Can the known particles and interactions explain consciousness?

[Kittens Are Jerks]

Can the known particles and interactions explain consciousness?

In theory, everything that exists in the physical Universe is dependent only on the same fundamental entities and interactions that we find by splitting matter apart down to the smallest possible scales. Living creatures can be divided into cells; cells themselves are composed of organelles; organelles can be broken down into molecules; molecules are made up of atoms; atoms are comprised of electrons and atomic nuclei; electrons cannot be broken down further, but nuclei themselves consist of quarks and gluons. We should, therefore, be able to take these fundamental constituents of matter — quarks, gluons, and electrons — and assemble them in various ways to explain everything that we encounter in everyday life.

https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/consciousness-arise-particles/

[ShadowSeeker]

That idea is fascinating and gets right at the heart of one of the biggest mysteries in science: how complexity arises from simplicity. It makes sense that everything, including consciousness, should be reducible to fundamental particles like quarks and electrons since that's all that matter is at the most basic level. But then there’s this huge leap between understanding particles interacting through forces and something as complex as the human mind.

Even though we know how atoms form molecules, and molecules form cells, we still don’t fully understand how these arrangements lead to subjective experiences—how life emerges from non-life, or how consciousness comes from particles obeying physical laws. It's like there's something more to the story that we haven't grasped yet, something that might not easily be explained just by rearranging fundamental particles.

Maybe the answer lies in emergent properties, where new rules apply at different levels of complexity, but it's still hard to pinpoint exactly when and how consciousness emerges from this dance of particles.