model

Consciousness involves a special kind of reduction of the complexity of the outside world.

It's as if the brain creates a theater in order to see its options. This leads to both consciousness and the illusion of free will. The two are linked.

Cartesian theater revisited: the brain makes its own model of reality, a simplified one.

The sheer complexity of sensory input, memory, decisionmaking, etc., creates the need for a simplified "virtual reality" of manageable complexity. We can weigh 4 options, but not 40,000 options.

Consciousness emerges from one part of the brain contemplating another part of the brain that is its own creation, its own compilation. This creation is a simplified model of the world, the person's options, including relevant memories. This model is of manageable size and is useable to another part of the brain.

The remembered present. We don't see the chair. One part of our brain that needs to solve the seating problem sees a model created in another part of the brain of the chair.

Infinite regress?

Where does the experience come from? From the interaction of more than one area of the brain. Does that solve the mystery?

Mirror neurons: the muscles that move our arm are activated when we see someone else move their arm. This is how the model is created/works. A set of mirror neurons that mimic reality in the brain based on experience.

We move our arm. Arm moving neurons fire. We see someone move their arm. Same arm moving neurons fire. We feel thirsty. Brain needs to make body drink. Brain fires arm moving neurons to reach glass of water. But our brain does not find the glass of water in the world (too complex). It finds the glass of water in the mini-model of reality in our brain. The useable model that just contains what is relevant to us.