Causal Effects of Consciousness

While it may be undeniable that consciousness causes things, it's difficult to be precise about it. Intuitively, we think that consciousness is the seat of decision-making. It's the headquarters where all the important information is sent, where the next action appropriate to the needs are decided, and then the message is sent away to be executed.

This is an incorrect intuition propped up by two illusions: that of the self and that of free will, both two sides of the same coin.Thoughts, intentions, and decisions aren't created in consciousness; they arrive fully formed. Consciousness is much more of a recipient than an author.

Yet the contents of consciousness does seem to inform actions. If we feel pain, we attempt to extinguish it. When we're hungry, we're compelled to eat. The valence of our qualia looks to be a significant contributor to what we do next. Almost as if the role of consciousness is, in some way, to signal what to do next. But, we may ask, couldn't that have gone on in the dark? Why couldn't simulated pain have pushed and pulled on us, the way real pain does?

Maybe the answer is that it really could have, but it just didn't.