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Yosarian2 comments on Dissolving the Question - Less Wrong
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Here's my attempt (I haven't read the comments above in detail, as I don't want the answer spoiled in case I'm wrong).
For whatever reason, it is apparent that the conscious part of our brain is not fully aware of everything that our brain does. Now let's imagine our brain executing some algorithm, and see what it looks like from the perspective of our consciousness. At any given stage in the algorithm, we might have multiple possible branches, and need to continue to execute the algorithm along one of those possible branches. To determine which branch to follow, we need to do some computation. But that computation isn't done on a conscious level (or rather, sometimes it is, but the fastest computations are done on a subconscious level). However, the computation is done in parallel, so our consciousness "sees" all of the possible next steps, and then feels as if it is choosing one of them. In reality, that "choice" occurs when all of the subconscious processes terminate and we pick the choice with the highest score.
I have a similar, but slightly different theory, based on what I've read on neuroscience.
Let's say you are sitting on a couch, in front of a plate of potato chips.
Several processes in your brain that your conscious mind are not aware of activate, and decide that you want to reach out and eat a potato chip. This happens in an evolutionary very ancient part of your brain
At this point, after your subconscious mind has created this desire but before you actually do it, your conscious mind becomes aware of it. At this point, your conscious mind has some degree of veto power over the decision. (What we usually perceive as "self control"). You may think it's unhealthy to eat a potato chip right now, and "decide" not to (that is, your conscious mind algorithm overrides your instinctive algorithm.) This "self control" is not total, however; if you are hungry enough, you may not be able to "resist". Also, if your conscious mind is distracted (say, your are playing a very involving video game), you may eat the chips without really noticing what you are doing.
So, from the point of view of your conscious mind; an idea came from somewhere else to eat chips, then your conscious mind "chose" if you should do it or not.