are there any tentative explanations for this “can change world” property?
No, we don’t know how what we refer to as consciousness affects the world and (congruently) we don’t know why think we have consciousness (as in experiencing qualia). There clearly are effects, but we don’t know the nature of the mechanism. Frankly, it’s not even clear that we’re making sense when we talk about consciousness.
I think once we understand what consciousness is, there will be clear answers to questions like:
Why do we experience high-level things (seeing a dog) instead of low-level things (figuring out inputs correspond to a dog)?
Are there high-level things we don’t experience (e.g. a conspiracy in your brain intentionally planning to make you reproduce)?
How do we distinguish consciousness from introspection in terms of effects on the world?
Are we conscious when we’re asleep, but just don’t remember?
Are we ever not conscious when we’re awake?
How do we distinguish consciousness from short term memory in terms of effects on the world?
How do we detect consciousness?
Is all matter conscious? Some matter? All people? Some people? Space? Forces?
How do we increase/decrease/create/prevent/control consciousness?
But for the moment I’m so confused that I have no idea what a satisfying answer to those questions will even look like.
No, we don’t know how what we refer to as consciousness affects the world and (congruently) we don’t know why think we have consciousness (as in experiencing qualia). There clearly are effects, but we don’t know the nature of the mechanism. Frankly, it’s not even clear that we’re making sense when we talk about consciousness.
I think once we understand what consciousness is, there will be clear answers to questions like:
Why do we experience high-level things (seeing a dog) instead of low-level things (figuring out inputs correspond to a dog)?
Are there high-level things we don’t experience (e.g. a conspiracy in your brain intentionally planning to make you reproduce)?
How do we distinguish consciousness from introspection in terms of effects on the world?
Are we conscious when we’re asleep, but just don’t remember?
Are we ever not conscious when we’re awake?
How do we distinguish consciousness from short term memory in terms of effects on the world?
How do we detect consciousness?
Is all matter conscious? Some matter? All people? Some people? Space? Forces?
How do we increase/decrease/create/prevent/control consciousness?
But for the moment I’m so confused that I have no idea what a satisfying answer to those questions will even look like.