@neuralreckoning

I have trouble moving from that first point of view you outline because it's the only one that narrows in on an interesting and unshakeable phenomenon. Whether that is what the term consciousness commonly refers to or not, I think that's where the hard problem lies.

The minimalist view you summarise seems to take the verbal report and the information processing that leads up to it as that which needs to be explained, but I think those speech actions you mention are our best third-person proxies of the first-person process that is the true target.

To be sure, if consciousness does get defined as a third-person phenomenon (just like heartbeats), and any explanation consists in the causal chain that leads to it, then yes I would say the problem becomes a lot more straightforward and less confusing.

@neuralreckoning

Oh I just meant that the scientific problem is there in addition to the project of explaining memory. I definitely think consciousness has causal impacts.

But I don't think consciousness reduces to a memory subsystem for similar reasons that I don't think phenomena like attention or decision making do. It's hard to conceive of decision making over information that isn't or wasn't part of memory subsystems but I wouldn't say that collapses the story into one dimension or system.

Certainly there are target phenomena (such as a verbal report) for which a model or diagram might integrate and intertwine consciousness and memory, but imo that's different from the question of whether they are one and the same system.

@neuralreckoning

I'd add to what others said that even if consciousness depends on information processing in memory systems this does not entail that the study of consciousness reduces to the study of a memory subsystem.

I view the problem of consciousness as one that's stacked on top of memory. Memory gives you the information, which somehow becomes coloured with subjective experience. We know a priori it need not happen that way (see e.g. hard drives or DNA), and as such the task at hand is to explain the seemingly extra phenomenon of qualia.