Editing Global workspace theory (section)

== Theater metaphor ==

GWT uses the [[metaphor]] of a [[theater (structure)|theater]], with conscious thought being like material illuminated on the main stage. Attention acts as a [[spotlight (theatre lighting)|spotlight]], bringing some of this unconscious activity into conscious awareness on the global workspace. Baars wrote in his 1997 article "In the Theatre of Consciousness" in the ''[[Journal of Consciousness Studies]]'' that the concept describes:{{sfn|Baars|1997|p=301}}

{{blockquote|[A] stage, an attentional spotlight shining on the stage, actors to represent the contents of conscious experience, an audience, and a few invisible people behind the scenes, who exercise great influence on whatever becomes visible on stage.

The stage receives sensory and abstract information, but only events in the spotlight shining on the stage are completely conscious.
}}

A review of Baars' 1997 book ''In the Theater of Consciousness: The Workspace of the Mind'' further described:{{sfn|Beer|1998|p=106}}

{{blockquote|Thus peripheral and central sensory stimuli, imagination, and intuition compete for the center of attention, from where they address the unconscious processes of memory, interpretation, automatic routines, and motivation which, in turn, affect the control and context operators running the show from behind the scenes.}}

In a discussion with [[Susan Blackmore]] in her book ''Conversations on Consciousness'', Baars said:{{sfn|Blackmore|2005|pp=14–15}}

{{blockquote|From my point of view, the metaphor that is useful for understanding consciousness is the theatre metaphor, which also happens to be quite ancient, going back at least to Plato in the West, and to the Vedanta scriptures in the East. The theatre metaphor, in a simple way, says that what’s conscious is like the bright spot cast by a spotlight on to the stage of a theatre. What’s unconscious is everything else: all the people sitting in the audience are unconscious components of the brain which get information from consciousness; and there are people sitting behind the scenes, the director and the playwright and so on, who are shaping the contents of consciousness, telling the actor in the light spot what to say. It’s a very simple metaphor, but it turns out to be quite useful.
}}

Baars distinguishes this from [[Cartesian theater]]: "You don't have a little self sitting in the theatre".{{sfn|Blackmore|2005|p=16}}