Ben Zvi Uzi
Independent Researcher, Nataf, Israel.
Front Psychol. 2025 Apr 17;16:1514077. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1514077. eCollection 2025.
Human consciousness is often viewed as one of the pinnacles of evolution, with most theories positioning it as an upgrade of pre-existing cognitive skills. However, conscious perception, memory, action, and in some situations even decision-making, are often inferior-less complex, slower, and less accurate-than their nonconscious (subliminal) counterparts. The interface hypothesis challenges this perspective, proposing that human-type consciousness is not an advanced version of earlier cognitive capacities but a novel function that entered the arena of cognitive and operational processes and fundamentally changed its rules. According to this hypothesis, the neocortex emerged as part of an advanced innovation mechanism, where its unpredictable, chaotic activity is used to generate alternative patterns. The process of cropping these alternatives from the chaotic neocortex and mediating them to the constrained, goal-oriented, linear control system requires a serially functioning interface. Consciousness, it is suggested, arose as a byproduct or a side effect of this interface, eventually expanding its influence to a wide range of cognitive and operational functions. This perspective has significant implications for our understanding of human cognition, creativity, and the distinctive capacities of human consciousness, potentially bridging the gap between neuroscientific findings and phenomenological experiences of consciousness.
人类意识通常被视为进化的巅峰之一，大多数理论将其定位为对先前存在的认知技能的升级。然而，有意识的感知、记忆、行动，甚至在某些情况下的决策，往往比无意识（阈下）的对应部分更差——更不复杂、更慢且更不准确。界面假说对这一观点提出了挑战，认为人类类型的意识并非早期认知能力的高级版本，而是一种进入认知和操作过程领域并从根本上改变其规则的新功能。根据这一假说，新皮层作为一种先进创新机制的一部分出现，其不可预测的混沌活动被用于生成替代模式。从混沌的新皮层中筛选出这些替代方案并将其传递给受约束的、目标导向的线性控制系统的过程需要一个串行运作的界面。有人认为，意识作为这个界面的副产品或副作用而出现，最终将其影响扩展到广泛的认知和操作功能。这一观点对我们理解人类认知、创造力以及人类意识的独特能力具有重要意义，有可能弥合神经科学发现与意识的现象学体验之间的差距。
