Steven Smith's hypothesis on consciousness is fun to read (first impression). Looks like yet another attempt to nail down the process of Emergence. Good news: the text is available online for free review, increasing the odds I'll eventually read this by maybe 1000X.

I came to know Dr. Smith's writings through the use of his well-respected book on signal processing, also available for free on the web as a secondary distribution to his print version.

Quoted: By definition, if a thing is perceived as irreducible, its underlying structure is totally unknown. Therefore, the first-person claim that consciousness arises from something beyond information processing must be rejected, because the first-person perspective has no ability to make this determination.

'Amnesia'