Status:: #🌱 Tags:: Links:: [[When to use system 1 versus system 2 thinking]] ___ # Global workspace theory of consciousness The Global Workspace Theory (GWT) of consciousness proposed by Bernard Baars sees the function of consciousness as similar to a computer desktop. On a computer desktop you grab files from storage, interact them together and with what you had open already, and put them back probably in an altered state. Similarly consciousness takes memories and mixes them with what you are attending to in the moment, to come up with an action. In other words, consciousness is an adaptive mechanism evolved to help us respond optimally to novel and uncertain tasks in our environment.