Another major, if indeed any relative importance can be ascribed to these functions, emergence from the fully functioning instance of Dasein is the property commonly called "attention control"; the ability for Dasein to direct its own thoughts, and on some level be aware of this direction. The awareness associated with this is obviously a result of the mechanisms covered in the previous couple of pages, providing something of the "attention" part of this phenomenon, but the main progenitor of attention control is the system of Action Selection covered earlier. Underlying this description of attention control are a few basic assumptions:
To describe attention control as a process, we shall look at each point in more detail. One Already we looked at how a Potentiality-for-Being may be subject to Selection before being passed on to the primary motor cortex and thusly translated into skeletal muscle contraction to execute movement; what we termed Action. In this respect, Action was conceived of as the primary, evolutionary, function – purpose – of Dasein. All nervous systems throughout their evolution, from the most rudimentary to the most advanced, were only measured by selective pressures in their ability to produce appropriate Action. Now, with Dasein a new situation has arisen where, because it has expanded upon the derivative Anticipation Interpretations, and so been able to construct a Subject and Object Entity of the Self, a new class of Potentiality-for-Being is made ready for Selection. In simpler terms, the same pathways that are used for the planning and derivative Anticipation of Actions of the Self pertain to other forms of derivative Anticipation pertaining to the Subject/Object of thought. There is no fundamental distinction between a Potentiality-for-Being of the Self-for-Action or a Potentiality-for-Being of a Thing-of-the-World (etc.) - up to a point the difference lies within the Potentiality itself, not the manner in which it is processed. Which leads to the second point... Two Once a Potentiality is subject to Selection, it is Interpreted with respect to the criteria of "good" and "bad", yet also, within the Potentiality, through the derivative Anticipations, is held a notion of possibility - the Quality of Potentiality that is used in Regulation. The possibility of one scratching one's head is, in a common situation, as fraction, 1. This is learnt, and acquires such possibility through declarative memory of having been able to perform the Action in question before. The possibility of performing a cartwheel... perhaps not so high. One knows, through declarative memory of the World and the They that such an Action is possible in general, but for many it would not have been attempted for a long time, so the memory of the Self Action being absent, the possibility is lowered. The same simple functioning holds true for Potentialities-for-Being that do not pertain to immediate Self Action; thoughts. As an Object Potentiality is perceived as a Potentiality, it becomes, like the Potentiality-for-Action, a thing to be decided upon, a thing to be Selected for Action or not. Only in what happens following Selection is the Potentiality-for-Being distinguished from the Potentiality-for-Action... Three Four Summary
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