What is Consciousness?

07/04/14

Disclaimer: I have done no research here. It is something I like to think about. As with any armchair philosophy (especially done by someone with no philosophical training), the following is probably completely wrong.

I wonder about consciousness a lot. Even without the word, I distinctly remember my younger self stopping to think about how I was alive. "I can make my fingers squeeze together," I would think as I squeezed my fingers together.

I have consciousness that is aware of its own consciousness. I feel like that's a hint at what it is. It's an analysis machine that takes its own processing and output as input. It will also use its input to alter how it analyzes future input, or allow reassessment of past input.

I really should see what people who think about this professionally define consciousness. I wonder what kind of models they make to simulate their hypotheses.