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Sharlin | 11 hours ago

Everybody is utterly confused by the hard problem of consciousness. That's just how it is.

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A_D_E_P_T|11 hours ago

"Hard problem" makes it out to be much more difficult than it actually is. To simplify things a little bit, if you combine a spatiotemporal sense (a sense of bounded being in space and time) with a general predictive ability (the ability to freely extrapolate in time and space from one's surroundings,) "consciousness" arises necessarily. It's what having such senses feels like from the inside; the first-person view. It's a matter of degree, of course.

The writing of Chalmers and its consequences have been a catastrophe for philosophy.

uh_uh|11 hours ago

> It's what having such senses feels like from the inside; the first-person view.

The hard problem is that there is such a feeling at all.

uh_uh|11 hours ago

I'd say we are confused about both the lowest (quantum) and highest level (consciousness) phenomena of the known Universe. Quite humbling.

Nevermark|10 hours ago

We have a theory whose plain reading matches experiment at all scales.

Consciousness is something else. It is tempting for humans to pair mysteries up, pyramids and aliens, or whatever. But there isn't any factual basis for linking the experience of self-awareness with quantum mechanics.

Is there a factual reason we know digital minds couldn't be conscious? Where quantum effects have been isolated from the operations of mental activity. That seems like a premature constraint to assume.