and how smart really are nonconscious processes?d if they are really smart, what does that say for consciousness this is it just an empty phenomenon that is a nice glow that we like or is it functional? so he developed a framework and the framework tried to pull together certain ideas through psychology in such a way that ultimately they would sit with neuroscience and we can see that now happening. the ideas were first of all that consciousness has a limited capacity. i can't pay attention to two conversations at once. it is also extremely important when we need to deal with a novel and complex problem. i walk into the kitchen, the electric stove is on fire, i need to be conscious in order to pull out of my knowledge the system that i better find the banking soda and dump it on. he also knew that whatever else is true about consciousness, that what we are aware of is the product of very complex integration, so when i look at your face, i don't consciously see eyes and an eyebrow and ears and mouth and say, ah, yes, that has to be,