Eli5: How is it that sometimes you can have a conversation with yourself and have yourself make sense of something you didn’t previously understand?

Question

Eli5: How is it that sometimes you can have a conversation with yourself and have yourself make sense of something you didn’t previously understand?

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

Not an expert, but here goes: The “self”, as an analogy, is both the reader of the book, and the book itself.

That is called “self-awareness” (the ability to read the book, while also being the book).

Humans have self-awareness, while not many other animal species on the planet do (and there is a test for it, which dolphins pass, and gorillas pass, and few others I am forgetting about).

So, why do you have “self-awareness”? Its like due to your prefrontal cortex.