Our current neuroanatomy and chemical composition has an effect on how we perceive the world. Someone on a psychedelic drug would see the world much differently. Let’s say some being was dropped into the world. This beings’ natural composition was similar to the user of psychedelic drugs. He’s not using drugs; this is just how he is. This being might see things we say are not there or crazy color shows, for example.
Let’s drop a few more of these beings into the world with relatively the same brain structure but slight variations and such just so he can have friends and a partner in love.
Overtime, the brain structure and chemical composition would evolve, slightly changing due to natural selection but the variations would accumulate over the many years. The most fit of these beings would survive.
Since we notice that chemicals can alter the very consciousness we have, like seeing things that are not there or wild color shows to the average everday person, we may imagine that the conscious experience of these evolving beings must have also changed over time because of the changes in their brains.
Do you get what I’m saying? Do you see how this can have profound differences on how we view the world and on the very world we are studying? If our consciousness were different, we might see other things or crazy color shows. They would be our average everday experience. We would study what we see and gain information about these phenomena. We would think someone insane if he told us they were not there.
Has anyone written on the average everday consciousness of human beings and the possible role natural selection could have had in forming it?