Christof Koch: Consciousness | Lex Fridman Podcast #2

[erdinn]

Lex, I can‘t thank you enough for creating high quality content like this. Can we somehow support you?

[thomaskellar]

I had a definite experience when I was about 8 where I suddenly realized that "I exist". I have remembered that all my life.

[hosinlau]

Outline:
1:10 - Universality of consciousness across species
3:25 - First aware of consciousness
5:15 - What is consciousness
6:05 - Conscious machines & the nature of consciousness
13:40 - Why do we need consciousness
15:10 - Measuring consciousness
19:10 - Panpsychism
25:20 - Does intelligence require consciousness
33:00 - Special aspects of human consciousness
34:10 - Religion
36:45 - Root of being
39:05 - Free will
41:00 - Subconscious
45:20 - Literature
47:00 - Timescale of conscious beings
52:45 - Advice for AI researchers
55:20 - Future research on claustrum

[cupajoesir]

Lex your videos are an oasis in the youtube desert. Thank you so much for sharing all of this awesome content.

[danielbigham]

It's so rare that I get to listen to a human speak that is so insightful into consciousness -- many intelligent people seem to want to sweep it under the carpet and pretend it doesn't exist, etc. Really enjoyed listening to Christof.

[Hexanitrobenzene]

Professor Koch has a distinct manner of speaking which is reminiscent of speaking while angry. And yet, Lex managed to get a smile out of him at 44:15 :)

[Ferrari]

Thanks for all of these videos! I never wanted to study when i was young. Now i am learning a lot

[shaunpriddle]

Christof would make the ultimate "Die Hard" baddie !

Lex: need a round 2 buddy, this guy is awesome 😀

[FlyingRagilein]

That's hands down the best interview I saw for a long long time. Thanks for posting!

[SomeOnSunday]

These conversations are so inspiring. Thank you for making the MIT experience so accessible. I've never heard an explanation of dreaming like 11.46secs. Obviously only one of Christof's incredible insights. Wow!

[MrRobikshrestha]

Qn: What discipline should I take on? Is it neuroscience, cognitive science, philosophy, computer science?
Ans: YES :-)

[jaakdefour]

I watched a lot of Christof's interviews, this is one of the best, congrats

[bensibree-paul]

Awesome. It's a real privilege to be able to hear the thoughts from so many great minds, thanks very much.

[The-Rest-of-Us]

Christof is making very definitive statements about machine intelligence ‘never’ being conscious without ever giving a mechanistic explanation of what consciousness is and why we have it. Frustrating.

[SabreenSyeed]

This is such an important topic. Koch and Tononi's Integrated Information Theory is such a fascinating idea. Thanks for this interview

[Magani]

Christof is brilliant. what a great episode, thank you!

[hellofriend]

Having recently taken a relatively deep dive into Vedanta, specifically the Advaita tradition, much of the first half--indeed, it is all I've watched thus far--of this conversation can be answered according to the principles found there, namely that consciousness is experience itself, the foundation of all being.

[sharonhearne]

I love the question about reading literature: I could read before kindergarten and my mother belonged to a monthly book club which offered mostly fictional books such as many famous classics. I would plead to read a selection after she had read it and she allowed me to read those selections. These novels presented fictional lives of people in vast diversity and whereas I did not fully understand sexual aspects clearly one of the most striking aspects I discovered was all the various religions, or lifestyles or aspects such as wealth vs poverty. By the time I began to be raised in my family’s strict fundamentalist Christian lifestyle my views of that special view of Christianity had already been compromised by my already generalized view of the variety of world-wide religious practices and human lifestyles.

[Lady-in-Red]

Book list for this Christof Koch podcast. Thanks for asking about aliens immediately :)

- The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach by Christof Koch
- Consciousness: Confessions of a Romantic Reductionist by Christof Koch
- The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
- The Black Cloud by Colin Swatridge and Fred Hoyle
- Solaris by Stanisław Lem
- The Invicible by Stanisław Lem

[Muitar]

As a student of psychology and AI this has been amazingly valuable to me. Thank you greatly, Lex!!