David Chalmers: The Hard Problem of Consciousness
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How is it possible for anyone or anything to experience a first-person perspective on the universe?
Here's a ten minute excerpt of David Chalmers discussing how in recent years, science has made great progress in understanding the mechanics of the brain, yet over centuries, we have made no progress at all in explaining the phenomenon of subjective experience.
David Chalmers, Ph.D., is professor of philosophy at the University of California, Santa Cruz and author of The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory.
Here's a ten minute excerpt of David Chalmers discussing how in recent years, science has made great progress in understanding the mechanics of the brain, yet over centuries, we have made no progress at all in explaining the phenomenon of subjective experience.
David Chalmers, Ph.D., is professor of philosophy at the University of California, Santa Cruz and author of The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory.
Aug 2, 2012 3:17 PM
Re: David Chalmers: The Hard Problem of Consciousness
Interesting, and yet the implications of reaching a cogent theory of consciousness are somehow...terrifying. Bring it, science. The earth has gone from flat to spheroidal to a projection of an 8 to 12 to infinity-dimensional shape. We can take it.
Re: David Chalmers: The Hard Problem of Consciousness
Great stuff. I suspect that it is the language and not the tools of science that are inadequate to answer this problem. Defining what we mean by the question "what is subjective experience?" is probably the largest part of the problem. This type of difficulty is familiar to scientists - defining what we mean by "what is light?" leads to understanding radiation pressure, just as "what is mass?" leads to the prediction of the Higgs boson.
By: iakovos
