Thread: Would our world be different if the majority of people were self aware?

What's your evidence that people live their lives on "auto-pilot" with no awareness of the effects of their actions? I see no reason to assume this.

I do not have the hard evidence that you want. I made that deduction based off on lucid dreaming. Not many people remember or even have lucid dreams. Most people on here believe that awareness is the key to lucid dreaming. That is why we have techniques such as ADA to help cultivate awareness. Others on here focus more on self awareness such as sageous and his reverse reality check. My point is that the general consensus on here is that awareness is an integral part of lucid dreams. If the majority of people in our world barely even remember their dreams or even have lucid dreams then it is not far-fetched to conclude that the majority of people in our world don't really have a high degree of awareness let alone self awareness. If people were naturally self aware by default then wouldn't lucid dreaming be a much more common occurrence than it is right now?

And once again let me restate my original question. If the majority of people in the world had a strong sense of self awareness would history play out differently or would things be mostly the same?

Since you asked for evidence to show people live on auto-pilot then am I right in assuming you think most people are self aware?

If that is the case then can you explain why you think most people are self aware. By self aware I refer to the definition I have given in the op.

I've never had a lucid dream, but I'm very conscious of how my actions affect others and how others' actions affect me. I don't see how dream awareness translates into day-to-day action awareness at all.

Yes, you are correct in assuming that I think most people are self-aware (using your definition of self-awareness). It seems fairly evident; people face the consequences of their or others' actions every day, so it would be very surprising if you went up to somebody and said something like "punching somebody in the arm causes them physical harm," and they reacted with complete surprise. We are empathetic animals.

I think your phrasing is slightly off. I wouldn't ask what would life be if people were self aware, but rather, what would life be if people were more self aware. I would say most people are self aware to some degree or another, but I don't think people stop and think about the world around them as much as they should. Everyone could probably use half an hour, or an hour every day to just think about their life, yet I think people are often very busy and don't make enough time to do things like that.

If you walked up to random people and asked them, what do you want out of life, what are your goals for the future, what would you like to do over the next month or year and things like that, there is definitely going to people who are not really sure, because they had not thought about where they are in life or where they are going, or if where they want to be going. In that way, I think people do probably go through life on autopilot.

I think if people were a lot more aware of that sort of thing, there wouldn't be so many people who think life's value comes from going to work every day, getting a pay check. Perhaps job wouldn't be such a large part of our life, and we would have an economic system that values human life more and puts less importance on trying to get lots of money for the sake of having lots of money.

Originally Posted by Daredevilpwn

Most of us agree that the majority of people in our world go through life on auto-pilot instead of being self aware. By self awareness I mean being aware of our actions and how they can effect others and being aware of how other people effect you. If the majority of people in the world had a strong sense of self awareness would history play out differently or would things be mostly the same? If you are of the opinion that things would be different then please explain how it would be different.

Yes, Daredevilpwn, the world would be very different if the majority of people had even a moment of self-awareness in their lives; especially if that moment were simultaneous. If they all had a moment of epiphany, where they all recognized and understood their presence in reality, and the impact even the slightest of their actions have upon it, everyone would suddenly interact in a very different manner, I think.

"On autopilot" is an unfair term, I think, regarding how all of us go through our days, and how some of us go through our entire lives. It sounds so much like we're abandoning something, shirking some responsibility, rather than simply living our lives as our nature has established we should. Though self-awareness, and compassion, are the things that define us as human, they are also the things that sit just beyond the reach and requirements of our day-to-day lives. True self-awareness is an aberration in this natural world of survival and procreation through which we navigate, so cultivating it even for occasional harvesting is a rarity indeed. If it were common -- if we could consistently understand and care about, innately, how we effect other people's lives, and how they affect ours, society and our world would indeed be a very different place.

And Blueline? You might wish to take a moment and realize that your powerful sense of self is a rarity indeed. Treasure that, but don't assume we're all lke that. Autopilot is the norm -- spotting that autopilot and doing something about it is a minor miracle... it is also the ultimate goal of sentience, I think -- the place we are all ultimately supposed to be. And no, lucidity in dreams is a product of self-awareness and not the other way around; you can spend a lifetime in profound self-awareness without ever once knowing you are dreaming.

tl;dr: Yes!