> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://kdoore.gitbook.io/vital-intelligence/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://kdoore.gitbook.io/vital-intelligence/foundations/consiousness-theories.md).

# Consiousness Theories

Definition

> ’Consciousness’ is a term often used as a synonym for self-awareness, or for social\
> coordination of internal states, but I’m using it in a limited, technical sense: a system has consciousness\
> if it feels like something to be that system. I.e., something is conscious if and only if it has subjective\
> experience. ’Qualia’ refers to the elements of consciousness, e.g., redness.

#### The Function of Dreaming: The Overfitted Brain Hypothesis

By creating a weirded version of the world, dreams may make our understanding of it less simplistic and more well-rounded. “It is the very strangeness of dreams in their divergence from waking experience that gives them their biological function,” Hoel said. <https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/may/14/weird-dreams-train-us-for-the-unexpected-says-new-theory>

#### References

\[1] M. E. Johnson, “Blueprint for a new science”.