Albert AlcaineWhat are you doing reading these words, why now, why can you do it and be aware of it at the same time? Humans have consciousness and all other things, made up of the same elements, don’t they?
Philosophers, religious leaders and scientists throughout history have tried, unsuccessfully, to answer the big questions. It all revolves around the fundamental question: how do we define consciousness?
Today, the study of consciousness is very much alive: scientists continue to develop theories and models not only to explore the enigma, but also to apply it empirically and, in turn, to measure it .
We can understand what it is to be conscious because we experience it, but how can we explain it to someone or something without consciousness?
Stop for a moment: you can describe what a computer screen looks like and what it shows, that you are breathing, or that you might have an object of a particular colour to the right of the monitor, but…. How could you explain the noise of a keyboard to someone who has never heard it, how could you explain the experience of seeing to someone who has always been blind? These are subjective qualities of how we experience, and it is complex to send them to someone who does not share them.
There are two types of consciousness: phenomenological and functional.
Phenomenological consciousness refers to “what we feel” when we experience something, it is the one that takes us into the world of subjective experiences with questions like “how do you perceive the colour red?”, or explain thoughts like those in the essay What is it like to be a bat? by Thomas Nagel on the book of the same title .
Functional consciousness, on the other hand, focuses on its role within the cognitive processes and behaviours of an organism, i.e. how subjective experiences influence our thinking, decision-making and the actions we take on a day-to-day basis.
Some say that the two types of consciousness are linked and cannot be separated, while others believe they can exist independently.
An example that illustrates this discussion is the philosophical zombie thought experiment : imagine a human who looks, acts and speaks like a conscious being, but lacks any form of consciousness. This being has no subjective experiences and, despite its outward appearance, lacks an “inner world”. While this may seem an unlikely case to some, it serves to demonstrate that, at least in the imagination, the functional and phenomenological properties of consciousness can be separated.
To go a little deeper: a group of hungry zombies in a state of semi-decay walks around aimlessly. Their actions are driven by unknown impulses: they lack intellect or rational motivations, right? Are they perhaps symptomatic of the fears that terrorise our society?
One of the best known studies on the study of consciousness is known as The Easy Problem and the Hard Problem : the former involves understanding the functional aspects of the brain that make consciousness possible, while the hard problem involves elucidating why and how we have subjective, qualitative experiences. The latter remains one of the most persistent mysteries that resist resolution.
Some say it is a puzzle that cannot be solved, i.e. we can never really understand why we have subjective experiences. Others go further, proposing that the hard problem, or even consciousness itself, is nothing more than an illusion .
No one will deny that understanding consciousness and its complexities can make the experience of consciousness fascinating. Why are we alive? Why does something exist rather than nothing? Why does the universe exist? These questions, perhaps unanswered, are essential to our existence and reflect a deep desire to understand our place in the cosmos.
Let’s focus on the latter assumption: what if it is an unanswerable question? In his Critique of Pure Reason Kant had already thought about it, and said that human reason is destined to face such questions that it cannot ignore, but that are beyond its capacity to answer.
Today, in the age of artificial intelligence, more and more secrets are revealed, and those that remain unsolved add a special charm to our experience and drive our curiosity.
📎 Alcaine, A. [Albert]. (2024, 08 September). Questions, perhaps, unanswered. PsicoPop. https://www.psicopop.top/en/questions-perhaps-unanswered/
In collaboration with the Erickson Institute.
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