In June 2023 a group of scientists, philosophers, and other curious civilians met in an auditorium in Greenwich Village. There Christof Koch and David Chalmers walked onto the stage and revisited an old bet they had made 25 years prior. When the bet was made, the two men were in a bar and their conversation turned to the nature of consciousness. Christof Koch, a neurologist, believed that when you experience consciousness the neurons in your brain that “feel” the experience are activated. David Chalmers, a philosopher, thought that was a good idea, but believed that humanity would not achieve it anytime soon. So, they made a bet that if the neural markers were discovered in 25 years, Koch would win, and his theory would be proven. Otherwise, Chalmers would win. The winner would receive fine wine from the loser. Now, they are stated to present their theories on the stage.
A lot of scientific progress has happened in the last 2.5 decades. For example, scientists have invented devices that can help humans understand the brain better. With these tools, scientists can compare theories of consciousness to see which theory is the correct one. Now two of the most well-known theories are being compared.
One is the G.W.T. or the Global Workspace Theory. This theory states that consciousness is a byproduct of a particular way of processing information because our brain is constantly processing new information. The other theory is from a scientist named Melanie Boly. She believes that the reason why consciousness is special is because of the way neurons are arranged in the brain. This theory is called the I.I.T, or the Integrated Information Theory.
Koch and Chalmer both helped prepare experiments that could compare the two theories. Chalmer provided his knowledge of philosophy while Koch and 12 experts planned out the experiments. They had already prepared for circumstances where each theory would be correct. The Cogitate Consortium, the organization that would manage all the experiments, started to collect info in May of 2022. The subjects of the test were asked to press a button depending on whether an image was a letter, shape, or face. This would show which parts of the brain lighted up in the scans when seeing the images.
Although the experiments didn’t prove which one was better, they did prove one thing. The bet ended and Christof Koch handed David Chalmers a bottle of fine wine to end the auditorium meeting.
Sources:
https://www.arc-cogitate.com/
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/01/science/consciousness-theories.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/science/21consciousness.html
https://www.nature.com/articles/nrn.2016.22
A lot of scientific progress has happened in the last 2.5 decades. For example, scientists have invented devices that can help humans understand the brain better. With these tools, scientists can compare theories of consciousness to see which theory is the correct one. Now two of the most well-known theories are being compared.
One is the G.W.T. or the Global Workspace Theory. This theory states that consciousness is a byproduct of a particular way of processing information because our brain is constantly processing new information. The other theory is from a scientist named Melanie Boly. She believes that the reason why consciousness is special is because of the way neurons are arranged in the brain. This theory is called the I.I.T, or the Integrated Information Theory.
Koch and Chalmer both helped prepare experiments that could compare the two theories. Chalmer provided his knowledge of philosophy while Koch and 12 experts planned out the experiments. They had already prepared for circumstances where each theory would be correct. The Cogitate Consortium, the organization that would manage all the experiments, started to collect info in May of 2022. The subjects of the test were asked to press a button depending on whether an image was a letter, shape, or face. This would show which parts of the brain lighted up in the scans when seeing the images.
Although the experiments didn’t prove which one was better, they did prove one thing. The bet ended and Christof Koch handed David Chalmers a bottle of fine wine to end the auditorium meeting.
Sources:
https://www.arc-cogitate.com/
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/01/science/consciousness-theories.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/science/21consciousness.html
https://www.nature.com/articles/nrn.2016.22
