Consciousness is not Computation — Christof Koch

Consciousness is not Computation — Christof Koch

From MULTIVERSES by James Robinson

May 2, 2025 · 1h 3m · Season 1 · Episode 39

About this episode

Christof Koch discusses the scientific approach to consciousness and the limitations of computational theories.

Christof Koch is a pioneering neuroscientist and one of the most prominent advocates of a scientific approach to consciousness. He has spent decades working at the intersection of neuroscience, philosophy, and computation. Christof is one of the foremost proponents of Integrated Information Theory (IIT) — a radical proposal that attempts to explain consciousness in terms of causal structure. IIT begins not with the brain, but with experience itself. It takes as its starting point what is undeniable: that something is happening right now — that experience exists. It then looks at the features of conscious experience, for example, that is unified yet composed of parts, and contentful. From there, it builds a theory describing which physical systems support conscious states. In this conversation, Christof and I explore what a scientific theory of consciousness might need to achieve, and why behavior alone — even the impressive feats of AI is not enough. Nor indeed is any computational account of consciousness: consciousness is about structure, two structures may lead to the same outcomes, but their form might mean that one is conscious and the other not. But we also touch on…

People in this episode

Host: James Robinson

Guest: Christof Koch

Topics covered

  • consciousness
  • neuroscience
  • philosophy
  • computation
  • experience
  • psychedelics

Keywords

  • consciousness
  • neuroscience
  • Integrated Information Theory
  • psychedelics
  • AI
  • experience
  • self

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Integrated Information Theory

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