Incredibly stupid announcement from a science conference and journal – by Torrey Byles

This news release today is from a science conference currently taking place in NY City June (2023). It announces that neuroscientists have not demonstrated how the brain produces consciousness, and that, by a very public "bet" 25 years ago made between a neuroscientist and a philosopher, that the philosopher won. 

My take: neither the philosopher nor the neuroscientist are aware of the "non problem" that they have posed to each other to solve. The simple fact is that, the BRAIN DOES NOT PRODUCE CONSCIOUSNESS!   To demonstrate that it does, is a fool's errand. 

Here is the press release/story in Nature journal: 

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02120-8 

Here is a talk from one of the leading investigators of consciousness today, Stanislav Grof: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI5oG-WNqvM 

To believe that the brain produces consciousness is just as silly as to believe that the electronics inside a television set produces the content on the screen. You will look in vain to find how the particular circuits, semiconductors and electronic transistors "produce" Mickey Mouse showing up on the screen at 7am in the morning. The content is coming from somewhere else!  Yes, it is modulated and transformed by the TV set, but it is not originating there. The same is true of consciousness.