Our consciousness is a fundamental aspect of our existence, says philosopher David Chalmers: "There's nothing we know about more directly.... but at the same time it's the most mysterious phenomenon in the universe." He shares some ways to think about the movie playing in our heads.
I really don't see why this subject is made to be so complicated. I think humans want things to be complicated because it gives us something to solve. Fundamentally, a brain is a sack of electro-chemical batteries, all connected together. That's it. Our "consciousness" is simply the result of those electro-chemical signals travelling through those batteries (neurons) in patterns. That's it. One set of batteries is connected in a way that regulates mood, while another can do math. And the way in which those areas are connected gives us a sense of awareness and consciousness. No different than if you have a transmission, axles, wheels, engine, and frame. Each of those systems alone are fairly mundane and useless, but connect them together and you have a system that emerges to become a vehicle. Connect them in a different way and you'll have either something useless or something else entirely. Us humans want to believe we are more complicated and
meaningful than we actually are - a result of our brains consciousness and
awareness.
However, the bottom line is, our brain is just a sack of extremely small batteries, connected together in complex ways. Everything we think and feel, every choice we make, is simply the result of outside stimuli creating those signals within the brain, and that signal creating more signals through neural connections, and the specific connections in our brains creating thoughts and consciousness. You can't think a thought without first having signals. A thought does not create the signals, as that thought would require signals itself. We simply perceive signals and choices as a result of those signals. Free will, consciousness, awareness - it's all an illusion created by a complex system of batteries in the brain
Consciousness is NOT an anomaly, it fits in perfectly with science. There is nothing special, nothing magical, it is a pattern, a process of the brain which acts as a feedback mechanism to provide a competitive advantage for survival. There is a spectrum of consciousness from simple awareness of environment as exhibited in amoeba and single cells up to shared awareness between cells using chemical and electrical communication mechanism, and on up to consciousness and self-consciousness of 'higher' animals. There is no mystery, there is no hard problem, it's all quite simple in fact. Nor is consciousness a fundamental element of the universe, though it is a fundamental part of life and evolution.
Animals that can anticipate danger based on sight or sound are less likely to die and thus evolutionary traits continuously selected by nature. (I can imagine sights, and sounds but not touch, smell, or taste). Sound identification and anticipation give rise to language. As Language evolved it becomes perception and then shared perception (culture). There is a jump between cognition and perception that is abstraction. Abstraction isn't just what could be based on reality but what could be based on imagination or hallucination. Where do hallucinations come from? dreams and DMT. In our dreams again we hear and see but rarely smell, touch, or taste. Human consciousness is a result of natural selection breeding animals that can hallucinate. So what is consciousness? It's data collected and data manufactured by the brain then integrated. I think the brain is a computer and consciousness is data on the computer. The computer breaks and the data come out wrong.
The computer is organic the data is encoded in electrical pulses, frequencies, or quantum partials (who knows). If that's the case it should be possible to remove, share, or upgrade the data as the mechanics of the organic machine become better understood. The individual is a byproduct of unique data, learned processing behaviors, and organic material. Mystical experience largely does to misfired in the hard wear that causes false data on the software. That being said I think data can be imported and exported outside of time and space because I believe it to be encoded on a quantum field. I probably used a lot of those words wrong but hopefully, my junk science is a step in the right direction.
Curiosity is the single most important attribute with which humans are born. More than a simple desire to discover or know things, curiosity is a powerful tool, like a scalpel or a searchlight. Curiosity changes us. It is also a way to effect change, perhaps even on a global level.