WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?

The “New Scientist” in November 2004 summarized 10 questions presented by experts as the biggest unanswered questions facing science.  One of these was, “What is Consciousness?”

WHY DOES IT MATTER?

Understanding “consciousness” and “the mind” is not simply a problem for science, and philosophy.  It is important to every person on the planet to understand just what their mental existence is all about, because this influences decisions about purpose in life, morality, ethics and religion.

WHY IS IT COMPLICATED?

In the past, many philosophers and scientists have pointed to the notion of privacy.  They argued that mental experience cannot be studied scientifically.  This notion states – “Only I can have my unique experiences, they are entirely subjective, and they are not available for science to study”.  Our experiences are indeed private, but they can still be studied by science – PROVIDED we make it clear what we are talking about.

USING COMPLEX WORDS.

Many of the words used when we talk about our minds (e.g. the word “mind” itself) are complex words which do more than talk about mental events at a particular moment of time.  They may refer to events over time, memories and learning attached to these events, and future actions likely to flow from these events.

So often, people arguing about “conscious” and “mind” have been talking about very different usages of these words.  Also, there is the problem of reification – thinking that for each word there exists a separate thing which that word describes.

WHAT CONSCIOUS EVENTS ACTUALLY OCCUR?

This work identifies the momentary experiences occurring at any point of time, and uses these as building blocks for the scientific study of conscious experience.  These conscious events are the fabric of consciousness.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO DESCRIBE THE "BUILDING BLOCKS" OF CONSCIOUS EXPERIENCE?

This approach can be compared to the advancement of scientific knowledge in chemistry.  There was no real progress in this science (notions of elements of earth, fire, air and water) until the seventeenth century, when Boyle proposed the combination of small particles to form molecules.  As appropriate basic concepts (and especially the notions of atoms and molecules) fell into place, knowledge exploded.

WHAT IS THE BASIC ELEMENT OF VISUAL EXPERIENCE?

Chapter 3 provides an extremely simple way to describe and be clear about the “momentary visual experience”.  It is critical to be clear about the nature of each “snapshot”, because the snapshots are continuously changing (merging into the next).  While each momentary experience (0.2-0.3 second) may seem like a uniformly coloured photograph, in fact there is a huge drop-off in the fine detail able to be identified away from the central point.

HOW THESE MERGE SEAMLESSLY OVER TIME IN YOUR ONGOING VISUAL WORLD.

We have an incredibly complex but efficient visual system, taking maybe three snapshots per second, which merge seamlessly over time. We have an amazing set of eye muscles guiding these snapshots, thereby selecting the sequence of snapshots.

Each snapshot not only determines what point in our environment is being analysed in detail, but also guides the next snapshot.  This approach provides a means to understand visual phenomena such as camouflage, figure-ground, and visual illusions.

EIGHT PROPOSITIONS ABOUT CONSCIOUS EXPERIENCE.

Chapter 10 suggests eight hypothetical propositions about conscious experience, which offer a conceptual framework about the place of conscious experience in our everyday life.

SO - WHAT ARE YOU?

The final chapter discusses the questions about consciousness posed in the “New Scientist” article, and suggests answers to these in terms of the eight general propositions in Chapter 10.