware of only the behavior that they are focusing on; they cannot be directly aware of routine behavior such as walking and breathing. The latter is generally called unconscious behavior, and here we call it sub-conscious behavior. To understand self-awareness, therefore, firstly it is important to map explicit consciousness and sub-consciousness, which is where the self is deeply involved. We consider that if there is no self that refers to itself, no one can be aware of what he himself is doing. In this study we map explicit consciousness and sub-consciousness using an artificial conscious system, and then make a new proposal about the relationship between self-awareness and the self.