Since neuroscientists began excavating the human mind in search of the root cause of consciousness, they’ve acting on one foundational assumption — that consciousness is a function of the brain. It’s highly intuitive: we’re conscious, while rocks and dirt and other inanimate matter don’t seem to be.
However, one researcher is flipping that assumption on its head. At a neuroscience symposium in Portugal, Allen Institute neuroscientist Christof Koch made a brave challenge — that consciousness might actually be a natural quality of the universe, rather than a product of gray matter.
In a new unpublished essay viewed by ScienceAlert, Koch basically asserts that scientists are sniffing around for the root cause of consciousness in the wrong place.
“Nothing in science explains how three pounds of matter, a piece of furniture of the Universe like any other, subjects to the same natural laws, can love, hate, dream, imagine, fear or hope for its future,” Koch wrote.
