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Steven Pinker views consciousness not as a single phenomenon with a clear-cut beginning, but as having at least two distinct meanings: access consciousness (the "easy problem") and sentience/subjective experience (the "hard problem").

Access Consciousness: Pinker suggests this type of consciousness, involving information accessible to brain processes like language, planning, and intentional movements, emerges gradually through neurological development and language acquisition. This capacity for self-awareness and reflective thought typically develops in children around the ages of three to five, correlating with the development of theory of mind (the understanding that others have distinct mental states).

Sentience (Subjective Experience/Qualia): Regarding sentience, or the raw "what it is like" to feel something, Pinker acknowledges that science can explain its neural correlates (e.g., changes in the brain when experiencing pain or pleasure) but cannot fully explain why subjective experience exists at all. This is the "hard problem" of consciousness, for which he has no definitive answer as to when it "begins" in an absolute sense, only that it is entirely dependent on neurophysiology.

In essence, Pinker does not pinpoint a specific moment, like conception or birth, for the onset of all forms of consciousness. Instead, he highlights the gradual emergence of complex self-awareness as the brain matures, while viewing basic subjective experience as a fundamental, if mysterious, product of brain activity that likely begins with the development of the necessary neural structures (such as the cerebral cortex and thalamus).