What’s the opposite of “meta”?
I want a word/root that is the opposite of "meta". "Meta" is all about abstracting away from details, and drifting into the realm of content-free algebra. How should we describe…
Why is the Hard Problem of Consciousness so Hard? Intentionality.
Someone I know sent me some material related to their research on consciousness, asking for some feedback. What follows is an edited version of what I wrote to them.
Solving the easy problem of consciousness — by explaining the causes and neural correlates of particular conscious experiences — is challenging but at least conceivable. This is not so for any claim to have solved the hard problem of consciousness — it is going to evoke skepticism from both scientists and philosophers. I’m one of the many neuroscientists that do not think the hard problem is solvable — to us it is not clear that phenomenal consciousness is a scientifically tractable phenomenon in the first place.
Is a memory a bunch of atoms? And does this mean we can transfer exact memories?
I was asked the following question on Quora.
Short answer: No.
Modern science has shown that every thing is an arrangement of atoms: neurons, apples, tables, rockets, asteroids, aardvarks… they are all made up of atoms.
The question now is this: is a memory a thing?