Glenn Carruthers - The Feeling of Embodiment: A Case Study in Explaining Consciousness

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The problem of consciousness has been with me just about as long as I can remember. At some point, my best guess is in 1990, mum asked me if I thought the mind was just the activity of the brain or if it was something more. My answer was wrong. Hopefully I am less wrong now. I shied away from the question for a long time, determined to study cosmology instead. But, Im glad I returned to questions about the nature of the mind and consciousness as an adult. It is a very special kind of question after all. Perhaps this is because we tend to think of consciousness as a very special kind of thing. When Geordi LaForge asks the Enterprise-D computer to build a Holmes style problem capable of defeating Data, the computer doesnt simply create a more complex problem, nor does it give Moriarty any spectacular superpowers. Instead it makes a conscious Moriarty. Even if I am not inclined to think of consciousness as a kind of magical necessity for creativity and learning, I do agree that being conscious is a pretty special thing. Not everything is conscious, but for those things that are conscious, especially those things that are able to reflect on or think about their own consciousness, that consciousness at least seems to be a defining feature. If we explain our consciousness, we explain something important about ourselves. We know more about what we are, thats why the conscious Moriarty was such a significant tool in Datas arc of discovery in his quest to understand humanity.

In the coming pages I offer an evidence-driven account of consciousness as part of our quest to understand ourselves (and not just because studying it is the foundation of my marriage). This project has been so long coming it will be almost impossible to acknowledge everyone who has contributed in a meaningful way. Work toward this book was undertaken whilst I held either student or ECR positions at the University of Adelaide, Humboldt Universitt zu Berlin, and Macquarie University. It was, however, completed on taking a lectureship at Charles Sturt University. My thanks go to those institutions and to the people of Australia and Germany who fund them, for their continued dedication education and research in a time when those who would rather we knew less, not more, have disturbingly loud voices.

Many teachers deserve my thanks. Gerard OBrien, Jon Opie and Garrett Cullity at the University of Adelaide stand out for their support/teaching and in offering me an academic home. I should also acknowledge Gerard and Jons forceful naturalism which protected me from many traps. Max Coltheart at Macquarie University stands out for many reasons, but Id like particularly to point out his encouragement to ignore bad theory and focus on where progress can be made, and for pushing me to do new experiments. My Ph.D. which saw the early development of many ideas in this book was done at two intuitions, due to the necessities of life, my thanks to Gerard OBrien, Philip Gerrans, John Sutton and Max Coltheart for supervising that project.

As well as my direct teachers I wish to thank all the researchers cited herein, as well as many others whom I have read, or seen present, or had challenge my ideas. Although I cant list you all this project would not have been the same without you. To this I would add my current and former students, although I think it a little unfair to name names here, you contributed to the development of my ideas in a way thats difficult to quantify.

Countless ancestors could also be acknowledged of course. But, Id would especially point out my Grandparents John and Dorothy Edwards who took a family from the slate mines and quarries of Wales to a new life in Australia, creating in just two generations sufficient middle class privilege for my parents Linda and Robert Carruthers to provide me with the (positive) freedom to enter academia and do this work. Im old enough to remember when nerds werent as cool as they are now (I had friends at school assaulted for carrying Star Wars books), so I would especially thank mum and dad for creating an environment where I could develop my passion for science and discovery, and my uncles John Hayden and John Hadley for helping develop that environment.

I should acknowledge to that I am not always easy to work with, and whilst not all of it is attributable to my mental illnesses, some is. I would not be here to finish this book without the work of medical staff in private practice and hospitals, such as Dr. Hany Samir, in Adelaide, Sydney and Berlin. Im sorry I dont know all your names to thank you personally.

Quite a few friends and colleagues have inspired and helped me along the way. I couldnt possibly list everything everyone has done, but I owe much to old friends such as Michael Moran and Lucas Beer; collaborators like Kristina Musholt, Neha Khetrapal, Nick Badcock, Xiaoqing Gao, Rachel Robbins, Alicia Wilcox and Regine Zopf; and those who were happy to meet once a week to discuss these and other ideas, such as Lincoln Colling, Brendan Ritchie, Vince Polito, Stephen Pritchard, Tibor Molnar, Stephane Savanah and many others. I should emphasise my thanks to Regine Zopf, Xiaoqing Gao, Rachel Robbins and Alicia Wilcox who I worked with to test some of the ideas discussed here. My apologies to anyone who I have neglected to list explicitly here. Laura Ruggles and Sidney Carls Diamante stand out for special thanks, you probably remember your contributions better than I, but I cant imagine doing this without you.