The Most Obscure Theories of Consciousness Explained [Layer 3]

Today, we dive deeper into the theories of consciousness in Layer 3 of The Consciousness Iceberg, exploring Heidegger's concept of Dasein, the Attention Schema Theory, EM Field Topology, Joscha Bach's Conductor Theory, and Donald Hoffman's Conscious Realism.

IMPORTANT LINKS:
- Become a YouTube Member Here:

Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
01:32 - Heidegger's Concept of Dasein
04:19 - Attention Schema Theory
7:24 - EM Field Topology and the Boundary Problem
11:03 - Joscha Bach's Conductor Theory
18:28 - Donald Hoffman's Conscious Realism
22:42 - Nir Lahav's Relativistic Consciousness
30:30 - Outro / Support TOE

Links Mentioned:
- Michael Levin Λ Joscha Bach: Collective Intelligence -
- Donald Hoffman Λ Joscha Bach: Consciousness, Gödel, Reality -
- Joscha Bach Λ Ben Goertzel: Conscious Ai, LLMs, AGI -
- A Relativistic Theory of Consciousness -
- Roger Penrose | Gravity, Hawking Points and Twistor Theory -
- Do we see reality as it is? | Donald Hoffman | TED
- Kant’s Transcendental Idealism -

Follow TOE:

Support TOE:

#science #consciousness #donaldhoffman #joschabach

[elvispsi]

I would like to share a few words of sincere gratitude and appreciation for the quality of this material. Have you ever actually stopped to think about and to process the level of experience that we're having right now? I mean, I feel so proud and privileged to be living in our time, the fact that we're able to have direct access to such a repository of quality work like this channel, to be able to engage ourselves and lapidate our minds with Curt and his guests on the podcasts is truly a marvel and a privilege. I seriously don't think that people actually realize how lucky and blessed we are to be living in a time that all this compiled knowledge is directly avaliable for mostly everyone. I'm so glad this channel exists, thank you Curt, I wish you always the best, love from Brazil!

[mynvs-]

Extremely happy to see Andres Gomez Emilsson mentioned, you should really look into his work further, I highly recommend!

[mabraham]

What an amazing lit review. Summary of various theorists. TOE is comprehensive in its approach to the topics it covers.

[AlanSitar]

Thanks Curt! its Great to see Andres's and QRI being discussed in the field with Giants like Joscha Bach i wish for a whole TOE episode with Andres <3

[theograice]

It would be amazing to have a TOE MediaWiki instance upon which to host your hard work with linkable references to the authors, ideas, and models you share with us here.

[nicktbe]

Thank you for explaining these especially Hoffman's theory! Awesome stuff.

[acestapp]

Hi Curt, I'd love to see you interview some ML researchers who are doing work on self-awareness in machine learning models. There has been a lot of recent progress on the role of self-modeling both as a form of normalization and for enabling social action by increasing predictability.

[richardchampion]

Loving this series Curt. Your content is second to none. You are an exceptional interviewer. Just wanted to express my gratitude

[felipemldias]

Such a concisive yet rich of information video! Great power of synthesis Curt! Thanks for sharing!

[juhakuivainen]

Great episode. Happy that Bernardo Kastrup was presented.
Federico Faggin also something to consider (idealist like Bernardo)

[conorosirideain]

I simply can't comprehend how any proponent of a 'consciousness first' theory can take themselves seriously.

[michaeloliver]

this is such a brilliant episode Curt - as always enormous thanks! perhaps some of the background music selection might be made more abstract or ambient tho? feel churlish mentioning this given the marvellous content but some of the music - particularly early on - is quite distracting…

[naytchh]

I'm a simple man, I see Donald Hoffman I click!

[dakrontu]

This is an impressive video in terms of the amount of serious work that must have been required to produce it both in terms of the visuals and in knitting together an overall narrative formed from many sub-sections each of which is well thought out and well presented. I may need to run thru it a few more times to get a better handle on it.

I will not be alone in saying I still don't see how consciousness and its experience of qualia fit in with the laws of physics despite all the theories presented here. I know that, as humans, we have a big hill to climb in achieving such an understanding and that we are still seeking paths forward within the thick and impenetrable vegetation at the bottom of that hill.

There is a pretty fundamental question for physicists who might avoid this subject: How can it be that a universe, whose physical laws we are beginning to understand, can be seen to operate, if we delve into the operation of a brain, simply as laws of physics being routinely applied, 'nothing to see here', as one might say?

What then is the need for consciousness? And if there isn't one, how come we have it? Why would the laws of physics have consciousness as an unlikely-seeming by-product when it seems there is no reason for one?

And if there is a reason for it, ie if it is inextricably tied to the laws of physics themselves, then, as our understanding of those laws progresses, what are we missing? Where is this elephant hidden in our room?

[vootman]

Loving this series Curt, thanks dude!

[jordanzamora]

Would love to see a full podcast video with Andres Gomez Emilsson, qri has a very interesting take on consciousness!

[Danger_Dee]

Man I love this channel! It has quickly became my absolute favourite!

[ldlework]

Hey Curt, thanks for pointing me here. In the video I heard, "In AST, consciousness arises". Additionally, you mention that critics of AST say that it doesn't account for qualia. However, on both accounts I think some clarification is necessary.

AST is eliminative. It states that consciousness as we typically talk about it is not ontologically real. There are no valid referents for qualia, as such. Instead, when consciousness is named in AST, the referent is strictly the cognitive self-model and its properties. The short of it is that we are material p-zombies with machinery that accounts for our belief and behavior of self-report. And that machinery can be damaged, resulting in various clinical disorders (neglect, etc). I hope that in the future, you can give Graziano a second look, or even an audit. No other theory actually addresses the Hard Problem. AST does without any special pleading or magic metaphysics. His work studying extra-vision, neglect, cognitive empathy, all lead to a sobering case that there just no room or need for consciousness, typically described, in a material monism. I'm not trying to correct you here, but rather lure you into looking further.

Your channel is priceless, thanks for your work.

[nunomaroco]

Hi, incredible concepts, amazing explanation...

[InterfaceGuhy]

Wonderful stuff Curt. Can’t wait for the next vid!

Don’t forget about iQuad Aspect Monism 😉