Christof Koch
Integrated Information Theory: Consciousness as Phi
If consciousness is the operating system running on biological wetware, then Integrated Information Theory (IIT) is the first serious attempt to write its technical specification. Developed by neuroscientist Giulio Tononi at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, IIT proposes something radical:...
Consciousness Science at the Crossroads: From the Hard Problem to the Engineering Era
In 1994, David Chalmers stood before an audience at the first Tucson conference on consciousness and articulated what he called the "hard problem" — why does subjective experience exist at all? Why is there something it is like to see red, feel pain, taste coffee?
Operational Architectonics: The Mathematical Architecture of Consciousness in Electromagnetic Fields
While McFadden and Pockett brought electromagnetic theories of consciousness to the attention of the English-speaking scientific world, two Finnish-Russian neuroscientists — Andrew and Alexander Fingelkurts — were quietly building the most mathematically rigorous framework for understanding how...
Psilocybin and the 5-HT2A Receptor: How One Receptor Creates the Entire Psychedelic Experience
Of the fourteen serotonin receptor subtypes distributed across the human brain, one stands apart. One receptor, when activated by the right molecular key, produces the most profound alteration of consciousness available through pharmacology: ego dissolution, visual hallucinations, synesthesia,...