Sentientism | Christof Koch - "Consciousness is not a computation... it's a state of being" - Sentientism Ep:181 @Sentientism | Uploaded December 2023 | Updated October 2024, 22 minutes ago.
Christof is a neurophysiologist and computational neuroscientist best known for his work on the neural basis of consciousness on which he worked with Nobel Prize winner Francis Crick for 24 years. He is the president and chief scientist of the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle. Having originally trained as a physicist, from 1986 until 2013, he was a Professor of Biology and Engineering at the California Institute of Technology in Southern California.
Over the last decade, Christof has worked closely with the psychiatrist and neuroscientist Giulio Tononi. Together they advocate for an Integrated Information Theory (IIT) of consciousness - often seen as a modern version of panpsychism that only ascribes consciousness to entities with some degree of irreducible cause-effect power.
In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?” Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The audio is on our Podcast: apple.co/391khQO & https://anchor.fm/sentientism.
We discuss:
00:00 Clips!
01:09 Welcome
- "My dog... Mr. Felix... a sentient being"
- The dedication from Christof's forthcoming book "Then I Am Myself The World": "... to all fellow travellers on the river of time who howl, bark, cry, screech, whine, bellow, shriek, buzz, sing, speak or those without a voice - for it is only in compassion with all life that we can redeem ourselves."
03:52 Christof's Intro
- Physicist turned neurobiologist
- "I've always been fascinated by the question of #consciousness"
04:45 What's Real
- Growing up in a devout Roman #catholic family, raised kids Catholic
- "One thing that always irked me... the belief that my dogs... somehow didn't have a soul and wouldn't be resurrected... that always bothered me... whatever it is we all share"
- "I lived in two worlds - like many scientists do. On Sunday you go to church and you pray... during the week, the rest of the time, you're a scientist - you try to explain everything using natural explanation... this split... I couldn't support any more"
- "Progressively I lost my faith... I'm a naturalist... I try to explain everything... using natural laws"
- "What's real, the only thing that exists is causal power... that gravity has... that electric charge has... that I have when... I raise one of my hands"
- "... the central aspect which is that I can feel, I have experiences, I can see - all of that is somehow arising out of causal powers"
- A priest acknowledging that non-human animals are "parts of god's creation" and can suffer, but "they do not partake in the same way we do"
- Human exceptionalism "many religions believe that humans are exceptional... we're in charge of the universe... everything gets subsumed under human demands - that struck me as wrong"
- Living in Arabic, muslim-majority countries
- "Who has what faith - it's totally random - it depends where you were born and in which family you were born... how can this be true"
- Doing science, using rational assumptions, Bayesian reasoning, the scientific method
- JW: Topics that draw even some naturalists back towards the mystical: Origins & nature of the universe, life, humanity, consciousness...
- Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde" as inspiration for the title of Christof's new book "they lose their own identity and become one... which includes them and the entire world"
- Conversion, mystical, near-death, psychedelic experiences "The question is - what do they reveal about the universe?"
- Leaving Catholicism "it's not easy... there are many things that are very positive about faith... but there are also very negative things... It puts the roots inside of you and it's not easy to leave that comfort... like looking back at the comfort of a childhood... you can't go back... you grew up... now you realise... life is not a consoling tale for children"
- "The universe is beautiful but it's also terrible and it's up to us to understand it... there isn't a god who's going to do that for us"
13:47 What & Who Matters?
- "Morality... the rules and ethics the deeper part, how should we behave, ultimately has to be to minimise the suffering of all creatures... all sentient, conscious creatures... creatures that can experience."
- "Given we're all products of natural selection - we all have pain and can suffer... that's necessary as part of our evolutionary heritage"
39:45 What are Consciousness and Sentience?
01:14:09 A Better World?
01:17:35 Follow Christof
- "I don't Twitter"
- christofkoch.com
- alleninstitute.org/person/christof-koch
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christof_Koch
& much more... (sentientism.info for full notes)#sentientism
#sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all #sentient beings.” More at sentientism.info/. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall sentientism.info/wall/.
Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. E.g.: facebook.com/groups/sentientism.
Christof is a neurophysiologist and computational neuroscientist best known for his work on the neural basis of consciousness on which he worked with Nobel Prize winner Francis Crick for 24 years. He is the president and chief scientist of the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle. Having originally trained as a physicist, from 1986 until 2013, he was a Professor of Biology and Engineering at the California Institute of Technology in Southern California.
Over the last decade, Christof has worked closely with the psychiatrist and neuroscientist Giulio Tononi. Together they advocate for an Integrated Information Theory (IIT) of consciousness - often seen as a modern version of panpsychism that only ascribes consciousness to entities with some degree of irreducible cause-effect power.
In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?” Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The audio is on our Podcast: apple.co/391khQO & https://anchor.fm/sentientism.
We discuss:
00:00 Clips!
01:09 Welcome
- "My dog... Mr. Felix... a sentient being"
- The dedication from Christof's forthcoming book "Then I Am Myself The World": "... to all fellow travellers on the river of time who howl, bark, cry, screech, whine, bellow, shriek, buzz, sing, speak or those without a voice - for it is only in compassion with all life that we can redeem ourselves."
03:52 Christof's Intro
- Physicist turned neurobiologist
- "I've always been fascinated by the question of #consciousness"
04:45 What's Real
- Growing up in a devout Roman #catholic family, raised kids Catholic
- "One thing that always irked me... the belief that my dogs... somehow didn't have a soul and wouldn't be resurrected... that always bothered me... whatever it is we all share"
- "I lived in two worlds - like many scientists do. On Sunday you go to church and you pray... during the week, the rest of the time, you're a scientist - you try to explain everything using natural explanation... this split... I couldn't support any more"
- "Progressively I lost my faith... I'm a naturalist... I try to explain everything... using natural laws"
- "What's real, the only thing that exists is causal power... that gravity has... that electric charge has... that I have when... I raise one of my hands"
- "... the central aspect which is that I can feel, I have experiences, I can see - all of that is somehow arising out of causal powers"
- A priest acknowledging that non-human animals are "parts of god's creation" and can suffer, but "they do not partake in the same way we do"
- Human exceptionalism "many religions believe that humans are exceptional... we're in charge of the universe... everything gets subsumed under human demands - that struck me as wrong"
- Living in Arabic, muslim-majority countries
- "Who has what faith - it's totally random - it depends where you were born and in which family you were born... how can this be true"
- Doing science, using rational assumptions, Bayesian reasoning, the scientific method
- JW: Topics that draw even some naturalists back towards the mystical: Origins & nature of the universe, life, humanity, consciousness...
- Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde" as inspiration for the title of Christof's new book "they lose their own identity and become one... which includes them and the entire world"
- Conversion, mystical, near-death, psychedelic experiences "The question is - what do they reveal about the universe?"
- Leaving Catholicism "it's not easy... there are many things that are very positive about faith... but there are also very negative things... It puts the roots inside of you and it's not easy to leave that comfort... like looking back at the comfort of a childhood... you can't go back... you grew up... now you realise... life is not a consoling tale for children"
- "The universe is beautiful but it's also terrible and it's up to us to understand it... there isn't a god who's going to do that for us"
13:47 What & Who Matters?
- "Morality... the rules and ethics the deeper part, how should we behave, ultimately has to be to minimise the suffering of all creatures... all sentient, conscious creatures... creatures that can experience."
- "Given we're all products of natural selection - we all have pain and can suffer... that's necessary as part of our evolutionary heritage"
39:45 What are Consciousness and Sentience?
01:14:09 A Better World?
01:17:35 Follow Christof
- "I don't Twitter"
- christofkoch.com
- alleninstitute.org/person/christof-koch
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christof_Koch
& much more... (sentientism.info for full notes)#sentientism
#sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all #sentient beings.” More at sentientism.info/. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall sentientism.info/wall/.
Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. E.g.: facebook.com/groups/sentientism.
