Talk of a scientific understanding of consciousness still evokes more sucking in of air than most other subjects. Sceptics are fond of saying that a 鈥渇actor X鈥� that cannot even be imagined at the moment is required. I would argue the opposite: it is here, and it will be commonplace by 2056.
Factor X is a recognition that the brain, despite being the most complex machine on Earth, is nonetheless a machine, and an informational one at that. The notion that information has a physical basis, like the wind, is itself less than 50 years old. Those involved in the rapid development of computation now have the power to understand the brain-machine in a way that was not possible through classical sciences. They are beginning to formalise the many elements of what we call consciousness.