The relativity of consciousness

Physicists Dr. Nir Lahav and Dr. Zakaria Neemeh have developed a new theory that aims to solve the mystery of consciousness by viewing it as a relativistic phenomenon. Consciousness has long puzzled scientists, as it appears to be something that cannot arise from the brain or any physical process. Moreover, the conscious experience cannot be found or reduced to neural activity.

The hard problem of consciousness lies in the fact that no adequate theory has yet been developed to explain what consciousness is and how it works. However, Lahav and Neemeh's new physical theory, published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, proposes that when consciousness is considered a relativistic phenomenon, the mystery naturally dissolves.

The researchers used the same mathematical tools that physicists use to study other known relativistic phenomena to investigate consciousness. They demonstrated that different physical measurements in different frames of reference manifest different physical properties, even though the same phenomenon is being measured.

For example, when two people, Alice and Bob, measure each other's brain activity, they observe different properties due to their different points of view. Bob measures Alice's brain activity with his sensory organs, revealing only the neural activity representing her consciousness. Alice, on the other hand, measures her neural activity directly through interactions between different parts of her brain, manifesting a different kind of physical property – the conscious experience.

The theory suggests that the brain does not create conscious experience through computations, but rather through the process of physical measurement. By using mathematical tools that describe relativistic phenomena, the theory shows that if the dynamics of two individuals' neural activities were the same, they would share the exact same conscious experience.

The implications of this theory are vast, as it could help determine the first animal in the evolutionary process to have consciousness, when a fetus or baby becomes conscious, which patients with consciousness disorders are conscious, and whether any AI systems possess a low degree of consciousness. The researchers now plan to further examine the minimal measurements needed for a cognitive system to create consciousness.