Also asking for clarification here. We’ve made a lot of progress understanding the target nerve cell proteins of many general anesthetics. Certainly this is young research but I don’t feel like we’re completely in the dark - there’s been heaps of progress here just in my short, 30+ year life and even since I studied medicine last decade.

It's almost a tautology, but one that is adjacent to deep truths. We don't understand how consciousness emerges, so we can't explain how some relatively simple molecules temporarily suspend it.

We know a lot about local interactions, but the big picture isn't there yet. More, as you well know, is different.