Consciousness is the most basic aspect of human experience, and yet it remains deeply mysterious. Centuries of deliberation by philosophers, theologians and scientists have made little headway in explaining its origin.AI
One idea is to use neurons as circuit components to perform basic information-processing tasks. Presumably, conscious experiences are generated by complex electrochemical patterns swirling inside our heads. Perhaps proto-consciousness can be conjured up in the lab by recreating such patterns?Philosophers, following Thomas Nagel, often express the essence of consciousness as “what it is like” to be, say, a human or a bat or a bee.
But how can we be sure? And in the highly charged debates about abortion, euthanasia and locked-in syndrome, the actual level of consciousness is usually the critical criterion.