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consciousness

A man sits at a table in the middle of a wood-paneled library, perusing a large book.
Q&A

Pondering the Bits That Build Space-Time and Brains

By Charlie Wood
April 20, 2022
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Vijay Balasubramanian investigates whether the fabric of the universe might be built from information, and what it means that physicists can even ask such a question.

Neuroscientist Anil Seth in his darkened laboratory at the University of Sussex.
Q&A

Anil Seth Finds Consciousness in Life’s Push Against Entropy

By Dan Falk
September 30, 2021
Read Later

How does consciousness arise in mere flesh and blood? To the neuroscientist Anil Seth, our organic bodies are the key to the experience.

Q&A

Curious About Consciousness? Ask the Self-Aware Machines

By John Pavlus
July 11, 2019
Read Later

Consciousness is a famously hard problem, so Hod Lipson is starting from the basics: with self-aware robots that can help us understand how we think.

Art for "Neuroscience Readies for a Showdown Over Consciousness Ideas"
neuroscience

Neuroscience Readies for a Showdown Over Consciousness Ideas

By Philip Ball
March 6, 2019
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To make headway on the mystery of consciousness, some researchers are trying a rigorous new way to test competing theories.

Art for "A ‘Self-Aware’ Fish Raises Doubts About a Cognitive Test"
neuroscience

A ‘Self-Aware’ Fish Raises Doubts About a Cognitive Test

By Elizabeth Preston
December 12, 2018
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A report that a fish can pass the “mirror test” for self-awareness reignites debates about how to define and measure that elusive quality.

Illustration for "Overtaxed Working Memory Knocks the Brain out of Sync"
neuroscience

Overtaxed Working Memory Knocks the Brain Out of Sync

By Jordana Cepelewicz
June 6, 2018
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Researchers find that when working memory gets overburdened, dialogue between three brain regions breaks down. The discovery provides new support for a larger concept about how the brain works.

Man emerging from particals climbing monolith
consciousness

A Theory of Reality as More Than the Sum of Its Parts

By Natalie Wolchover
June 1, 2017
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New math shows how, contrary to conventional scientific wisdom, conscious beings and other macroscopic entities might have greater influence over the future than do the sum of their microscopic components.

Quantum Brain GIF
neuroscience

A New Spin on the Quantum Brain

By Jennifer Ouellette
November 2, 2016
Read Later

A new theory explains how fragile quantum states may be able to exist for hours or even days in our warm, wet brain. Experiments should soon test the idea.

Q&A

The Evolutionary Argument Against Reality

By Amanda Gefter
April 21, 2016
Read Later

The cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman believes that evolution and quantum mechanics conspire to make objective reality an illusion.


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