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It has been called the “hard problem” and it is hard.  There is such a thing as consciousness, but no one can explain what it is. The closest we can come in English is to use the word, “aware”.  The conscious mind is aware, but we don’t know what that means.    Other languages may have different words, but the issue is the same. Consciousness or awareness cannot be explained.

Consider this situation. Suppose there is a platform of some kind, some existing surface. Side by side are two things. One is a big machine, collection of connected parts.  Make it as big as you want, a mile long, ten miles, as long and as wide as you want. It may have millions, billions of connected parts, and that makes it a machine. One part moves and causes another part to move. This machine contains the latest AI codes which guide the movement of the parts.  That’s one side. On the other side, next to this machine, in some form, is a mind. Might be an animal mind, but we will postulate a human mind. 

Now that mind is conscious. It is aware that it is on the platform and that something else, the machine, is also on the platform. That is all we can say because we cannot explain aware/mind/consciousness. That machine doesn’t have any idea what is next to it on that platform. It is not conscious. It has no mind. It is not aware of anything. However,  the mind next to it is conscious. It is aware. But that is all we can say. That is the mystery of consciousness.

The mind is in the brain. It is not the brain, for the brain is a machine. Maybe the mind needs the brain, and if the brain disappears, the mind does also. Some think we are surrounded by consciousness which some call the mind of God and that our consciousness is part of the consciousness of God. There are many views, but the “hard problem” for us is that there is consciousness, and we don’t know what it is.