Consciousness as a brain function

[Alan V]

* A huge amount of unconscious processing of information occurs in our brains without becoming conscious.
* Information can register and stay in an unconscious buffer temporarily, but can be erased by distractions.

Both true and not true. Much problem-solving happens while consciousness is focused on something entirely different. Unconscious processing occurs, and once the conscious mind turns back to the issue, the answer is sitting inside your stack-pointer.

Erased? I'm not sure. I've had a few songs where I wrote two parts, knew it needed another, couldn't come up with a third part, and then one day several years later the solution popped up. Perhaps I was more open-minded that day? Perhaps I imported another little sniglet? Or perhaps, as in a couple of cases, my brain said "fuck it, go for broke" and I surprised myself.

I think human neural processing is largely unconscious, until our forebrains, you know, get around to sweeping up the shop and emptying the dustbins. Suddenly there's this understanding that pops to light, but we just haven't bothered to get back to it until now.

I think a large part of the reason why the unconscious processing of certain information continues for so long, and can come up with answers that suddenly pop into our brains, is that consciousness remains preoccupied with that information over time.