SUMMARY:

Annika Harris, a science writer, presents at a conference on the topic of consciousness, discussing its fundamental nature and implications for science.

IDEAS:

• Consciousness as felt experience is deeply mysterious and potentially fundamental.
• Terminology clarity is crucial to avoid semantic confusion in discussing consciousness.
• Sentience, as distinct from perception and thought, is a key concept in consciousness studies.
• The challenge in consciousness science is the lack of direct evidence beyond personal experience.
• Split brain phenomena question the reliance on reportability for conscious experiences.
• The “strong assumption” posits consciousness arises from complex processing in brains.
• Two blind assumptions underlie scientific investigations: consciousness in some or all matter.
• Intuitions often mislead scientific understanding, especially regarding consciousness.
• Conscious experiences can exist without external behavior, challenging behavior-based evidence.
• Plant behaviors suggest complex responses without conscious experience, questioning human uniqueness.
• Mycorrhizal networks demonstrate sophisticated plant communication without assumed sentience.
• External behaviors don’t conclusively indicate consciousness; internal experiences remain mysterious.
• Consciousness may not be causal; automatic responses precede conscious awareness.
• Neuroscience reveals much functionality ascribed to consciousness occurs unconsciously.
• Split brain research shows conscious explanations for behavior can be generated subconsciously.
• Panpsychism, while useful, carries problematic connotations for interdisciplinary scientific discussions.
• Consciousness as fundamental raises questions about its role in the structure of reality.
• Meditation and introspection can reveal the illusion of a stable self, impacting combination problems.
• A science assuming consciousness as fundamental could reshape our approach to studying it.

INSIGHTS:

• Consciousness’s fundamental nature challenges traditional scientific assumptions about its emergence.
• Plant behaviors and mycorrhizal networks illustrate complex non-conscious processes in nature.
• The illusion of self, when deconstructed, alters our understanding of consciousness’s unity.
• Introspective practices like meditation can scientifically probe moment-to-moment conscious experiences.
• Future sciences may explore consciousness through experiential methods beyond current limitations.

QUOTES:

• “Consciousness as something that could potentially be fundamental is simply the fact of felt experience."
• "The definition of sentience is feeling or sensation as distinguished from perception and thought."
• "The central challenge to a science of Consciousness is that we can never acquire direct evidence of conscious experiences apart from our own."
• "The strong assumption is that Consciousness arises out of complex processing, namely in brains."
• "We really have to choose between two blind assumptions as our starting points in our scientific investigations."
• "Our intuitions are incredibly accurate; we evolved them for a good reason."
• "Many intuitions also give us false information about the world."
• "We don’t have great intuitions for the very small or the very large or things that happen across long time scales."
• "The truth is that from the outside we just don’t know whether there’s an internal experience being had by any system."
• "Even though we have a very strong intuition for this, we really don’t have good reasons to believe that the conscious feelings themselves are more motivating than the system or its programming."
• "Much of the functionality we ascribe to Consciousness actually takes place in what are considered by modern Neuroscience to be unconscious brain processes."
• "If there are no subjects, the combination problem actually kind of goes away."
• "Consciousness is the water; it’s pervasive, it’s what everything’s about."
• "A science that assumes Consciousness is fundamental might look like work that is in our current scientific framework."
• "We might be able to gain a tremendous amount of ground by experiencing other systems and forces that we don’t naturally perceive.”

HABITS:

• Annika Harris spent over a decade working with scientists to make their work more accessible.
• She engages in editing and ghostwriting to communicate complex scientific ideas clearly.
• Harris practices coaching for talks aimed at general audiences to enhance understanding.
• She wrote a book titled “Conscious” to explore the enigma of consciousness scientifically.
• Harris uses introspective practices like meditation to investigate conscious experiences.
• She interviews scientists and philosophers to bridge gaps in understanding consciousness.
• Harris explores theories in physics with potential connections to consciousness studies.
• She considers meditation a scientific tool for probing moment-to-moment conscious experiences.
• Harris contemplates the implications of consciousness being a fundamental property.
• She works on documentary projects to convey complex ideas about consciousness to the public.

FACTS:

• Annika Harris authored a book on consciousness published in 2019 called “Conscious.”
• The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines sentience as feeling distinct from perception and thought.
• Split brain research challenges the reliance on reportability for conscious experiences.
• Plants exhibit behaviors analogous to human behaviors down to the level of DNA.
• Mycorrhizal networks facilitate communication and nutrient transfer between plants and trees.
• The Douglas fir and paper birch trees engage in reciprocal carbon exchange relationships.
• Mother trees send more carbon to their kin, increasing seedling survival rates significantly.
• The concept of panpsychism was coined in the 16th century and carries new age connotations.
• Some physicists believe space and perhaps time are emergent from something more fundamental.
• Neuroscientist Anil Seth suggests free will and time perceptions may not reflect objective reality.

REFERENCES:

• Thomas Nagel’s description of consciousness as something it’s like to be an organism.
• Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of sentience.
• Oxford English Dictionary definition of susceptibility to sensation.
• Daniel Chamovitz’s research on plant behaviors and genetic similarities with humans.
• Suzanne Simard’s research on mycorrhizal networks and tree communication.
• Michael Gazzaniga’s work on split brain patients and The Interpreter phenomenon.
• David Eagleman’s discussions on binding processes and sensory addition work.
• Donald Hoffman’s theory of conscious realism and integrated information theory by Tononi and Koch.
• Sarah Walker’s assembly theory related to life and potentially consciousness.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

• Clarify terminology when discussing consciousness to prevent semantic misunderstandings.
• Consider plant behaviors as models for complex non-conscious processes in nature.
• Use meditation as a tool for scientific investigation into conscious experiences.
• Explore theories where consciousness is fundamental to understand reality’s structure better.
• Engage with interdisciplinary discussions without relying solely on terms like panpsychism.
• Investigate how introspection can reveal illusions such as the stable self-concept.
• Examine how future sciences might study consciousness through experiential methods.
• Pay attention to sensory addition research for insights into expanding human perception.
• Consider psychedelics research for potential insights into consciousness studies.
• Encourage young scientists to pursue innovative approaches to understanding consciousness.