Subjective Consciousness: What am I?

Abstract

Consciousness is a fact. In this very moment your eyes are scanning these words and your mind is creating understanding of and context for the contents utilizing memory. However, astonishingly, we don’t know how to accommodate consciousness into our scientific view of the world. Until quite recently, the nation of consciousness was taboo for scientists and philosophers alike. Today, a central problem is: How does the feeling of subjective experience emerge from neural activity? As a corollary: How does the ethereal mind interact with the physical world? Insights from neuroscience have uncovered that our perceptions of reality are not faithful representations, but constructed virtual reality simulations. Memories are also constructed and not retrieved. The sense of self is a result of a complex cognitive effort. The role of our consciousness is to narrate and rationalize the decisions emerging from the subconscious brain, in retrospect. Context and expectations influence and shape perceptions and experiences. The human mind exhibits countless irrational behaviors—cognitive biases abound. The mind can also suffer from a wide array of pathologies. Finally, free will is a very controversial topic, as experiments question its reality. Level of mathematical formality: not applicable.