The Conjecture of Strong Subjectivity

Per LessWrong, a philosopher argues that consciousness research has gotten stuck because scientists avoid its most fundamental puzzle: nobody can directly observe anyone else's conscious experience, and nobody can even imagine what that would mean. Rather than continue debating this with thought experiments, the author proposes treating consciousness's fundamental subjectivity as a mathematical conjecture—something that appears true based on all available evidence but hasn't been formally proven. The argument: any viable theory of consciousness should take this strong subjectivity as a core assumption, yet most current theories don't, which may explain why none of them fully satisfies. It's a call to rebuild consciousness theory from this foundation outward.

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