Abstract

The mystery of consciousness has baffled philosophers for centuries, yet Hard Problems remain. Current computational models rely on a strong emergentist dualism, treating mind as a mathematical abstraction with no causal effect on natural selection. Panpsychist models are elegant but fail to explain how subjective experience integrates into unified selves. This paper proposes **hydropsychism** - the hypothesis that **the self is simply the water in and around neurons**. This view is a simple panpsychist model that explains evolution of mind from the earliest stages, lacks paradoxes, matches observation and leads to testable predictions. This opens up the door to building conscious machines.