[끄적임] More and Better Questions for Temporal Consciousness

**Definitions 

Here, consciousness means qualia--the "what it feels like to be" portion of experience. Temporal consciousness therefore would be defined as "what it feels like to feel time, or temporality." Temporality denotes a range of phenomena that includes but is not limited to the passage of time, change or duration, order or simultaneity in events, etc. 

**Goal

My ultimate goal is to delineate as much as we can about the basis of this raw feel that relates to time in a scientific manner. For now, I only lay out a number of questions that require satisfactory answers (some more strongly than others) if we are to say that we understand temporal consciousness scientifically.

Q0. Does such a thing as temporal consciousness exist in the first place? Do we really have a set of qualia that is or relates to or can explain "what it feels like to feel time"? Are we reifying by naming the sense of temporality "temporal consciousness" when there is no such distinct thing?

Q1. Is temporal consciousness a prerequisite for conscious experience? Is conscious experience without the "feel" of temporality possible?

Q2. Is our most basic unit of experience temporally extended in itself ("the Specious Present") or is it temporally discrete? In other words, can our conscious experience be discretized into static "snapshots" or "moments"?

Q2-1. If temporal consciousness is temporally extended in itself, then do those "specious present"s overlap or are they distinct?

Q3. Who has temporal consciousness? Do all or some animals have it? Do babies have it?

Q4. Is temporal consciousness an a priori construct in the brain? Or is it learned a posteriori? For instance, it seems obvious that the sense of a single second, when we count "1 second, 2 second, 3 second ... so on", is learned. But is the sense of the passage of time that grounds and enables such learning also learned?

Q5. What is the relationship between temporal consciousness and memory? Is memory a prerequisite of temporal consciousness or vice versa?

Q6. Do different sorts of temporal experiences--feeling of the passage of time, a sense of change or duration, a recognition of order or simulatneity--have a common grounding mechanism, or are they performed by functionally distinct mechanisms, or is it a mix of both?

Q7. What is the mechanism which enables/constitutes/grounds temporal consciousness?

Q8. Can the mechanisms of temporal consciousness be outlined and investigated in mathematical, law-like terms?

Q9. Can we pinpoint a localized brain region that is essential for temporal consciousness as is known for language functions (Wernicke's and Broca's Area) or face-recognition functions (Fusiform Face Area)? Or is temporal consciousness generated on a system level?

Q10. How does temporal consciousness allow and contribute to the generation of conscious time perception? Our perception of time passage (a very fallible and often inaccurate perception) that a certain time has passed or the general feel that "time is flowing slow/fast" is likely a product of a posteriori brain-work that incorporates not only the basic sense of the passage of time but other experiential features.

Q11. Does temporal consciousness disappear, slow down or behave differently when we go into deep and dreamless sleep? What are some other cases temporal consciousness may be tampered with?

Q12. What is the overall relationship between temporal consciousness and consciousness? This goes back to Q1.