I've condensed the best moments from a year of consciousness conversations on The Giant's Shoulder 2025 into 42 minutes. Truly the most Giant episode of the entire year!
You’ll hear groundbreaking ideas from Anil Seth, Michael Levin, Nick Lane, Peter Godfrey Smith and Mark Solms as they explore the deepest scientific questions we can ask. Is perception just the brain’s best guess? Do bacteria have primitive feelings? Why are nervous systems so central to the evolution of subjectivity? Could machines ever develop inner experience? And is consciousness something we create, or something we reveal?
Expect to learn why your brain constantly updates its predictions to control hallucinated reality, how membrane charge and metabolic states may be the physical roots of feeling, why large scale neural oscillations unify experience, and why affective consciousness might be the true foundation of the mind.Timestamps:
00:00 Intro00:31 Anil Seth: The Cognitively Impenetrable Messi Illusion 07:42 Michael Levin: Radical Theories Of Consciousness17:06 Peter Godfrey Smith: How Animals First Evolved Experience 23:39 Nick Lane: How Bioelectricity and Metabolism Creates Consciousness33:27 Mark Solms: How Consciousness is Raw Feeling...Episode Links1) No. 1 Consciousness Expert: Optical Illusions that Prove Reality is a Lie, Emotions, Books and AI - https://youtu.be/lOSA06K0l1o2) Meet the Scientist Creating New Forms of Synthetic Life! Dr Michael Levin - https://youtu.be/LTBZRVKUwyM3) Meet the Neuroscientist Exploring the World of Animal Consciousness - https://youtu.be/DSCX4A8q9sY4) Nick Lane: Origin of Life, Aliens, Metabolism, Bioelectricity, Consciousness and Ai! - https://youtu.be/2Nq-Whmpw5I5) Meet the Scientist Proving Dreams Hold the Key to Consciousness! Dr Mark Solms - https://youtu.be/nMWaQ1U6dcc❤️ Subscribe to our main channel - https://www.youtube.com/@thegiantsshoulder?sub_confirmation=1💚 Follow on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5m3Gta5MtIYdk59pb2GJ7M?si=Ka2rAQv7TyqiC9wvGwERpA💜 Follow on Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/the-giants-shoulder/id1752486249Download my FREE EBook 26 Neuroscience Books for 2026 HERE: https://thegiantsshoulder.com/
