No-New-Physics Consciousness

Robin Hanson argues for a "no-new-physics" view of consciousness, contending that conscious experiences can be fully explained through existing physics without requiring revolutionary new theories. He defends the reductionist position that experiences are generated by brain systems, which are in turn made of physical matter governed by well-understood physical laws, while acknowledging two philosophical puzzles: the distinction between "actual" and "merely possible" worlds, and the hard problem of why similar physical systems might or might not generate genuine subjective feeling rather than mere mimicry.