Hard Problem of Plant Consciousness

The most speculative leap: the question of whether plants, with their integrated signaling and responsive behaviors, could have any form of subjective experience. Not thinking, but feeling—even if it's a slow, diffuse sensation of light, damage, or attraction. With no brain or nervous system, what would consciousness even be made of? It’s the ultimate challenge to our animal-centric view of sentience, pushing the boundaries of whether consciousness is a universal property of complex, self-sustaining systems or a unique trick of neural circuitry.

Example: "The mystic says the forest has a spirit. The scientist says it's a chemical network. The hard problem of plant consciousness is the unsettling void between: what if they're both right? What if that 'spirit' is a real, subjective experience, but one so alien and slow we could never recognize, let alone measure, it?"

by Abzugal January 30, 2026

Hard Problem of Plant Intelligence

Similar to cognition, but focused on adaptive problem-solving. The hard problem is distinguishing between evolved, automated biochemical responses and genuine, flexible intelligence. When a plant shapes its growth to outcompete a neighbor, is it executing a brilliant strategic move, or is it just a biological robot running immutable code written by natural selection? The line is blurred, forcing us to ask if "intelligence" requires an ability to learn anew within a lifetime, or if eons of genetic "learning" can produce something that qualifies.

*Example: "The tree's roots detected a water pipe leak 30 feet away and grew toward it. The hard problem of plant intelligence: Is that a clever solution to a novel problem, showing real-time smarts, or just a lucky coincidence of its always-grow-toward-moisture programming hitting the jackpot?"*

by Abzugal January 30, 2026

Hard Problem of IQ

The critique that IQ tests measure something narrow and culturally loaded—pattern recognition, logic puzzles, certain knowledge—and call it "general intelligence." The hard problem is figuring out what, if anything, the score actually captures about the deeper, multifaceted nature of human intellect. Does a high IQ score mean you're genuinely more intelligent, or just better at a specific type of abstract game that our society has mistakenly equated with overall mental worth?

Example: "He aced the IQ test but can't manage his emotions, understand social cues, or fix a leaky faucet. The hard problem of IQ is this: Did the test measure his intelligence, or just his talent for taking IQ tests? The number is seductive, but it might be a map that leaves 90% of the territory unexplored." Hard Problem of IQ

by Abzugal January 30, 2026

Hard Problem of the G Factor

The statistical reality that performance on diverse cognitive tests tends to correlate, suggesting a single, underlying general intelligence factor (*g*). The hard problem is figuring out what *g* physically is in the brain. Is it neural processing speed? Efficient connectivity? Working memory capacity? Or is it just a mathematical phantom emerging from the way we design tests? It's the hunt for the biological engine of intellectual horsepower, separate from specific skills or knowledge.

Example: "Neuroscientists found a correlation between *g* and prefrontal cortex efficiency. But the hard problem of the g factor remains: Is that efficiency the cause of general intelligence, or just another symptom of a deeper, still-mysterious root? It's like finding a bigger battery in smarter people, but not knowing what the battery actually powers." Hard Problem of the G Factor

by Abzugal January 30, 2026

Hard Problem of Logic

The unsettling question of why logic, a human-invented system of symbols and rules, seems to perfectly describe and predict the behavior of the universe. It's the gap between our mental abstractions (If P then Q) and the stubborn consistency of natural laws. Why is the cosmos not just orderly, but logical? Does logic exist "out there" as a fundamental structure of reality, waiting to be discovered, or is it just a profoundly useful fiction our brains project onto chaos? It's the problem of whether mathematics is invented or discovered, applied to the rules of reasoning itself.

Example: "We built AIs that use flawless logic, and they keep predicting quantum experiments wrong. The hard problem of logic is asking if the universe itself has a bug, or if our logic is just a convincing local operating system that crashes when it tries to run reality's full, weird code."

by Abzugal January 30, 2026

Hard Problem of Rationality

The paradox that the tool we use to evaluate truth—rationality—cannot be justified using purely rational means without circular reasoning. Why should we be rational? Because it's effective? That's a pragmatic, not rational, argument. Rationality rests on axioms (like "the world is consistent") that must be assumed, not proven. The hard problem is that rationality is the judge, jury, and executioner of thought, but it can't put itself on trial without presupposing its own validity.

Example: "He tried to use pure rationality to convince his friend to be rational. 'You should value logic because... it's logical?' He hit the hard problem of rationality: the foundation of reason isn't a brick; it's a turtle floating in mid-air, and asking 'why?' just makes it fall."

by Abzugal January 30, 2026

Hard Problem of Reason

Closely tied to rationality, but focused on the faculty itself. How can reason, a product of blind evolutionary processes that selected for survival, not truth, be trusted to uncover objective truths about reality? Our brains were shaped to find patterns, avoid predators, and secure mates—not to solve metaphysics. The hard problem is whether reason is a cracked lens that happensto work in our middle-world, or a genuine pipeline to capital-T Truth.

*Example: "Our reason tells us quantum mechanics is true, even though it's utterly unreasonable. The hard problem of reason is wondering if our minds, built to throw spears and spot lions, have any business trusting their conclusions about non-local hidden variables or 11-dimensional strings."*

by Abzugal January 30, 2026