Consciousness
Although the previous definition for consciousness is clear and objective, it fails to explain
consciousness’ subjective nature – why it is being felt. Science has never been able to explain why red
feels like red and coldness feels like cold. In fact, there are many obstacles in solving the problem of
subjective consciousness. One example is that only a being that is conscious and self-aware can prove
the existence of its consciousness through experiencing. However, consciousness can never be proven
to others. This is an example of the explanatory gap. Both mathematics and language cannot explain
what it feels like to have consciousness because both of them are used to explain objective things but
not subjective ones like consciousness. Science is the explanation of phenomena through mathematics,
which means science cannot be used to explain consciousness. For example, explaining how light
travels into the eye and how the image is processed by our brain through neurons to a person who has
been blind for their whole life cannot let them know what experiencing sight is like. This also leads to
the fact that studying our brain can never explain why consciousness is experienced. Another obstacle
is that consciousness can only be proven at the present. As one that experiences consciousness can only
experience the present and the action of recalling past memory itself is also performed at the present,
any existence of consciousness in the past or future does not interfere with consciousness in the present
in any way. Therefore, no one can prove the existence of its consciousness either in the past or the
future. Also, consciousness is confined by the physical world. With our current understanding of
physics, there is no evidence regarding to a consciousness being able to interact with the physical
world. Therefore, what a consciousness creates is no more than how things are experienced like. Even
if one having consciousness is self-aware, there is no way of controlling its own thoughts, memories or
emotions as these are controlled by physical interactions.
This leads to a subjective definition of consciousness. Consciousness is defined as subjective
experiences of oneself or one’s surroundings . Besides the fact that scientific investigation cannot be
used to explain subjective consciousness, the various obstacles of the nature of subjective
consciousness make this definition fail to define how consciousness exists and functions, leading to
many possibilities of its nature. One possibility is that anything from elementary particles to galaxies
can have a consciousness since consciousness cannot be proven to others, potentially suggesting
panpsychism where all things are conscious. Their only difference from us is that they are not self-
aware. In other words, it is impossible to prove anything is not conscious. Other than that, although the
conventional idea is that many consciousnesses exist, and we as self-aware beings with consciousness
interact with one another as individuals, one that is conscious and self-aware can only prove the
existence of consciousness in itself, and not the true nature of it due to its capabilities being confined
by the physical world. It is possible that we exist as one consciousness, experiencing itself as many
individuals because it is physically impossible to share thoughts, memories and emotions with all
conscious beings in the present. This also gives a possible solution to the combination problem in
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