Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe

by Brian Greene

your brain surreptitiously coordinates a regulatory, a functional, and a data-mining marvel. Wondrous though these brain activities are, they do not constitute a conceptual mystery. The brain rapidly sends and receives signals along nerve fibers, allowing it to control biological processes and generate behavioral responses. To delineate the precise neural pathways and physiological details underlying such functions and behaviors, scientists face the daunting task of mapping out vast territories dense with complex biological circuitry at a level of precision well beyond what has so far been achieved. Still, everything we’re learning suggests that however challenging, however vast the reserves of creativity and diligence required, there is every reason to believe that the familiar strategies of science will prevail. And were it not for one pesky quality of mind, that would be that. But when we look beyond the mind’s tasks and consider instead the mind’s sensations—the inner experience we identify as the essence of being human—some researchers have reached a different and far less optimistic prognosis for the capacity of traditional science to provide insight. This takes us to what some call the “hard problem” of consciousness.