When Life Gives You a Brain

Crows are surprisingly brainy birds. This week, I got curious about the fascinating world of crow intelligence. I wanted to explore just how smart these black-feathered birds really are and whether we can detect consciousness in crows. Are crows more than just clever mimics? Let's find out!

Thought Experiments [Part 1]

We humans love thinking about what is possible. We wonder about all sorts of things — is it possible to travel at the speed of light? Is it possible to create artificial intelligence that understands human emotions? What would the world look like if Hitler wasn't born or if the dinosaurs had never gone extinct? Is it possible for humans to live forever or to colonise other planets? Could we one day communicate telepathically, or could a dog learn to read?

In philosophy, to explore what is possible, philosophers turn to thought experiments — those made-up scenarios designed to test our intuitions and challenge our assumptions.

Imagine a zombie — a creature physically identical to a human but lacking consciousness. Or picture a scientist named Mary who lives in a black-and-white room and has never experienced colour. Scenarios like these rely on our ability to imagine novel situations and ask us to question whether they are possible.

But this raises interesting questions. Is our ability to conceive ideas a reliable guide to what is possible? Or are there limits to our conceptions?

To find out, let's ask three questions:

* What do we mean when we say something is possible?

* What do our conceptions reveal about what is possible? and,

* Are there limits to our conceptions?

This article is the first in a series on the key thought experiments in the philosophy of mind. In future posts, we'll explore specific thought experiments and ask questions like, could an entity physically identical to you lack consciousness entirely? And what happens when a colour expert sees red for the first time?

Ex Machina raises fascinating philosophical questions about consciousness, humanity, and the ethics of artificial intelligence. At its core, the film is a modern take on the Turing test. But Ex Machina also raises questions about what it means to be human.

Normally, we don't question whether our body belongs to us. Normally, we see ourselves as unified with our body, occupying the same space.

But our sense of body isn't as fixed as we might think. People can experience out-of-body experiences, where their sense of self becomes detached from their sense of body.

These experiences are often vivid and life-changing. And for many, the experience is evidence that consciousness can exist separately from the physical body. Which, if true, would challenge many scientific explanations of consciousness.

So, we might wonder… how do scientists explain out-of-body experiences?

To find out, let's answer three questions:

1. What is an out-of-body experience?

2. Why do we feel like we're in our bodies? and,

3. What’s going on in the brain during an out-of-body experience?

Physicalism [Part 7]. As a theory of consciousness, non-reductive materialism tries to give us everything -- our intuitive ideas about consciousness and a scientific explanation. But does it succeed? Can we have it all?

Defining consciousness can be challenging. Attempts to pin it down often ignite heated debates that frequently end in stalemates. This week, I explore how science thinks about consciousness

Physicalism [Part 6]. What if everything you think you know about your own mind is an illusion? Eliminative materialism makes this radical claim. They claim that all your beliefs, desires, thoughts, fears, sensations, and pains — don’t actually exist. A radical claim is putting it mildly. It seems absolutely absurd! But despite apparent absurdity, eliminative materialism remains a significant theory discussed in the philosophy of mind. Let's find out why.

We perceive the world as a seemingly coherent unified stream of awareness. This apparent unity is so fundamental to our experience that we rarely question it. But there is a problem with this intuitive view.

The brain is a computer… or so they say. During my undergraduate studies, I often heard the mind explained as the “software” that runs on the “hardware” of the brain. But is this true?

Physicalism [Part 5]. Functionalism is currently the most popular theory of consciousness. It's the idea that consciousness — all our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs are not defined by what they are made of but by what they do. This theory is also behind the idea that AI might be conscious (now or sometime in the future) because, given the right type of machine, it could replicate the functional states of a human mind. But despite its popularity, not everyone is convinced by the functionalist claims. So, what's the issue with functionalism?