Consciousness and Multiple Dimensions (For Non-Philosophers)
Context
The ‘hard problem of consciousness’ is loosely that of how physical atoms could possibly combine in such a way to create brains, which then create consciousness. Given that atoms are generally deemed to be non-conscious entities, how does consciousness ‘emerge’ from their combination?
Not everyone agrees that this is a serious problem, and many philosophers and physicists argue that the problem is simply one of limited understanding. They argue that with enough scientific and technological progress, we will understand how atoms combine to create consciousness in a way similar to how we now understand how atoms combine to create liquidity. Neither consciousness nor liquidity are present at the level of atoms, so just as liquidity emerges from the combination of atoms, so can consciousness.
For the purposes of my exploration, however, I simply accept that the hard problem is a problem worth engaging with. I ask the question ‘what if consciousness cannot be explained by understanding how atoms combine in the brain?’ Is there another approach that may offer a better explanation?
There are multiple responses to this problem, from the notion that atoms themselves are conscious (panpsychism), to the notion that the physical world exists within consciousness instead of consciousness existing within the physical world (philosophical idealism), and many others. None of these alternative approaches is widely accepted, so I believe that further exploration is warranted.
Not everyone agrees that this is a serious problem, and many philosophers and physicists argue that the problem is simply one of limited understanding. They argue that with enough scientific and technological progress, we will understand how atoms combine to create consciousness in a way similar to how we now understand how atoms combine to create liquidity. Neither consciousness nor liquidity are present at the level of atoms, so just as liquidity emerges from the combination of atoms, so can consciousness.
For the purposes of my exploration, however, I simply accept that the hard problem is a problem worth engaging with. I ask the question ‘what if consciousness cannot be explained by understanding how atoms combine in the brain?’ Is there another approach that may offer a better explanation?
There are multiple responses to this problem, from the notion that atoms themselves are conscious (panpsychism), to the notion that the physical world exists within consciousness instead of consciousness existing within the physical world (philosophical idealism), and many others. None of these alternative approaches is widely accepted, so I believe that further exploration is warranted.
Introduction to my Approach
My approach to this problem starts with asking the question of whether additional dimensions from those of space and time could add any explanatory power. There are two major concerns with this approach though. The first is in understanding how additional dimensions could possibly help explain consciousness. If 3 dimensions of space and 1 dimension of time can’t explain consciousness, why would adding additional dimensions solve the problem? The second concern relates to the viability and simplicity of additional dimensions. If we have no reason to think that there are additional dimensions other than that they may help solve the hard problem, it seems like a huge cost to add them to our understanding of the universe just to explain consciousness.
In order to address the first concern, I revisit my (flawed) thought process from when I was a teenager learning about dimensions. In high school I was taught that the universe consists of 4 dimensions – 3 spatial dimensions and 1 temporal dimension (or 4 dimensions of spacetime as per Einstein’s theory of relativity). I learned that if we understood the position and velocity of every particle in the 4 dimensions of spacetime, we would know everything there was to know about the universe. But this struck me as incomplete. It seemed similar to arguing that if we knew the position and velocity of every pixel on a screen, we would know everything there is to know about the moving image on the screen. But I asked myself, what about colour? If we knew the position and velocity of every particle on the screen, we would perfectly describe a black and white image, but would not describe its colour. So, it seemed to me at the time, that the universe must have more than 4 dimensions of spacetime – it must also have a colour dimension.
Upon voicing this concern, I learned that colour can in fact, be described in the 4 dimensions of spacetime. Colour is simply the perception of different wavelengths of light, and the wavelengths of light can be described in the 4 dimensions of spacetime. This explanation made sense to me, and I accepted that no additional dimensions are required to explain colour. However, 25 years later, when I first read about the hard problem of consciousness, it occurred to me that additional dimensions may be relevant in explaining consciousness, as the 4 dimensions of spacetime are arguably not sufficient.
I revisit how we can understand additional dimensions and how they could possibly help to explain consciousness below. But first I address the cost of seemingly adding extra dimensions to our understanding of the universe. I accept that the cost of adding dimensions would be huge and would likely disqualify my thinking from serious consideration. However, it is important to note that string theory already posits the existence of multiple dimensions ‘beyond’ those of spacetime. There are numerous versions of string theory, but all of them require a minimum of 10 dimensions (some require 11, 26 or 27 dimensions). As such, I am not adding any extra dimensions, but rather reframing extra dimensions which are already thought to exist.
These extra dimensions are generally thought to be beyond the capacity for human understanding. There are many thought experiments and visualization tools to help us imagine them, but none of these tools allow us to directly engage with or understand them. So, it seemed to me, that on the one hand, string theory has additional dimensions that it cannot explain, and the hard problem consciousness could possibly be resolved (or at least engaged with) by utilizing additional dimensions. What if the additional dimensions posited by string theory had some relationship to the mystery of consciousness?
In order to address the first concern, I revisit my (flawed) thought process from when I was a teenager learning about dimensions. In high school I was taught that the universe consists of 4 dimensions – 3 spatial dimensions and 1 temporal dimension (or 4 dimensions of spacetime as per Einstein’s theory of relativity). I learned that if we understood the position and velocity of every particle in the 4 dimensions of spacetime, we would know everything there was to know about the universe. But this struck me as incomplete. It seemed similar to arguing that if we knew the position and velocity of every pixel on a screen, we would know everything there is to know about the moving image on the screen. But I asked myself, what about colour? If we knew the position and velocity of every particle on the screen, we would perfectly describe a black and white image, but would not describe its colour. So, it seemed to me at the time, that the universe must have more than 4 dimensions of spacetime – it must also have a colour dimension.
Upon voicing this concern, I learned that colour can in fact, be described in the 4 dimensions of spacetime. Colour is simply the perception of different wavelengths of light, and the wavelengths of light can be described in the 4 dimensions of spacetime. This explanation made sense to me, and I accepted that no additional dimensions are required to explain colour. However, 25 years later, when I first read about the hard problem of consciousness, it occurred to me that additional dimensions may be relevant in explaining consciousness, as the 4 dimensions of spacetime are arguably not sufficient.
I revisit how we can understand additional dimensions and how they could possibly help to explain consciousness below. But first I address the cost of seemingly adding extra dimensions to our understanding of the universe. I accept that the cost of adding dimensions would be huge and would likely disqualify my thinking from serious consideration. However, it is important to note that string theory already posits the existence of multiple dimensions ‘beyond’ those of spacetime. There are numerous versions of string theory, but all of them require a minimum of 10 dimensions (some require 11, 26 or 27 dimensions). As such, I am not adding any extra dimensions, but rather reframing extra dimensions which are already thought to exist.
These extra dimensions are generally thought to be beyond the capacity for human understanding. There are many thought experiments and visualization tools to help us imagine them, but none of these tools allow us to directly engage with or understand them. So, it seemed to me, that on the one hand, string theory has additional dimensions that it cannot explain, and the hard problem consciousness could possibly be resolved (or at least engaged with) by utilizing additional dimensions. What if the additional dimensions posited by string theory had some relationship to the mystery of consciousness?