What is the “Hard Problem” of Consciousness?

Thoughts on one of the most contentious problems in philosophy of mind today

The classic anime Ghost in the Shell’s title comes from philosopher Gilbert Ryle’s critique of cartesian dualism — the idea that the mind and body are separable entities.

A couple of months back I finished a book by Daniel Dennett written in 1991 titled Consciousness Explained that sped me down a multi-month rabbit hole where I tried to learn as much about anything consciousness-related as I could. I poured over the latest in philosophy, computer science, neuroscience, and psychology, only to find that in 2019 the topic is as contentious as it was in ’91. All the things I learned about in those few months seemed to be glued together by one particular question known as the “Hard Problem” of consciousness.

Consciousness is fascinating because everything you do is predicated on an understanding of it. The reason you treat a dog — or another human being for that matter — differently than a blade of grass is at least in part because you feel as though that dog has a first-person perspective similar to yours. As fundamental as consciousness is, you’d think we’d have a grasp on why we have it at all.

However, consciousness remains as elusive as it is fundamental. If you take away the verbal reports you and I give about our consciousness, there is no evidence our consciousness exists at all, no location where it can be found in the brain. This isn’t to say that…