Skip to content
Opentheory.net
  • Best of
    • A Primer on the Symmetry Theory of Valence
    • A Future for Neuroscience
    • Neural Annealing: Toward a Neural Theory of Everything
    • Principia Qualia – my magnum opus
    • Rescuing Philosophy
    • Against functionalism
    • The Neuroscience of Meditation
  • About/Contact

Taking Monism Seriously

Posted on June 29, 2019May 22, 2022 by Michael Edward Johnson

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 […]

Read More


Recent interviews: Allen Saakyan and Adam Ford

Posted on March 15, 2019March 15, 2019 by Michael Edward Johnson

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 […]

Read More


Meditation & Science Jam 2019, Koh Phangan, Thailand

Posted on March 15, 2019March 15, 2019 by Michael Edward Johnson

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 […]

Read More


Intellectual Lineages

Posted on March 9, 2019March 12, 2019 by Michael Edward Johnson

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 […]

Read More


Consciousness: a Cosmological Perspective (Sharpening the Simulation Argument)

Posted on February 14, 2019February 21, 2019 by Michael Edward Johnson

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 […]

Read More


The Neuroscience of Meditation: Four Models

Posted on December 22, 2018February 3, 2019 by Michael Edward Johnson

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 […]

Read More


Interview & podcast

Posted on November 15, 2018November 15, 2018 by Michael Edward Johnson

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 […]

Read More


A new theory of Open Individualism

Posted on September 1, 2018September 1, 2018 by Michael Edward Johnson

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 […]

Read More


A Future for Neuroscience

Posted on August 13, 2018January 9, 2019 by Michael Edward Johnson

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 […]

Read More


Seed ontologies

Posted on June 3, 2018October 26, 2018 by Michael Edward Johnson

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 […]

Read More


Posts navigation

Older posts
Newer posts

Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Tabut by Naveen Kharwar.