[j-club] Birch: The Edge of Sentience Chapter 16 (Presented by Francesco... youtu.be/UScZgmzkK0k?... via @YouTube LLMs and the Gaming Problem (Francesco) - Birch’s two projects distinguished: - Practical/ethical: why sentience _candidates_ matter morally more than resolving

[j-club] Birch: The Edge of Sentience Chapter 16 (Presented by Francesco Ellia)

YouTube video by Neural basis of Consciousness & Qualia Structure

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New open-access paper out in Trends in Cognitive Sciences: Explanation, scope, and perspective: sources of schismogenesis in consciousness science Francesco Ellia & Naotsugu Tsuchiya A thread 1/n🧵 www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

Explanation, scope, and perspective: sources of schismogenesis in consciousness science

Contemporary consciousness science faces an impasse: competing theoretical frameworks—structuralist versus functionalist, universal versus local, intrinsic versus extrinsic—appear to be inducing philo...

cell.com

Looks very cool!

Keisuke Suzuki@ksks.bsky.social · 4mo ago

A new preprint t.co/YtK1A9asrJ Beyond the Reducing Valve: Towards a Computational Neurophenomenology of Altered States via Deep Neural Networks

New preprint by @niccolonegro.bsky.social !

Niccolo Negro@niccolonegro.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Happy to share our preprint mapping the structure of theories of consciousness and their predictions, with @edenelbaz.bsky.social, @shaifischer.bsky.social, @maorschreiber.bsky.social, and @liadmudrik.bsky.social. Accessible here: osf.io/preprints/ps... Supplementary: osf.io/9xug8/overview

We are very excited to share this new preprint @yutogashi.bsky.social @oizumim.bsky.social with the excellent video providing the idea! The paper explains how this approach actually goes into more details in revealing subtle individual difference and complex structures of color qualia.

Yu Togashi@yutogashi.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Excited to share our new preprint w/@yukoy.bsky.social , Chihiro Hiramatsu, @naotsuchiya.bsky.social & @oizumim.bsky.social ! We present the world’s first empirical evidence supporting that "my red" is "your red", through an unsupervised alignment of color qualia structures at the individual level.

Every time I upload a paper to #bioRxiv, I wonder why it can't be this easy at every journal 🧪

wonderful!

Alice Auersperg@auersperga.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Our new paper (with @biotay.bsky.social) is out and on the cover story of @currentbiology.bsky.social !!!! Veronika, a Carinthian mountain cow flexibly uses a “multi-purpose tool” to scratch herself. A video and more information will follow in the comments. www.cell.com/current-biol...

This paper and lecture by @wgpm.bsky.social address a long standing question about #IIT: if #consciousness is intrinsic, how does it relate to its #environment? From our @qualiastructure.bsky.social Qualia Structure & IIT Summer School 2025!

Will Mayner@wgpm.bsky.social · 8mo ago

I was very happy to talk about my work on extending Integrated Information Theory to account for perception & meaning with @algarwegian.bsky.social. The talk is geared towards those already familiar with IIT, but may still be of interest even if you're not. Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2412.21111

If your stimulus set is so large that each participant can only use a part of it, do you know random selection is not a good way to distribute the stimuli? We introduced a methodology to collect data efficiently. @naotsuchiya.bsky.social @qualiastructure.bsky.social doi.org/10.13140/RG....

(PDF) A dynamic stimulus distribution methodology for efficient large-scale pairwise relational data collection

PDF | On Dec 3, 2025, Z Chuyin and others published A dynamic stimulus distribution methodology for efficient large-scale pairwise relational data collection | Find, read and cite all the research you...

doi.org

Be mindful of the subjectivity of conscious experience! Our poster "Free descriptions reduce friction between report and visual experience" at 2025 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference @ellia.bsky.social @naotsuchiya.bsky.social @qualiastructure.bsky.social doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

I disagree, it’s an hypothesis that you cannot test and that it’s not embedded in an explanatory framework..

Kevin Mitchell@wiringthebrain.bsky.social · 9mo ago

To me, it's just a nothing "hypothesis" - it doesn't do any explanatory work, just dismisses the problem. And also is founded on a weird rejection of emergence that is obviously contradicted by all kinds of other evidence

[Qstr-IIT summer school 2025] Day 1 Matteo Grasso: Introduction to Integrated Information Theory youtu.be/cwPGZ1CacVU?... Highly accessible!

[Qstr-IIT summer school 2025] Day 1 Matteo Grasso: Introduction to Integrated Information Theory

YouTube video by Neural basis of Consciousness & Qualia Structure

youtu.be

[Qstr-IIT summer school 2025] Day 1: Christof Koch: Introduction to Consciousness and Brain youtu.be/rfYX8YVK7HQ?... via @YouTube

[Qstr-IIT summer school 2025] Day 1: Christof Koch: Introduction to the consciousness research

YouTube video by Neural basis of Consciousness & Qualia Structure

youtu.be

I will check this reference out! My understanding is that you can always push functions a bit further till the point you have a description of the substrate. Then either it collapse in identity theory or become a substrate relevant framework, such as the one proposed by @anilseth.bsky.social.

