What is consciousness?

A short introduction to this album. 

The difficulties of explaining consciousness scientifically. 

Are animals conscious? Can we produce conscious machines? 

It's pretty obvious to each of us that we are conscious, as we go about our days and feel the experience of just ‘being ourselves'. But how do we know that someone else is conscious? It’s something we lose during dreamless sleep, under anaesthesia or in a coma. But what exactly i ... Show More

Examining the nature of consciousness. 

Examining the nature of consciousness. 

How did consciousness come into existence? Looking for a link we mentioned? It's here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimes'Steven Pinker and Sam Harris have argued "the emergence of consciousness is simply incomprehensible". While recent neuroscientists have concluded "there ... Show More

How do your billions of tiny brain cells build consciousness as they chatter away with electrical spikes and chemical signals? And why is your laptop, with its sophisticated algorithms and billions of parts, presumably not conscious? Could other large systems like a city become c ... Show More

Language and Mind: What is rationality? What is consciousness? How do we manage to express our thoughts and experiences in language? 

Visit Gaia.com/eventsplus for more information.  If being conscious is the thing that defines our existence as human beings, then it’s important to understand what consciousness is and how this brain activity works? Randy Veitenheimer explores what consciousness means, from our o ... Show More

Where does human consciousness arise from? Was there an evolutionary moment when the light switched on? Are animals conscious, too? We ask the philosopher and cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. 

The difficulties of trying to describe consciousness. 

Sam Harris speaks with Anil Seth about the scientific study of consciousness, where consciousness emerges in nature, levels of consciousness, perception as a “controlled hallucination,” emotion, the experience of “pure consciousness,” consciousness as “integrated information,” me ... Show More