First published: January 6, 2023
Last revised: January 27, 2025

The hard problem of consciousness consists in explaining the mechanism by which subjective experiences are instantiated. Once understood, it could be possible to create consciousness or at least to detect consciousness.

One can consider secondary questions such as why should it be necessary for consciousness to exist (couldn't a brain just do what it does without having a mind follow along and experience it?), or explaining how "atomic" qualia are woven together into the seamless reality that we experience. Even if we explained these, the hard problem would not be solved.

One can justify why something is the way it is without ever knowing how it works, but with consciousness it is not enough: we must understand what is the magic that makes us *feel*. When and how do electrochemical processes create a mind that feels? If this question is not giving you goosebumps, you should think about it some more.

One possibility is that consciousness is virtual, in the sense that it is based on information processing. Another possibility is that consciousness is fundamental, like electromagnetism. Robert Kuhn has written a comprehensive article summarizing these and many other camps.

My favourite point of view at the moment is that consciousness is fundamental, so I allow for conscious events to occur naturally, without a body or a brain. But just like elements in nature don't self-assemble into a smartphone, conscious events don't self-assemble into a mind. For that to happen one needs a complex system to orchestrate them, like a brain.