[This section uses dialog directly from Scout to the Pole, chapter 18. Nanook is talking with George. Nanook is italic type. A1, A2 and A3 are levels of consciousness discussed in the Human Species section.

Where is A2 located

“So, let’s start on the new questions. Where in the 3 brains is the A square structure located?

Recursion

“I think the key to answering this is to focus in on the key to what builds awareness as a hierarchy. And that KEY is RECURSION. It’s the awareness of itself, or at least something like itself that is the key.

Thinker 1,2

So, Hulk gets life forms to A1. Hulk is aware and takes action based on a priority system loosely summarized by Maslow. But Hulk depends on totally inherited programming. The next brain to develop after Hulk was Grim.

Grim captured external perceptions, processed them and sent messages to Hulk, who before that, just responded to internal conditions. Grim also allowed creatures to learn from experience. Freud thought that Grim, the super ego, was just an extension of the ego. I don’t think so. I think Grim preceded the ego. But Grim and Hulk were just two brains with a similar goal – controlling the body they were in, and a similar strategy – acting on perceptions to generate actions. Grim added the ability to learn from experience, but still just controlled basic functions.

What DEFINED the arrival of humans, was our Thinker brain. Thinker was able to process the external perceptions captured and pre-processed by Grim, but also TO PROCESS IT’S OWN PROCESSES as well as the resulting body behaviors caused by the other brains. Thinker also had the property of sleep. The key is, Thinker is able to monitor all the brains, including itself. What ever process caused Thinker to evolve, and let me now call that brain Thinker-1, that process may also have created Thinker-2, which is similar to Thinker-1, but able to oversee Thinker-1. Thinker-2, which is aware of Thinker-1 created level A3.

So I believe that A2 and A3 are functions of the Thinker brain. Not that there aren’t interconnections between all three brains. But it is the RECURSION, the ability of Thinker to monitor itself that is the key.”