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And Tom may have had it off. I'll probably be talking to him at some point over the weekend. All right, this next one here. For the evolutionary functions of consciousness, and as I said, why do only some creatures develop minds that allow them to know that they exist? And science is now beginning to understand that all across the animal kingdom there are signs that it is not just humanity that has consciousness, but other animals. Other animals also have the ability to interpret possibly even reflect. Consciousness is no longer seen as the private club of humans. It may not be the pinnacle of human development, but rather an adaptation which amounts to the applicable tool that other species have been refining for millions of years. Researchers have created a framework, it's called alarm theory, of consciousness, where it separates awareness into three levels, basic arousal, general alertness, and reflexive self-consciousness. And each has a very distinct role in survival. Basic arousal is a system that alarms the organism of life-threatening situations. It probably developed in the brain's older regions, like the thalamus and the brain stem. And it's a kind of alarm bell. General alertness came next. This is the ability to focus on one signal and a sea of sensory noise, which is dropping. This is repeater station kilo kilo seven, November 4th. It's like a system that's finally tuned for, let's say, a frequency here. You're obliterating all other frequencies except for a specific one. This is what that means. So this enables the ability of an organism to make correlations where there is, such as where there's smoke, there is likely fire. The final process is reflexive self-consciousness, where the mind has the ability to relax. Humans, dolphins, chimps, and some birds can recognize themselves in mirrors. This type of awareness makes it possible for humans to better integrate into societies and coordinate with others. The research starts from the assumption that consciousness is not the ultimate kind for humans, but a representation of more basic cognitive processes like we shared with other animals. From start to finish, the studies show that consciousness is not a single step by a composite of a function. It has probably started as a warning system and evolved to more complex awareness we experience today. Just dropping.