^ +1
There is nothing like a mechanism, not even the faintest glimmer of one, about why matter is conscious. There is only assumption and narrative: "Oh, well, of course there's consciousness. That's what lets us run from lions," or whatever. Or: "Of course it's all just physics, it's all in the brain."
The problem is that consciousness, as in the experience of qualia, is completely woo. You can't see it or measure it. You can't establish whether a given system has it. In fact, to be philosophically honest, I cannot establish that it exists at all except as a label for my personal experiences.
There is nothing like a mechanism, not even the faintest glimmer of one, about why matter is conscious. There is only assumption and narrative: "Oh, well, of course there's consciousness. That's what lets us run from lions," or whatever. Or: "Of course it's all just physics, it's all in the brain."
The problem is that consciousness, as in the experience of qualia, is completely woo. You can't see it or measure it. You can't establish whether a given system has it. In fact, to be philosophically honest, I cannot establish that it exists at all except as a label for my personal experiences.