Keith Frankish@keithfrankish.com · 10mo ago

:) I do take your point, and many "functionalists" deserve this. But when it comes to consciousness, some people really do believe in intrinsic essences (hence panpsychism). What we need is a microfunctionalism that is thoroughly informed by biology. See Dennett, Sweet Dreams, ch.1.

www.cambridge.org/core/journal... Happy to share this new paper (open access) on the logic of extrapolations in consciousness science, written with @liadmudrik.bsky.social

New paper! Toward a unified taxonomy of information dynamics via Integrated Information Decomposition, out now in @pnas.org - led by @frosas.bsky.social, Pedro Mediano, & Adam Barrett, w/ @andrealuppi.bsky.social @robincarhartharris.bsky.social, me, & Dan Bor. www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10....

This is a core issue that I have with the recent paper on AI and consciousness based on computational functionalist theories. Also the term theory is very inflated nowadays. I am guilty of that myself, but something to think about.

Jaan Aru@jaanaru.bsky.social · last yr.

First, I acknowledge that consciousness research has made progress but to me that progress has come with constraints: successful theories constrain further progress. What if these theories are not close to figuring out consciousness? Our field was intellectually more fluid 20 years ago. #consci

Another preprint! By @zhangchuyin.bsky.social me and @naotsuchiya.bsky.social !

Zhang Chuyin@zhangchuyin.bsky.social · 11mo ago

How to better measure subjective experience? Our new #preprint argues that we should focus on the "what-it-is-like" of #consciousness rather than experimenter-centric task design and analyses. @qualiastructure.bsky.social @naotsuchiya.bsky.social @ellia.bsky.social dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG....

New preprint out! My friend @zhangchuyin.bsky.social is new on Bluesky, he is a brilliant student close to the end of his PhD, please follow him!

Zhang Chuyin@zhangchuyin.bsky.social · 11mo ago

How to better measure subjective experience? Our new #preprint argues that we should focus on the "what-it-is-like" of #consciousness rather than experimenter-centric task design and analyses. @qualiastructure.bsky.social @naotsuchiya.bsky.social @ellia.bsky.social dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG....

Check out our new preprint on theories of #consciousness!

Francesco Ellia@ellia.bsky.social · 11mo ago

New #preprint out! In this paper @naotsuchiya.bsky.social and I take a look at the current debate on theories of #consciousness from a #meta-theoretical standpoint, and we argue that there is an ongoing process of #schismogenesis in consciousness science. [1/n] www.researchgate.net/publication/...

New #preprint out! In this paper @naotsuchiya.bsky.social and I take a look at the current debate on theories of #consciousness from a #meta-theoretical standpoint, and we argue that there is an ongoing process of #schismogenesis in consciousness science. [1/n] www.researchgate.net/publication/...

(PDF) Intrinsic Universal Structures and Extrinsic Local Functions

PDF | Contemporary consciousness science faces an impasse: competing theoretical frameworks, structuralist vs. functionalist, universal vs. local,... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on...

researchgate.net

New paper with Azenet Lopez in C&C: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #PhilMind #PhilConsc #Consciousness

Building blocks for theories of consciousness

Consciousness science is brimming with theories attempting to explain what consciousness is and how it can be identified in natural and artificial sys…

sciencedirect.com

Congratulations!

Consciousness - tlab@qualiastructure.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Dream start for database that aims to improve our understanding of conscious experience in sleep Free link to the paper in Nature Communication is rdcu.be/eAwni !

The spirit of Judo is enshrined in its two mottos, that roughly translates into “the maximum effective use of energy” and “mutual benefit” (but please correct me if you know a better translation). According to its founder, Kano Jigoro, Judo means following these principles in every aspect of life.

I wrote a commentary (mostly) disagreeing with the thought-provoking @smfleming.bsky.social & @matthiasmichel.bsky.social BBS paper about consciousness arising during the transition of animals from sea to land. #consciousness #neuroscience #evolution

Our new book chapter is out, looking at self-awareness/personhood in nonhuman animals, and how it may relate to questions of suffering link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

Self-Awareness and Personhood in Non-Human Animals

Beyond simple consciousness or sentience, some non-human animals may possess more sophisticated cognitive abilities linked to capacities for self-awareness or even personhood, capacities that may infl...

link.springer.com

If you are interested in bird behaviour or animal brains, our book has you covered. Available next week, you can order direct from @mitpress.bsky.social (mitpress.mit.edu/978026255273...) or wherever books are sold. #birds #neuroskyence 🪶🧠🧪🇨🇦 See more on it here: www.ulethbridge.ca/unews/articl...

Comparative neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Iwaniuk revels in unlocking the what, how and why of bird behaviour | UNews

ulethbridge.ca

I'm going to be no fun and suppress the impulse to make fun of that, because it actually raises an interesting point. Can the emergent macroscopic 'whole' reach down and control the otherwise random quantum goings-on within it?

Does meditation just happen to address multiple types of suffering, or does its broad effectiveness hint at something deeper about the mechanisms of suffering or well-being itself? We address this in our new preprint! @rubenlaukkonen.bsky.social osf.io/preprints/ps...