Steven Pinker -- How the Mind Works - Hampshire High Italian ...

132 I HOW THE MIND WORKSmind, even with complete neural underpinnings, offers no clear answer.The symbol blue is inscribed, goal states change, some neurons fire; sowhat? Consciousness has struck many thinkers as not just a problem butalmost a miracle:Matter can differ from matter only in form, bulk, density, motion anddirection of motion: to which of these, however varied or combined, canconsciousness be annexed? To be round or square, to be solid or fluid, tobe great or little, to be moved slowly or swiftly one way or another, aremodes of material existence, all equally alien from the nature of cogitation.—Samuel JdhnsonHow it is that anything so remarkable as a state of consciousness comesabout as a result of irritating nervous tissue, is just as unaccountable asthe appearance of the Djin, when Aladdin rubbed his lamp.—Thomas HuxleySomehow, we feel, the water of the physical brain is turned into the wineof consciousness, but we draw a total blank on the nature of this conversion.Neural transmissions just seem like the wrong kind of materialswith which to bring consciousness into the world.—Colin McGinnConsciousness presents us with puzzle after puzzle. How can a neuralevent cause consciousness to happen? What good is consciousness?That is, what does the raw sensation of redness add to the train of billiard-ballevents taking place in our neural computers? Any effect of perceivingsomething as red—noticing it against a sea of green, saying outloud, "That's red," reminiscing about Santa Claus and fire engines,becoming agitated—could be accomplished by pure information processingtriggered by a sensor for long-wavelength light. Is consciousnessan impotent side effect hovering over the symbols, like the lights flashingon a computer or the thunder that accompanies lightning? And if consciousnessis useless—if a creature without it could negotiate the worldas well as a creature with it—why would natural selection have favoredthe conscious one?Consciousness has recently become the circle that everyone wants tosquare. Almost every month an article announces that consciousness hasbeen explained at last, often with a raspberry blown at the theologiansand humanists who would put boundaries on science and another one