theadvancedapes - do you know the best book on the topic? I like Steven Pinker's writing. Have you read this one?How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker (an evolutionary-biological perspective on how the mind arose)
I need to know about the evolution of consciousness. I wonder about it all the time. Can you give a summary?
Our brain is essentially a computer, and the mind is the program that the brain runs. Our brain evolved, much like our bodies have, to handle problems that our hunter gatherer ancestors encountered. Pinker outlines a "modularity of mind", the notion that a mind may, at least in part, be composed of innate neural structures or modules which have distinct established evolutionarily developed functions. Pinker also identifies some human psychological traits that are evolved adaptations – that is, the functional products of natural selection. I've been told that there better books, and it seems theadvancedapes lists a few. Maybe start there, I never finished HTMW, I sort of got the point after a few chapters, if that makes any sense.
A great popular works is by Consciousness Explained by Daniel Dennett And one of the most technical and academic of works I've read is by a University of Toronto professor with training in biology and philosophy, Evan Thompson: Mind in Life Thompson's work has greatly influenced me. In fact, many of my conceptions and theories that I am building within the framework of my Ph.D. application to the Global Brain Institute comes from Thompson's assertion that mind and life are intimately (fundamentally) connected. I agree.