Consciousness All the Way Down: Panpsychism, AI & the Nature of Reality | Dr. Christian de Quincey

What if consciousness isn’t something your brain produces — but something woven into the fabric of reality itself, all the way down to atoms and molecules?In this episode of Potential Paradigms, I sit down with philosopher Dr. Christian de Quincey — professor at the Holmes Institute and the International University of Professional Studies, and author of Radical Knowing, Radical Nature, and Blind Spots — for a deep dive into panpsychism: the view that matter and mind are never separate, and that sentience goes all the way down.We walk through the four major worldviews on the mind-body relationship — dualism, materialism, idealism, and panpsychism — and explore why panpsychism might be the most internally coherent framework for understanding reality. Along the way, we touch on:* Why materialism’s account of consciousness amounts to “and then a miracle occurred”* The Matrix as a modern retelling of Plato’s cave and the idealist worldview* Being and becoming, explored through both Kashmir Shaivism and the process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead* The difference between intelligence and intelligent behavior — and why Christian believes true “artificial intelligence” may be a contradiction in terms* Whether machines built from sentient matter could express a kind of augmented, rather than artificial, intelligenceThis was a rich, wide-ranging conversation, and I’m grateful to Christian for the depth and generosity he brought to it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.Learn more about Christian de Quincey's work: https://www.christiandequincey.com/?page_id=2377 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit potentialparadigms.substack.com