No one knows what consciousness is, everyone keeps talking about it

No one knows what consciousness is, everyone keeps talking about it

The problem is that "dissecting" the brain into different components to get some facts will not give a complete picture of how the brain works. A possible way to get the desired result is to observe manifestations of brain function or, more precisely, thinking.

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There is quite advanced knowledge about brain structure at the cellular level, and there are some hypotheses about consciousness. That said, many brain processes are still largely unknown. Science still does not know how exactly brain activity leads to certain results.

So scientists who study the brain and thinking occasionally refer to this other obscure component, which is consciousness. Unfortunately, neither neurobiology, nor brain research, nor cognitive science, nor quantum mechanics help shed light on this component.

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Understanding the biological processes in the brain, even at the cellular level, does not provide a basis for a coherent transition to explaining the way the neural network — consisting of nerve cells, synapses, axons, dendrites, and other things — works. Nor does it provide an explanation of psyche, mind, thinking, or consciousness.

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Scientists intuitively believe that there must be a certain logic, a certain vector in the study of the brain. This vector goes from the brain to consciousness through thinking. Let’s assume that the brain here is the main unit serving as a basis for thinking, which is organized in a way unknown to us; and looming somewhat further — not as the third, but as some billion-and-second element — is consciousness. Everything is quite straightforward, the vector of thought is clear, but there have been no breakthroughs yet.

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In short, many are interested in or at least intuitively "concerned" about consciousness both as a term and as an area of research. Most notably, biologists with all kinds of prefixes. The number of neurobiologists, cognitive biologists, and all other kinds of biologists is already beyond thinkable. But virtually no progress has been made either in studying or even defining consciousness.

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Currently, though, observing manifestations of brain function to deduce laws, values, and parameters or building a complete theory is not a priority. This may be due to the lack of methods and measuring tools as such.

Making advances requires new methods of brain studies that, through the study of thinking, will allow studying consciousness as such.

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The questions about consciousness are simple. Does it exist? If it does, where does it reside? How does it work? And so on. Today, consciousness is terra incognita. Despite this, sometimes scientists — biologists, neurobiologists, linguists, physicists, and others — don’t have any other option but to use this concept. There are the so-called easy and hard problems of consciousness and numerous theories about them.

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