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Is Consciousness an Emergent Property of Matter? - Leejohnston - 01-08-2026
Is Consciousness an Emergent Property of Matter?
Consciousness is the most familiar thing we experience — and the hardest to explain.
Every thought, sensation, and emotion happens inside it.
Yet physics does not contain a variable for “experience”.
So where does consciousness come from?
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What science agrees on
Modern neuroscience shows that:
• brain activity correlates with conscious experience
• damage to specific regions alters awareness
• chemicals and electrical signals affect perception
There is no doubt that consciousness depends on the brain.
The open question is how.
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What “emergent” means
An emergent property is something that:
• arises from simpler components
• is not present in the components themselves
• appears only when systems reach sufficient complexity
Examples:
• temperature emerges from particle motion
• pressure emerges from collisions
• life emerges from chemistry
Consciousness may be similar.
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The emergence hypothesis
In this view:
• neurons are not conscious
• molecules are not conscious
• but certain arrangements and dynamics produce awareness
Consciousness would then be:
• real
• physical
• dependent on structure and process
Not something added from outside physics.
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The hard problem
Even if consciousness emerges, a deeper problem remains:
Why should physical processes feel like anything at all?
This gap between:
• objective brain activity
• subjective experience
is known as the “hard problem” of consciousness.
Emergence explains correlation — not experience itself.
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Alternative views
Some alternatives propose:
• consciousness is fundamental
• consciousness is a field
• consciousness is informational
• consciousness is illusory
Each avoids some problems and introduces others.
No consensus exists.
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What this does NOT imply
Emergent consciousness does not mean:
• consciousness is unreal
• free will is meaningless
• humans are “just machines”
It means experience may arise naturally from physical law.
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Why this matters
If consciousness is emergent:
• artificial systems could one day be conscious
• degrees of consciousness may exist
• experience would be tied to physical organisation
If it is not:
• physics may be incomplete in a deep way
⸻
Open question
Is consciousness something matter *does* —
or something matter *has*?
The answer may redefine what it means to be physical.