On weak vs strong dual-aspect monism Sometimes, the solutions to the hardest problems are embarrassingly simple, and all that’s lacking is collecting people with the right research aesthetic, and actually trying. I often feel this way about formalizing consciousness. Thus […]
Michael Edward Johnson
Posts by Michael Edward Johnson
Recent interviews: Allen Saakyan and Adam Ford
I had the pleasure of being on Allen Saakyan’s The Simulation show along with my colleague Andrés. Very nice interview format, looking forward to the next round. Adam Ford also interviewed me about the Templeton Foundation’s new “Advancing Research into […]
Meditation & Science Jam 2019, Koh Phangan, Thailand
This February I co-organized a small conference on meditation and neuroscience on Koh Phangan, Thailand; I spoke about some of the research we’re doing at QRI, with a focus on the frameworks of Predictive Coding (Karl Friston’s work) Connectome-specific harmonic […]
Intellectual Lineages
One of the most challenging things I’ve done lately is to chart out the Qualia Research Institute‘s intellectual lineages– basically, to try to enumerate the existing threads of research we’ve woven together to create our unique approach. Below is the […]
Consciousness: a Cosmological Perspective (Sharpening the Simulation Argument)
The following is an excerpt from Principia Qualia, Appendix F. I put it at the very end as a special, unexpected treat for people who read everything- but as it could provide independent support for the Symmetry Theory of Valence […]
The Neuroscience of Meditation: Four Models
Background: I’m a philosopher at the Qualia Research Institute (QRI) working on the intersection of neuroscience and phenomenology. As part of this research and to develop my practice, I recently did a 7-day vipassana meditation retreat. The following are some […]
Interview & podcast
Adam Ford recently posted some bits from an interview we did a while back- an excerpt from part 1: Perhaps the clearest and most important ethical view I have is that [consequentialist] ethics must ultimately “compile” to physics. What we […]
A new theory of Open Individualism
My colleague Andrés recently wrote about various theories of personal identity, and how a lack of a clear consensus here poses a challenge to ethics. From his post: Personal Identity: Closed, Empty, Open In Ontological Qualia I discussed three core views about […]
A Future for Neuroscience
I think all neuroscientists, all philosophers, all psychologists, and all psychiatrists should basically drop whatever they’re doing and learn Selen Atasoy’s “connectome-specific harmonic wave” (CSHW) framework. It’s going to be the backbone of how we understand the brain and mind […]
Seed ontologies
Chatting with people at a recent conference on consciousness (TSC2018), I had the feeling of strolling through an alchemist’s convention: lots of optimistic energy & clever ideas, but also a strong sense that the field is pre-scientific. In short, there […]