A Handle on Consciousness: The Asymmetry of Consciousness

Authors

10.5281/zenodo.14272501

Abstract

The mystery of consciousness, especially the question of how we each experience our own unique, first-person perspective, is something that has perplexed scientists for centuries and philosophers for millennia. In the vast complexity of the human brain is a three-pound universe teeming with neurons and synapses. Yet somehow, amidst all this biological machinery, emerges the wondrous phenomenon of consciousness. This raises not one, but two intriguing puzzles. First, there's the symmetric challenge: Why would any physical state become sentient? It's like asking why any light bulb, plugged into any socket, suddenly glows. But the asymmetric challenge is where things get more personal and perplexing: Why does my specific, individual first-person perspective exist at all? Why do I experience my thoughts and my feelings? That’s like asking why does one specific light bulb represent ‘me’? This exploration delves into this enigma, highlighting the inherent uniqueness of each person's first-person perspective. It’s evident that we have no current theories that even come close to an explanation. We need a robust theory, one that will not only explain consciousness but can also fully explain the distinct and deeply personal nature of individual consciousness.

Keywords:

neuroscience, consciousness, sentience, symmetry, quantum, spacetime, solipsism

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Author Biography

George Goutos, Independent Researcher

The enigma of consciousness, or sentience, has captivated me since childhood. When it came time for college, I pursued studies in artificial intelligence, and specifically neural networks. At the time, this best addressed both my interest in computers and my fascination with consciousness. In the late 70s, AI was a fledgling discipline, quaintly called ‘Cybernetics’ at my University. I enrolled in a PhD program and spent much time simulating neurons and training networks on a computer with just 16K bytes of memory. In those early years, the objective was to teach a computer to recognize the alphanumeric characters of postal zip codes - with intent to automate letter sorting. Trained on a sample set of characters of various typesets and fonts, the simple simulation optically recognized characters - that were not part of the original training set - with more than 95% accuracy.

However, neural networks craved computing power and large memory which was lacking in those early years. Uncertain of when that power would become available, I ventured into the private sector. I worked as an engineer and IT specialist for IBM and AT&T.  By the time I retired in 2022, four decades after grad school, much had changed. Computing power had become ubiquitous and potent. AI had come of age. The more esoteric interpretations of quantum mechanics had gained credibility. And the study of consciousness had made its way into university programs.

All the important components, it seemed, had converged. So, the time was ripe for me to refocus my efforts on consciousness. The possibility that this mystery might one day be understood was unfathomable to me when I first contemplated it. But today, I’m somewhat more optimistic.

References

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Carroll SM. Consciousness and the laws of physics. J Conscious Stud. 2021;28(9-10):16-31.

Chalmers D. Facing up to the problem of consciousness. J Conscious Stud. 1995;2(3):200-219.

Chalmers D. The meta-problem of consciousness. J Conscious Stud. 2018;25(9-10):6-61. Accessed February 6, 2019.

Dennett D. The unimagined preposterousness of zombies. J Conscious Stud. 1995;2(4):322-326.

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Published

04.12.2024

How to Cite

Goutos, G. (2024). A Handle on Consciousness: The Asymmetry of Consciousness. Journal of NeuroPhilosophy, 3(2). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14272501

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Section

Opinion and Perspectives