Consciousness Defined? Why It’s Still a Problem

And what we can learn from defining life

Recent astounding advances in AI have raised considerable concerns about the potential emergence of human-like consciousness in machines, which could lead to unforeseen consequences. It has undoubtedly sparked widespread and intense interest in studying consciousness across multiple disciplines, including philosophy, neuroscience, and psychology.

However, consciousness is still going through a crisis of definition. On the one hand, everyone appears to have an intuitive understanding of what consciousness is; on the other, there is no consensus on the available definitions. No wonder, after rounds of debates, people often find they have spoken past one another because the definition was unclear to begin with.

The same is true in the scientific arena. Over 40 theories of consciousness have been proposed in the past decade — and more are on the way — each focusing on a different aspect and hardly reconcilable with one another.

In a previous article, I reviewed the top theories of consciousness. In this discussion, we will delve into the current definitions of consciousness as presented by modern philosophers. We will then compare them with two examples (water and life) to examine the criteria of an ideal definition and the challenges we face in…