ConCon: Consciousness Conversations

In this episode we discuss Days 4 & 5 (April 25-26) of The Science of Consciousness Conference 2024 in Tucson, Arizona. We cover hear about a panel with some of the biggest names in the field including David Chalmers, Susan Blackmore, Christof Koch and Stuart Hameroff. We also discuss Dataomes, or connected global networks as presented by NASA's Caleb Scharf, The Osiris Rex project which brought asteroid dust back from Bennu that was full of amino acids and other key elements that could have helped bootstrap life on earth and loads of other fun sessions. Full details on the conference here: https://consciousness.arizona.edu/   ConCon is Consciousness Conversations. A podcast where we delve into the nature of subjective experience, self-awareness, and the workings of the brain. Whether you're a skeptic or a seeker, you'll find something to ponder in each episode. Tune in and expand your understanding of what it means to be conscious. Visit us at www.concon.show for more!

In this episode we discuss Day 3 (April 24) of The Science of Consciousness Conference 2024 in Tucson, Arizona. We cover more incredible research into electromagnetic field consciousness signals from Andre Bastos. We learn about a new framework (NOW) for thinking about conscious hierarchies from Justin Riddle, and we discuss several sessions on AI from both doomers and boosters, including people who are building conscious AI. Full details on the conference here: https://consciousness.arizona.edu/ ConCon is Consciousness Conversations. A podcast where we delve into the nature of subjective experience, self-awareness, and the workings of the brain. Whether you're a skeptic or a seeker, you'll find something to ponder in each episode. Tune in and expand your understanding of what it means to be conscious. Visit us at www.concon.show for more!

ConCon is Consciousness Conversations, a podcast where we delve into the nature of subjective experience, self-awareness, and the workings of the brain. Whether you're a skeptic or a seeker, you'll find something to ponder in each episode. Tune in and expand your understanding of what it means to be conscious. Visit us at www.concon.show for more! In this episode we discuss Day 2 (April 23) of The Science of Consciousness Conference 2024 in Tucson, Arizona. We cover electromagnetic fields as a source of consciousness and talks by physician-turned-spiritual-author Deepak Chopra and reality skeptic Donald Hoffman. Full details on the conference here: https://consciousness.arizona.edu/   Consciousness theory voting results here: https://tsc2023-taormina.it/ConsciousnessChallenge.htm

ConCon is Consciousness Conversations. A podcast where we delve into the nature of subjective experience, self-awareness, and the workings of the brain. Whether you're a skeptic or a seeker, you'll find something to ponder in each episode. Tune in and expand your understanding of what it means to be conscious. Visit us at www.concon.show for more! In this episode we discuss Day 1 (April 22) of The Science of Consciousness Conference 2024 in Tucson, Arizona. We cover terminal lucidity, quantum consciousness mechanics and integrated information theory (IIT), which was discussed in a 3 hour evening session. Full details on the conference here: https://consciousness.arizona.edu/

ConCon is Consciousness Conversations. A podcast where we delve into the nature of subjective experience, self-awareness, and the workings of the brain. Whether you're a skeptic or a seeker, you'll find something to ponder in each episode. Tune in and expand your understanding of what it means to be conscious. Visit us at www.concon.show for more! In this episode we're joined by Ruth Vassilas. Ruth is a corporate lawyer turned consciousness researcher. Following her law degree from The University of Pennsylvania and several years of corporate practice, she began a sociology PhD at the University of York in England. Her research explores how people socially navigate the aftermath of intense altered states of consciousness, such as near-death experiences and psychedelic-occasioned mystical experiences. Through qualitative research, she investigates how people reflect on these events and the impact the experiences had on career decisions, health choices, social relationships, and spirituality overtime. Ruth is also on the board of the university's Drug Science Society, and she's a graduate teacher in both the law school and sociology department, where she'll soon teach on a new module called Spiritual Realities. You can connect with Ruth via LinkedIn (/rhvassilas), Instagram at @ruth0rdare (with a zero in the 'or'), or by email at [email protected]

Join us for an exploration of the mysteries of the mind in our podcast about consciousness. We delve into the nature of subjective experience, self-awareness, and the workings of the brain. Whether you're a skeptic or a seeker, you'll find something to ponder in each episode. Tune in and expand your understanding of what it means to be conscious. Visit us at www.concon.show for more! References: • The Singularity Is Near by Ray Kurzweil https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/83518.The_Singularity_is_Near?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=hHokdmXOED&rank=1 • Consciousness in Artificial Intelligence: Insights from the Science of Consciousness https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.08708 • The Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness as Pseudoscience https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/zsr78/ • I Am A Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123471.I_Am_a_Strange_Loop • The Meme Machine by Susan Blackmore https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/254502.The_Meme_Machine • Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4069.Man_s_Search_for_Meaning • Men’s Social Circles are Shrinking https://www.americansurveycenter.org/why-mens-social-circles-are-shrinking/ 00:00 How Jeff from Open AI Got Interested in Consciousness 05:50 Neural Nets and Neuron are About Prediction 15:05 How Do AIs Make Predictions 25:00 Can AIs be Concsious 27:45 AI and Emotions 36:45 The Line of What's Conscious 49:24 Building AC, Artifical Consciousness

