As AI surges ahead and concerns grow about machines becoming conscious, the mystery of consciousness has jumped from dusty philosophy books into everyday conversations. Once the private playground of philosophers and mystics, it has now become the greatest unsolved puzzle in science — and perhaps the key to understanding both ourselves and the machines we create. Consciousness is ever-present, at least during our waking time.
It is what accompanies all our subjective experiences – the redness of the sun we experience during a sunset or the unpleasant sound of honking at a traffic signal. Yet, we have absolutely no idea how it works. The real problem isn’t just finding an explanation of how consciousness happens.
We don’t even know what a good explanation would look like. Australian philosopher David Chalmers captured this perfectly by calling it the “hard problem of consciousness.” To understand the “hard problem,” it’s important to grasp the “easy problems.
” Neuroscientists map neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) — brain activities linked to specific experiences. For instance, a toothache activates certain neural circuits in the brain. Despite its name, the “easy problem” isn’t easy, but substantial progress has been made in mapping NCCs in the recent decades.
Back in 1998, renowned neuroscientist Christof Koch and Chalmers made a friendly bet. Koch believed scientists would uncover a specific NCC within 25 years. Chalmers wagered against i.