In this episode, Andrés Gómez Emilsson, President and Director of Research at Qualia Research Institute (QRI), delves into the future of consciousness and what it really means. With a professional background in graph theory, statistics, and affective science, Andrés discusses QRI's mission to uncover the mathematical structure of consciousness, covering topics such as the blinding problem, boundary problem, and valence realism. We also explore how AI can become positively conscious and the use of psychedelics in his research program. Andrés is excited to announce QRI's first peer-reviewed paper, "The 'Slicing Problem' for Computational Theories of Consciousness," which has been published in Open Philosophy, and shares that they will soon be releasing a solution to the binding problem and more valence and psychedelic research. Finally, he invites those with substantial meditation or psychedelic experience in technical fields to reach out and grow the network. If you enjoy our content, please consider supporting us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/rhyslindmark. Full show notes at: https://www.roote.co/episodes