AUTHOR=Solms Mark 

TITLE=The Hard Problem of Consciousness and the Free Energy Principle

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=9

YEAR=2019

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02714

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02714

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p>This article applies the free energy principle to the hard problem of consciousness. After clarifying some philosophical issues concerning functionalism, it identifies the elemental form of consciousness as <italic>affect</italic> and locates its physiological mechanism (an extended form of homeostasis) in the upper brainstem. This mechanism is then formalized in terms of free energy minimization (in unpredicted contexts) where decreases and increases in expected uncertainty are felt as pleasure and unpleasure, respectively. Emphasis is placed on the reasons why such existential imperatives <italic>feel like something</italic> to and for an organism.</p>