This is the standard understanding in neuroscience (and for what its worth is my working belief), but there is some evidence that throws a wrench into this idea, and needs to be explained, for instance this review “Consciousness without a cerebral cortex: a challenge for neuroscience and medicine”where evidence towards the idea that consciousness without a cortex can occur. in particular this is a famous case of a human with hardly any cortex that seemed to act normally, in most regards.
The hydranencephalic people in that paper do indeed exhibit certain behaviors that we intuitively associate with consciousness. But it’s equally true that deep-RL agents & LLMs exhibit certain behaviors that we intuitively associate with consciousness. So is this paper “evidence towards the idea that consciousness without a cortex can occur”? Yeah sure, but I don’t think it’s strong evidence. (More of my opinions here.)
This is the standard understanding in neuroscience (and for what its worth is my working belief), but there is some evidence that throws a wrench into this idea, and needs to be explained, for instance this review “Consciousness without a cerebral cortex: a challenge for neuroscience and medicine” where evidence towards the idea that consciousness without a cortex can occur. in particular this is a famous case of a human with hardly any cortex that seemed to act normally, in most regards.
The hydranencephalic people in that paper do indeed exhibit certain behaviors that we intuitively associate with consciousness. But it’s equally true that deep-RL agents & LLMs exhibit certain behaviors that we intuitively associate with consciousness. So is this paper “evidence towards the idea that consciousness without a cortex can occur”? Yeah sure, but I don’t think it’s strong evidence. (More of my opinions here.)
What is evidence of consciousness, then?