Another Example Why Books,Talks et al., On Consciousness Is Bullshit

Here's an interview with Alan Lightman on his new book (I am not linking on purpose). 

Alan probably is a decent and nice human but yet with all his "brilliance" he seems doesn't gauge his own biases and cognitive dissonance. 

I am not making shit up and judging him; for the same question he starts out stating that human level of consciousness is of a “higher” level than other animals and without skipping a beat he says consciousness is a subjective experience which is very difficult to understand and no one has answers!! 

How the hell did he infer that human consciousness is at a “higher” level than other animals? 

I rest my case and hence, I throw away most books on consciousness to recycle (to avoid danger of corrupting other minds). 

The other angle you take to explore the boundaries of science is through experiences of “transcendence.” In The Transcendent Brain, you ask, “How can a thing made of atoms feel emotion, wonder, any sensation?” When did you start questioning science’s ability to offer an explanation for these experiences?

About 10 years ago, I became interested in the question of consciousness and how consciousness arises from the human brain. Consciousness is the fundamental human experience. It is probably a graded phenomenon. Crows and dolphins have some level of consciousness, although not as advanced as what humans have. It’s a name that we give to this sensation caused by the electrical and chemical flows of neurons, a certain sensation of being a separate being in the world. Of having an “I.” Of being able to remember things. Of being able to plan for the future. That sensation we call consciousness.

I think most scientists would agree that consciousness is produced by the chemical and electrical activity of neurons, even though we don’t yet know how that sensation arises from material neurons. And it may take a long, long time for science to be able to fill in all the steps to get from the material neurons to the subjective sensation of consciousness. The fundamental obstacle here is that it’s a subjective experience. The brain is three pounds of stuff. You can lay it on a table and probe it. But this sensation of consciousness is a subjective experience. There is a gap between the objective and subjective that makes it very difficult to understand how consciousness emerges from the material brain. I don’t have any answers, and I think philosophers and neuroscientists don’t yet have answers either. It’s really one of the most interesting fundamental questions in science.