Daniel and Kelly’s Extraordinary Universe How does consciousness emerge?
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Mar 27, 2025 In this engaging discussion, Prof. Megan Peters, Associate Professor of Cognitive Science at UC Irvine, dives into the enigmatic world of consciousness. She explores how our brain handles uncertainty and the practical implications for both humans and non-human animals. The conversation turns philosophical, considering the possibility of living in a simulation and pondering the consciousness of octopuses. With humor and insight, they discuss access versus phenomenal consciousness, challenging listeners to rethink what it means to be aware.
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Two Types of Consciousness
- Access consciousness is about the global availability of information for useful behavior.
- Phenomenal consciousness is about the qualitative experience, the "what it's like" aspect.
Sperling Task and Overflowing Consciousness
- Humans generally possess both access and phenomenal consciousness.
- Sperling's experiment with letter arrays suggests phenomenal consciousness can overflow access consciousness.
Philosophical Zombies and the Hard Problem
- Philosophical zombies challenge the measurability of phenomenal consciousness.
- We rely on first-person reports, making it hard to verify others' experiences.