To make headway on the mystery of consciousness, some researchers are trying a rigorous new way to test competing theories.
Many of these ideas of consciousness seem ridiculous to me. I suppose that people need to be thinking about these ideas, iterating, and even doing some philosophy to ever get around to some better ideas and science, but it’s still very early days on the topic. I am glad that they’re actively attempting to come up with some actual science and testing of some of these theories to find a better answer.
If nothing else, this article does a reasonable job of giving an overview of some of the most recent schools of thought. And of course, it’s Philip Ball, so who could resist reading it…