Consciousness allows managing the causality of things 

A conscious approach is needed to access the causality of adaptive environments.   Adaptive environments are complex because of the bi-univocity of the functionality of the objects that are part of a system or environment. Consciousness is the capacity of individuals to deal with reality using rational decision processes. The more complex the reality, the more need for a conscious approach.

The purpose of consciousness, at an operational level, is to ensure that the difference between what an individual thinks or says about reality and the real facts is minimal.

Human beings emulate the external reality in their minds to manage it when it has been considered a complex adaptive system. There is no need to emulate it when instinctive and intuitive behavior suffices to act. The risk of building a parallel reality when emulating an adaptive system is high.

Consciousness is the general system an individual has to emulate the actual reality without introducing elements that do not exist.

The purpose of consciousness

The purpose of consciousness is to discriminate reality to be able to differentiate the outside an individual needs to deal with, from the inside the individual uses to emulate the external environment.

And this has to happen with the necessary timing to be able to do something within the environment. The achievement of the necessary discrimination power is the goal of consciousness.

The maximal strategy is based on having the necessary timing to deal with reality and the minimum strategy, which ensures the goal, is the capacity of the individual to differentiate the outside from the inside to avoid the “inner mirror” distorting the external stimuli when emulating the outside to decide to act.

Discovering the differentiated outside as a purpose

The purpose of the discrimination power is given by the building of a functional complementation in mind which will take place later on in the actual environment. This complementation building is the driver for the development of the discrimination power.

This purpose is put into action by the perception of the outside which needs to be fallacy-free in order to be functional and based on the true influence an individual has on the external environment.

The discrimination begins when these aspects are given. The need to build a complementation is the first aspect that has to exist. That is why discrimination is fully related to complementation conflicts which are the central aspects of evolution.

Therefore, it can be said that discrimination is driven by a complementation conflict that needs to be solved before a discrimination process begins. When the complementation conflict is not faced the discrimination is transformed into the definition of a parallel reality where the individual doesn’t need to enter a conflict.

Complementation requires expansive ethical intelligence

Internal and external complementation is necessary to be able to access a conscious approach to reality. Complementation requires having the energy focus on a solution which, by definition, includes the need to build a better complementation.

Expansive ethical intelligence is defined by value-adding ethics, foundation ethics, and conceptual ethics. The minimal level that is necessary to build complementation is value-adding ethics because it allows the individual to focus on a solution for others which is a basic condition for finding the complementation.

Contractive ethical intelligence such as value-earning ethics, survivors’ ethics, and stagnant survivors’ ethics necessarily drive towards a supplementary -competitive- approach to reality which naturally reverts the energy towards the individual to ensure her/his supremacy.

Conclusion

A conscious approach is necessary to address the causality in a field. This approach requires using unicist reflection to address the causality through the feedback of actions until functionality and causality are integrated. Therefore, causal thinking requires having the necessary discrimination power to apprehend the causality of things. 

Alternative Approaches

Mental Simulation and Contrafactual Reasoning 

Mental Simulation and Counterfactual Reasoning involve imagining scenarios or alternate outcomes to explore causality and decision-making processes. Mental simulation predicts potential events by emulating actions and consequences, while counterfactual reasoning examines “what if” scenarios to understand cause-effect relationships. These processes enhance creativity and foresight but risk bias, as they rely on subjective interpretations and may lack alignment with complex adaptive realities.

Mechanistic Approaches

Mechanistic Approaches analyze causality by breaking systems into components and studying their physical processes and interactions. They focus on linear, deterministic cause-effect relationships, providing clear explanations for static or well-defined systems. While effective for simple or technical problems, they struggle to address dynamic, adaptive systems or account for non-linear interdependencies and emergent behaviors, limiting their applicability in complex environments.

Emulation Theory in Cognition

Emulation Theory in Cognition suggests that the brain creates internal models to predict and interpret external events. These models simulate environmental dynamics and outcomes, enabling individuals to anticipate actions and their effects. The approach excels in pattern recognition and decision-making under uncertainty but focuses primarily on prediction rather than functional causality. It lacks tools for addressing complex adaptive systems or incorporating ethical and contextual considerations.

Comparison of Conscious Thinking and Alternative Approaches

Synthesis

The four approaches to managing the causality of systems differ in focus and applicability. Mental Simulation and Counterfactual Reasoning explore hypothetical scenarios, enhancing creativity and foresight but risking biases and lacking alignment with complex realities. Mechanistic Approaches analyze causality through linear, deterministic processes, excelling in static systems but failing to address adaptive or dynamic environments. Emulation Theory in Cognition uses internal models to predict and interpret events, effective for pattern recognition but limited in managing functional causality or ethical considerations. In contrast, the Unicist Conscious Thinking Approach integrates ontological, rational, and emotional intelligence to emulate reality accurately. It emphasizes functional complementation and discrimination between external and internal realities, validated through iterative feedback, making it suited for managing causality in adaptive systems.