Templeton Competition/Chalmers and Koch Bet: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/01/science/consciousness-theories.html DR's Levels of Consciousness Article: https://davidkellyrandall.medium.com/why-its-so-hard-to-talk-about-consciousness-and-how-to-make-it-easier-eef455fcc24c Doc and Biz, Ben's Cats: https://photos.app.goo.gl/AEehBRtkSMudC3ey9   Technical Difficulties We realized after the record that's Ben's mic wasn't picking up. He was able to do some AI wizardry to boost his voice, but the quality is definitely noticeable. Fortunately we have this sorted out for the future. 00:00 Intro 02:10 Ben - The Spookiness of Consciousness 08:30 DR - Where Do Narratives Come From 11:10 Our Favorite Theories Pt. 1 15:08 Where are the Controversies? 22:10 Our Favorite Theories Pt. 2 35:38 Bringing Theories Together 46:20 Lightning Round 54:00 Worries about Conscious AI

Our Day 5 recap of The Science of Consciousness Conference 2023 in Taormina, Italy. Full program and details: https://tsc2023-taormina.it/ Show details at https://concon.show Frans de Waal's Chimpanzee Politics (*actually came out in 1982) - https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/389530 Giorgio Vallortigara (Baby Chick Researcher) - https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgio_Vallortigara David B Edelman - https://www.thethirdwayofevolution.com/people/view/david-b.-edelman Tam Hunt - https://labs.psych.ucsb.edu/schooler/jonathan/members/hunt Michael Levin and Xenobots - https://youtu.be/p3lsYlod5OU Marco Fabus (Ketamine Researcher) - https://twitter.com/MarcoSFabus 00:00 Intro 01:00 Frans de Waal and Animal Consciousness 07:40 Baby Chicks Doing Math 11:50 Conscious Octopuses 14:29 Conscious EM Fields? 21:15 Xenobots and Cellular Memory! 23:40 Ketamine and Psychedelics

Our Day 4 recap of The Science of Consciousness Conference 2023 in Taormina, Italy. Full program and details: https://tsc2023-taormina.it/ Show details at https://concon.show Manuel Blum - https://amturing.acm.org/award_winners/blum_4659082.cfm Conscious Turing Machine Paper - https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2115934119 David Chalmers on conscious LLMs - https://www.zdnet.com/article/ai-could-have-20-percent-chance-of-sentience-in-10-years-says-philosopher-david-chalmers/ 00:00 Intro 00:45 Conscious Turing Machines with the Blums 14:45 Chalmers' 10% change that ChatGPT is conscious 25:57 The Rest of The Day

Our Day 3 recap of The Science of Consciousness Conference 2023 in Taormina, Italy. Full program and details: https://tsc2023-taormina.it/ Show details at https://concon.show • Radiolab Episode (not This American Life 😬) on TDCS - https://radiolab.org/podcast/9-volt-nirvana • Ultrasound Research - https://www.jaysanguinetti.com/transcranial-ultrasound • Childbirth altered consciousness - https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1745691620901546 • Giovanni Marsicano and environmental storytelling - https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2021-78947-001 • Adam Eisen Propofol researcher https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pEJ4yfIAAAAJ&hl=en (seems like the work he was discussing at the conference hasn't been published yet) • Mind blanking research - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36194631/ 00:00 Intro 03:08 Ultrasound consciousness modulating 09:40 Childbirth altered consciousness 12:36 Bad hallucination philosophy 15:50 Bad naive realism philosophy 21:40 Giovanni Marsicano and storytelling 26:50 Propofol's impact on consciousness 30:38 Mind blanking

Our Day 2 recap of The Science of Consciousness Conference 2023 in Taormina, Italy. Full program and details: https://tsc2023-taormina.it/ Show details at https://concon.show Travis Craddock - https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=5oFD8eMAAAAJ&hl=en Hameroff and Penrose Microtubule Theory - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchestrated_objective_reduction Anil Seth Ted Talk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7_LwuuPsAE Anil Seth on the Real Problem -  https://aeon.co/essays/the-hard-problem-of-consciousness-is-a-distraction-from-the-real-one Nicholas Humphrey's new book - https://www.amazon.com/Sentience-Invention-Consciousness-Nicholas-Humphrey-ebook/dp/B0B1BRG238 J. Kevin O'Regan (Sensorimotor Theory) - http://nivea.psycho.univ-paris5.fr/ Uriah Kriegl (Mood Consciousness) - https://uriahkriegel.com/?Papers 00:00 Quantum Microtubules ... Ugh 09:38 Anil Seth on hallucinating your reality 16:45 Nicholas Humphrey and Sentience 24:30 Sensorimotor Theory 28:25 Consciousness of mood 31:20 Meh concurrent sessions

Our Day 1 recap of The Science of Consciousness Conference 2023 in Taormina, Italy. Full program and details: https://tsc2023-taormina.it/ Show details at https://concon.show Robin Zebrowski: https://www.beloit.edu/live/profiles/290-robin-zebrowski John Sullins: https://johnsullins.academia.edu/ Stanislaw Lem - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_by_Stanis%C5%82aw_Lem_and_their_adaptations Phronesis - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phronesis JoeJohn McFadden: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnjoe_McFadden Jim Al-Khalili: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Al-Khalili Al-Khalili Quantum Biology Ted Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=_qgSz1UmcBM&t=8m04s 00:00 Intro 01:30 Ethical Concerns of AI and Consciousness 06:40 Assistive Robot Agents with Inner Voices 16:38 Phronesis and using AI to be more moral  20:35 Stop trying to make Quantum Consciousness happen

In this episode we discuss the hard problem. The hard problem of consciousness asks why and how humans have qualia.  Show details at https://concon.show David Chalmers work: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=o8AfF3MAAAAJ&hl=en

Join us for an exploration of the mysteries of the mind in our podcast about consciousness. We delve into the nature of subjective experience, self-awareness, and the workings of the brain. Whether you're a skeptic or a seeker, you'll find something to ponder in each episode. Tune in and expand your understanding of what it means to be conscious. Show details at https://concon.show