The 'Real Problem' of Consciousness Requires New Physics

Abstract

Whether or not there can be a science of consciousness is a matter of great interest, not only in the field itself, but for science as a whole: conscious experience is the only reality-feature with which humankind has direct contact. This article resolves longstanding controversies, dating back to the infamous ‘hard problem’, subsequently reformulated as a more scientifically-tractable ‘real problem’. Despite incremental real-problem tractability, recent in-field advances have strongly questioned whether there can be a scientific, falsifiable, approach to real-problem theories-of-conscious-experience. New and definitive theoretical results reported here show that a recognizably-scientific approach to consciousness depends on the existence of a new-physics, ‘strongly dynamically-unorthodox’ natural order. Crucially, experimental approaches can provide data on whether or not this specific natural order exists in our Universe. [Author's note: this paper is a more accessible, publication-friendly, presentation of the logic in 'True Consciousness Science', https://psyarxiv.com/v9yrp/. The present paper expands on the problems for any science lacking a conscious-experiential sub-field, and contradictions in the present conduct of science-as-a-whole, whereas 'True ..' contains more technical detail concerning the formulation of the pivotal 'meter-Hamiltonian argument', and its relationship to the scientific sub-field studying conscious experience.]