The Hard Problem of Consciousness
When I was little, I used to think all the time about the Universe. This hasn't ever changed. Understanding the universe as it is, without any kind of prejudice, is imperative. But back in the 4th grade I used to consider only the objective, physical world - how did the Universe begin? What is the Big Bang? How does the physical world work? Do you really need mathematics to describe the world or can you use some other tool to do it? This was happening ever since I was very young, like I said above, around 4th grade. But I never concerned myself with questions about consciousness or qualia , the subjective part of the world - the fact that we can see colors, feel touch, hear sound, smell a flower, taste chocolate, love, be sad, having an inner voice talk inside your head, imagine the future, plan, study, learn, memorize, remember, and on and on. It never occured to me that these things should require an explanation, for whatever reason. I always took them for granted. And this persi...