The problem with all of these "theories of consciousness" is that none of them even begin to address the actual "Hard Problem". None of them have even the slightest thing to with actually *explaining* why/how there's "something it's like" to be us.
They're interesting theories about cognition, about how the brain processes and makes use of information, but the only way they relate to conscious experience is by *presupposing* a conscious, experiencing subject.
There's absolutely no need for actual subjective experience in any of these models. They could just as well be descriptions of a non-conscious AI's operating system or something. This is true of literally every so-called "theory of consciousness".
You might be right. Unless we can use a theory to create an experiencing entity, we won't know for sure. My reading of Metzinger's The Ego Tunnel made me favor the self-model theory as at least a big step towards solving the hard problem. The theory accounts for a very detailed list of properties and mechanisms of consciousness. And the book is backed up by a much more intricate explanation in his massive philosophical monograph, Being No One, Even if you are a convinced panpsychist, I think Metzinger's work still has a lot to offer.
The problem with all of these "theories of consciousness" is that none of them even begin to address the actual "Hard Problem". None of them have even the slightest thing to with actually *explaining* why/how there's "something it's like" to be us.
They're interesting theories about cognition, about how the brain processes and makes use of information, but the only way they relate to conscious experience is by *presupposing* a conscious, experiencing subject.
There's absolutely no need for actual subjective experience in any of these models. They could just as well be descriptions of a non-conscious AI's operating system or something. This is true of literally every so-called "theory of consciousness".
IMHO.
You might be right. Unless we can use a theory to create an experiencing entity, we won't know for sure. My reading of Metzinger's The Ego Tunnel made me favor the self-model theory as at least a big step towards solving the hard problem. The theory accounts for a very detailed list of properties and mechanisms of consciousness. And the book is backed up by a much more intricate explanation in his massive philosophical monograph, Being No One, Even if you are a convinced panpsychist, I think Metzinger's work still has a lot to offer.