Consciousness and the 2026 Medicine Nobel Prize
On the last days, the Medicine Nobel Prize was given to a group of scientists that discovered a way to switch neurons with incredible precision simply with light. They were capable of reviving memories, create emotions and much more.
This a great finding to engineering and neuroscience. But I want to know the most interesting question. What does this experiments tell us about consciousness. Does this proves materialism?
My personal opinion is no. It does not. For me, this experiments are a highly sophisticated and effective relative of the old seizure-inducing experiments that allowed us to create memories, emotions and much more. This proves, as we all know, that consciousness is highly related to the brain and its processes. It does not prove in any sense that it causes it. I don't think it even proves that memories and emotions, which I do agree that are created by the brain, but I don't think this experiment gives us anything new on this theme.
Still, this a great advencement to neuroscience, medicine and engineering and we should celebrate it.
What do you all think?
Edit: Let me clarify that I don't think consciousness is magic. When I say materialism, I refer to the classical view of the brain, as a computer. I only try to refute that