I feel like the most important step within human evolution in regards to intelligence was/is the ability to separate or compartmentalize raw basic instinct from mental analysis. <br>The minute we were able to do that and then extrapolate further and further our analysis into more abstract concepts and ideas we began to harness and re-direct our internal Life force more towards our higher level cognitive ability. And so in this sense we can almost define consciousness as this specific human ability to mentally separate our selves from our environment in a consistent/logical organizational fashion, along with our senses and impulses, while simultaneously registering all the input and output data. We have the ability to recognize the ever changing present moment while also having enough mental space to house static reflection.