Self Comes to Mind

you to Carnegie Hall.
    Last, the conscious-unconscious cooperative interplay also applies in full to moral behaviors. Moral behaviors are a skill set, acquired over repeated practice sessions and over a long time, informed by consciously articulated principles and reasons but otherwise “second-natured” into the cognitive unconscious.
    In conclusion, what is meant by conscious deliberation has little to do with the ability to control actions in the moment and everything to do with the ability to plan ahead and decide which actions we want or do not want to carry out. Conscious deliberation is largely about decisions taken over extended periods of time, as much as days or weeks in the case of some decisions, and rarely less than minutes or seconds. It is not about split-second decisions. Common knowledge regards lightning-speed choices as “thoughtless” and “automatic.” 3 Conscious deliberation is about reflection over knowledge . We apply reflection and knowledge when we decide on important matters in our lives. We use conscious deliberation to govern our loves and friendships, our education, our professional activities, our relations to others. Decisions pertaining to moral behavior, narrowly or broadly defined, involve conscious deliberation and take place over extended time periods. Not only that, such decisions are processed in an offline mental space that overwhelms external perception. The subject at the center of conscious deliberations, the self in charge of the prospection of the future, is often distracted from external perception, inattentive to its vagaries. And there is a very good reason for this distraction in terms of brain physiology: the image-processing brain space, as we have seen, is the sum total of early sensory cortices; this same space needs to be shared by conscious reflection processes and direct perception; it is hardly up to the task of handling both without favoring one or the other.
    Conscious deliberation, under the guidance of a robust self built on an organized autobiography and a defined identity, is a major consequence of consciousness, precisely the kind of achievement that gives the lie to the notion that consciousness is a useless epiphenomenon, a decoration without which brains would run the life-management business just as effectively and without the hassle. We cannot run our kind of life, in the physical and social environments that have become the human habitat, without reflective, conscious deliberation. But it is also the case that the products of conscious deliberation are significantly limited by a large array of nonconscious biases, some biologically set, some culturally acquired, and that the nonconscious control of action is also an issue to contend with.
    Still, most important decisions are taken long before the time of execution, within the conscious mind, when they can be simulated and tested and where conscious control can potentially minimize the effect of nonconscious biases. Eventually the exercise of decisions can be honed into a skill with the help of nonconscious mind processing, the submerged operations of our mind in matters of general knowledge and reasoning often referred to as the cognitive unconscious. Conscious decisions begin with reflection, simulation, and testing in the conscious mind; that process can be completed and rehearsed in the nonconscious mind, from which freshly selected actions can be executed. The conscious as well as the nonconscious components of this complex and fragile decision and execution device can be derailed by the machinery of appetites and desires, in which case a last recourse veto is not likely to be effective. Split-second vetoes remind us of a well-known recommendation on the matter of drug addiction: “Just say no.” This strategy may be adequate when one has to preempt an innocuous finger movement, but not when one needs to stop an action urged by a strong desire or appetite, precisely the kind posed by any addiction to drugs, alcohol, attractive foods, or sex. Successful nay-saying requires a lengthy conscious preparation.
An Aside on the Unconscious
     
    Thanks to the fact that our brains have successfully combined the new governance made possible by consciousness with the old governance that consisted of unconscious, automatic regulation, nonconscious brain processes are up to the tasks they are supposed to perform on behalf of conscious decisions. Some suitable evidence can be gleaned from a