Another of Pollack's Problems

Conscious Quarks?
Panpsychism

My next-favorite problem is number 4, our 'magical consciousness':

4) "What is consciousness? How can it possibly be produced by the human brain, which is, after all, just a blob of ordinary matter?"

I've lunged in various directions trying to answer the question this way or that way. I sometimes think that consciousness is no more mysterious than the existence of a subatomic particle, say, a quark. Maybe, basically, everything boils down to brute facts. Just keep asking the same question: "What is X made of (X being the the previous building block, which must now be broken down into its own building blocks)?" Other times, I think that a quark is just as mysterious as consciousness. And I even other other times suspect that quarks are conscious. (They may be listening to us right now.) But mostly, I don't know what to think.