Philip Goff

we are embodied creatures and we relate to one another through and with our bodies. But it is consciousness that defines the identity of the person.

Fundamentally we know a person in terms of their feelings and thoughts, and the quirks of their personality.

Perhaps one day in the future it will be possible to survive the death of the body by uploading one’s mind onto a computer, making it possible to talk to grandma via email long after her body has rotted in the ground.

in tragic cases of permanent coma, the living body can seem nothing more than a memorial to the person who once was.

Consciousness is also the source of much that is of value in existence. Without consciousness, the universe would still be just as immense and awe-inspiring. But without a conscious mind to appreciate its majesty, is there really any value in the existence of all that stuff? It is our experiences that make life worth living: exhilarating pleasures, sweeping emotions, subtle thoughts. Without consciousness none of these things is possible.

“Cogito ergo sum” or “I think, therefore I am.”

Nothing is more certain than consciousness, and yet nothing is harder to incorporate into our scientific picture of the world.

Consciousness is fundamental to what we are as human beings. This is not to undermine the importance of the body:

consciousness is the only thing we know for certain is real. I can’t know for certain that there really is a world out there. Perhaps I’m actually in the Matrix

encapsulated in a vat of chemicals being fed information about a nonexistent virtual world by computers that are using me as an energy source.