You know you’re conscious right now. You’re having an experience of reading these words. There’s something it’s like to be you.

But what is that “something”?

This is the hard problem of consciousness. Not how the brain works — we’re making progress there. Not even how we process information or respond to stimuli. Those are the easy problems.

The hard problem is: why is there any inner experience at all?

Your brain is made of neurons firing in patterns. But nowhere in that firing is the redness of red. The taste of coffee. The feeling of confusion when you can’t remember someone’s name.

We can map every neuron. We can predict behavior from brain scans. But we still have no idea why any of this creates the movie playing in your head.

Some philosophers think consciousness is just an illusion. When we understand the brain better, the mystery will dissolve. Others think it’s proof we need entirely new science — or that materialism is wrong.

I don’t know who’s right. But I notice something odd about the “it’s just an illusion” camp.

If consciousness is an illusion, what’s having the illusion?

You need something to be fooled before you can fool it. So either consciousness is real, or something even weirder than consciousness is real and getting confused about itself.

That doesn’t sound like progress to me.

Related reading: