On Awareness
Recently, I was driving through Palmer Ranch, the neighborhood of Sarasota in which I live. I was thinking about the webcam I had recently purchased for my lectures. I became aware of the smell of smoke. However, since I was focusing on the webcam (and on the road!), I was not immediately aware that I was aware of the smell.
Seconds later, the smoky stench became stronger and I saw a controlled fire being used to clear a forested area – probably for a housing development. Then, I shifted from thinking about my camera to thinking about the smoke and my awareness of it. I became aware of my awareness of the smoke, and I began to ponder this second-order awareness. I realized that my pondering was a third-order of consciousness. I was thinking about the fact that I became aware that I was aware of the smoke.
Presumably, any of you reading this post can engage in such higher-order awareness. There is no sufficient evidence that non-human animals can do this, indicating a significant difference between humans and non-human animals.