Tuesday, September 14, 2021

Hard Problem of Consciousness Proof

The Hard Problem of Consciousness asks why a subjective inner world (your mind) arises from objective physical processes (your brain). It's controversial because it's frequently misunderstood. People think it's about consciousness being caused by some supernatural thing other than your brain, so if scientists map the whole brain and correlate every physical process with every emotion, the problem no longer exists. This is a complete fallacy and misrepresentation of what the Hard Problem of Consciousness means. Many people who agree with the Hard Problem also believe your mind is completely based on physical deterministic processes in the brain and nothing else. The catch is: "The brain 100% causes the mind" does not mean "the brain 100% explains the mind". 

In order to prove consciousness is really an unsolved and possibly eternally unsolvable problem, I first need to establish what we really refer to as "consciousness", which I would rather refer to as "subjective inner mind" to reduce ambiguity. To do that, I will introduce a special attribute that no objective thing in the world can possibly have, then show that what I call "subjective inner mind" does have that attribute. That attribute is: Certainty. Specifically, 100% totally absolutely certainty beyond any doubt (even unreasonable doubt). 

Here are examples of things that are not 100% totally absolutely certain beyond any doubt (even unreasonable doubt): 

  • The Earth exists (maybe it's just a simulation)
  • You have a brain, made of neurons (maybe your whole life and the whole world is a dream and your real brain is made of something else)
  • You existed 1 second ago (You could be a simulation turned on just now, similar to "Last Thursdayism")
Anyway, you get the point. Literally no observable thing in the universe satisfies this "100% totally absolutely certain beyond all doubt (even unreasonable doubt)" attribute. 

Now you're wondering how in the world I'm going to prove that what I call "subjective inner mind" is 100% totally absolutely certain beyond all doubt. To clarify what I mean by "subjective inner mind" I'm going to ask you a question: 

Is it absolutely "100% totally absolutely certain beyond all doubt" that something exists or is happening in some way shape or form

  • Sure, the universe might be a simulation, but at least that simulation would exist.
  • Sure, you might not have a brain, but something that thinks it has a brain and feels like it's "you" is experiencing something at this moment
  • Sure, maybe you didn't exist 1 second ago, but at this very moment you are totally certain of feeling some experience in some way shape or form, even if you're not sure what physical form it takes. 
No matter what crazy conspiracy theory or Matrix theory you make up about how the universe really is, there is no getting around the undeniable fact that some experience of something is taking place right now. That thing/experience is your subjective inner mind, and it has an attribute of certainty which definitively separates it from any objective thing in the universe that could ever be observed. 

Therefore, even though it's right to say the brain causes the mind, you can't say the brain or brain activity is the mind. At best, you can say the two are perfectly correlated. Since the two are not literally the exact same thing, there's always going to be the question of how/why the subjective inner mind even exists in the first place.