309 | Christof Koch on Consciousness and Integrated Information

<p>Consciousness is easier to possess than to define. One thing we can do is to look into the brain and see what lights up when conscious awareness is taking place. A complete understanding of this would be known as the "neural correlates of consciousness." Once we have that, we could hopefully make progress on developing a theoretical picture of what consciousness is and why it happens. Today's guest, Christof Koch, is a leader in the search for neural correlates and an advocate of a particular approach to consciousness, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_information_theory" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Integrated Information Theory</a>.</p> <p>Blog post with transcript: <a href="https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/03/24/309-christof-koch-on-consciousness-and-integrated-information/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/03/24/309-christof-koch-on-consciousness-and-integrated-information/</a></p> <p><em>Support Mindscape on </em><a href="https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Patreon</em></a><em>.</em></p> <p>Christof Koch was awarded a Ph.D. from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics. He is currently a Meritorious Investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science, where he was formerly president and chief scientist, and Chief Scientist at the <a href="https://www.tinybluedotfoundation.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Tiny Blue Dot Foundation</a>. He is the author of several books, most recently <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/christof-koch/then-i-am-myself-the-world/9781541602816/?lens=basic-books" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Then I Am Myself the World - What Consciousness Is and How to Expand It</em></a>.</p> <ul> <li><a href="https://christofkoch.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Web site</a></li> <li><a href="https://alleninstitute.org/person/christof-koch/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Allen Center web page</a></li> <li><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JYt9T_sAAAAJ&amp;hl=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Google Scholar publications</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/Christof-Koch/author/B001IZVC1C?ref=ap_rdr&amp;isDramIntegrated=true&amp;shoppingPortalEnabled=true&amp;ccs_id=573766f5-d54a-433a-98ea-075c00efa319" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Amazon author page</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christof_Koch" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a></li> </ul>