Amy Brady has an excellent article in the Dec issue of Scientific American about how the quest to understand our physical universe may depend on investigating our own mind
There has for centuries been the long never resolved debate between philosophers, naturalists, scientists and psychologists challenging each other's notions of reality and determinations of what is consciousness. We still have NO clue or agreement! However, it looks like there might be a breakthrough or cross sectional consideration on new thinking!
Yes, there might actually be some collaborative progress that could help us leap far ahead into new theoretical territory that includes some aspects of computational neuroscience and quantum physics. If you think that concept decides anything then we have yet to underline the challenges and complexity in explaining the inner workings of mind and consciousness.
In Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation, journalist and Scientific American contributor George Musser brings readers along on this quest, tracking the development of different ideas and suppositions that aim to elucidate how consciousness might have arisen and what processes inform—if not create—our perceptions of reality.
Investigating the mind and confronting the “hard problem” of consciousness necessarily require the collision of disciplines. The field's most significant researchers seem to have stumbled into it from myriad backgrounds—semiconductors, psychiatry and cosmology, among other fields—and it's Musser who wanders into these scientists at conferences, in cafeterias and in train cars to get details on the latest findings.
Find the article here...