Helgoland: Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution

by Carlo Rovelli

In the model known as PCM (projective consciousness model), for example, the hypothesis is that consciousness is the activity of the brain constantly attempting to predict the input that constantly varies because of the variability of the world and the change of our position. Representations are techniques to minimize mistakes in predictions using observed discrepancies.133 In the words of the nineteenth-century French philosopher Hippolyte Taine, we can say that “external perception is an internal dream which proves to be in harmony with external things; and instead of calling ‘hallucination’ a false perception, we must call external perception ‘a confirmed hallucination.’”134