Why Scientists Are Still Puzzled by Consciousness
From The Observatory
Consciousness is the awareness of oneself and the world, including thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and experiences. It can be continuous or interrupted, such as during sleep, coma, or altered mental states. Defining consciousness is difficult because it means different things to different people. Some researchers focus on subjective experience, while others focus on behaviors or cognitive functions. Historically, studying consciousness was avoided due to the lack of non-invasive tools, but advances like brain imaging have allowed scientists to explore it more deeply.
Humans and many animals display consciousness in varying ways. Philosophers like Thomas Nagel have asked what it is like to experience the world from another creature’s perspective, such as a bat’s. Consciousness may require self-awareness, memory, attention, and the ability to interpret sensory information. Scientists propose multiple levels, from basic reactive awareness to complex self-directed or inter-individual understanding. Theories like global workspace, higher-order, integrated information, attention schema, and recurrent processing attempt to explain how the brain produces conscious experience, though the “hard problem” of why subjective experience arises remains unresolved.
Some research suggests consciousness is not limited to the brain alone. The 4E approach views cognition as embodied, embedded, extended, and enactive, meaning awareness may involve the whole organism and its environment. Emotions and feelings also play a role in consciousness, helping create “core consciousness.” Animals from bees to octopuses, fish, and birds demonstrate behaviors suggesting inner experiences or planning, supporting the idea that consciousness exists in degrees across species. Plants show evidence of memory, decision-making, and response to stimuli, although whether this counts as consciousness is debated.
Artificial intelligence raises further questions. Systems like ChatGPT can simulate intelligent behavior but currently lack subjective experience, though in principle, complex processing could one day produce forms of artificial consciousness. Overall, consciousness remains a profound scientific and philosophical mystery, involving brains, bodies, environments, other creatures, and possibly machines.
🔭 This summary was human-edited with AI-assist.
