The Even Harder Problem of Consciousness
NeuroQuantology September 12, 2007 DOI: 10.14704/nq.2007.5.2.129 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that the existence of conscious organisms raises a fundamental problem—why one particular organism is you—that is more basic than the Hard Problem of Consciousness and challenges both materialist and dualist views. |
Abstract
The problem of subjective experience remains a major topic of debate amongst researchers in both the philosophy of mind and the foundations of artificial intelligence. David Chalmers has referred to this as The Hard Problem of Consciousness, since subjective experience appears to resist most attempts at a functional description. Theories involving 60Hz oscillations in the cerebral cortex, Bose condensates, and quantum collapse in microtubules have all been proffered as offering potential solutions to The Hard Problem, while some other researchers seem eager to retain an essentially dualistic world-view. This paper proposes an even more fundamental problem, potentially disturbing to both sides of the materialist / dualist divide: given that conscious organisms exist in the world, how can it be that one of those organisms happens to be you?