Is Consciousness a Problem?

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The old Newton spent the last 20 years of his life trying to solve alchemy. Sydney Brenner I think got so sick of listening to these people get fascinated by consciousness he thinks consciousness is not a problem that is is definable or worth even thinking about. We're just a bunch of worms stitched together in our brain kind of like moving against each other it's just a collection of neurons, you know.

How does the mind work? What makes us sad? What makes us laugh? Despite advances in neuroscience, the answers to these questions remain elusive. Neuroscientist Patrick House talks about these mysteries and about his book Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. House's insights illuminate not just what we know and don't know about our minds--he also helps us understand what it means to be human.