Christof Koch is a pioneering neuroscientist and one of the most prominent advocates of a scientific approach to consciousness. He has spent decades working at the intersection of neuroscience, philosophy, and computation.Christof is one of the foremost proponents of Integrated Information Theory (IIT) — a radical proposal that attempts to explain consciousness in terms of causal structure. IIT begins not with the brain, but with experience itself. It takes as its starting point what is undeniable: that something is happening right now — that experience exists. It then looks at the features of conscious experience, for example, that is unified yet composed of parts, and contentful. From there, it builds a theory describing which physical systems support conscious states. In this conversation, Christof and I explore what a scientific theory of consciousness might need to achieve, and why behavior alone — even the impressive feats of AI is not enough. Nor indeed is any computational account of consciousness: consciousness is about structure, two structures may lead to the same outcomes, but their form might mean that one is conscious and the other not. But we also touch on experience beyond theory — Christof’s reflections on psychedelic experiences and the dissolution of the self.This is a conversation about what it means to be a whole, what makes a system truly unified — and what it might take to understand, and perhaps even expand, the field of consciousness. Christof’s latest book is Then I Am Myself the World: What Consciousness Is and How to Expand It.
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Where Does It End? — Adrian Moore on The Infinite
Infinity may seem simple, just the absence of limits. But the closer we examine it, the more it unravels into paradox and mystery. Can some infinities be larger than others? How can an infinite hotel be fully booked yet still have room for more guests?In this episode of Multiverses, I’m joined by Adrian Moore, professor of philosophy at Oxford, to explore these questions. We dive into Hilbert’s Hotel, Cantor’s revolutionary work on transfinite numbers, and the philosophical and even theological implications of the absolute infinite—the place where maths itself seems to break down.Along the way, we ask: Is infinity something we can ever truly grasp? Or does it forever retreat beyond our understanding?If you like these topics, where science, maths give way to the unstable ground of philosophy ... subscribe!Adrian's academic homepageAdrian's book: The Infinite
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37| Mind-Wandering — Kalina Christoff Hadjiilieva on the Science of Spontaneous Thought
Mind-wandering is often dismissed as a distraction, an idle drift away from productive thought. But what if this spontaneous movement of the mind is not just a quirk of cognition but a fundamental feature of how we think, create, and find meaning? Our guest, Kalina Christoff Hadjiilieva, is a Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia where she leads The Cognitive Neuroscience of Thought Laboratory. Her work explores the neural mechanisms behind mind-wandering, uncovering how our brains shift between goal-directed focus and free-flowing exploration. Kalina argues that mind-wandering is not a failure of attention but an essential cognitive process—one that fuels creativity, problem-solving, and insight. While some scientists define mind-wandering narrowly as thinking about anything other than the task at hand, she proposes a broader, more dynamic definition: mind-wandering is thought moving freely, unconstrained by immediate demands or rigid patterns. Neuroscience has long favored studying controlled, deliberate cognition. The executive brain functions—the ones we can track, measure, and influence—are often given priority. But Kalina points out that the vast majority of brain activity is spontaneous and unexplained. She advocates for a shift in perspective: instead of treating free thought as noise, we should recognize its role in structuring our experiences, shaping our beliefs, and allowing us to make sense of the world. Mind-wandering, Kalina suggests, is not just about distraction—it is about discovery.
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36| History of Science: Mythmaking & Contingency — Patricia Fara
Scientific discoveries can often be codified in simple laws, neatly stated in textbooks with directions on applying them. But the enterprise of science is embedded in society. It depends on individuals and economies. It is far from simple to answer the question: How did we get these laws? Patricia Fara is an Emeritus Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge. She is a former president of the British Society for the History of Science and has written Science: A Four Thousand Year History, Newton: The Making of Genius, and numerous other books. Patricia discusses the way we often mythologize individual scientists and how the notion of genius has changed over the centuries. She also highlights lesser-known figures, such as Hertha Ayrton, whose contribution should not be measured merely in scientific breakthroughs, but in how they paved the way for further women scientists.
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35| Hypercomputation: Why Machines May never Think Like Humans — Selmer Bringsjord
AI can do many things equally well as humans: such as writing plausible prose or answering exam questions. In certain domains, AI goes far beyond human capabilities — playing chess for instance.We might expect that nothing prevents machines from one day besting humans at every task. Indeed, it is often asserted that, in principle, everything (and more) within the range of human cognition will one day fall within the ken of AI.But what if there are concepts and ways of thinking that are off-limits to any machine, yet not so for humans? Selmer Bringsjord, Professor in Cognitive Science at RPI joins us this week and argues we need to rethink human thought.Selmer argues that humans have been able to grasp problems that machines cannot — humans are capable of hypercomputation. Hypercomputation is computation above the Turing limit, as such it can solve problems beyond the power of any machine we can currently conceive.In particular, Turing computation cannot encompass infinitary logic, yet humans have been able to reason effectively about the infinite. Similarly, Gödel’s theorem points to a class of riddles machines cannot reach, yet human genius has identified.This is a huge topic, accepting Selmer’s arguments entails accepting that human minds work in a way that evades our understanding — their mechanisms obeying mechanics of which we are wholly ignorant.Whether or not you agree with Selmer’s conclusions, this is a brilliant exploration of the boundaries of thought.Links Selmer's Academic Homepage RPI AI and Reasoning Lab (RAIR)
Coffee table conversations with people thinking about foundational issues. Multiverses explores the limits of knowledge and technology. Does quantum mechanics tell us that our world is one of many? Will AI make us intellectually lazy, or expand our cognitive range? Is time a thing in itself or a measure of change? Join James Robinson as he tries to find out.
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