Andres Gomez Emilsson on Digital Sentience, the Binding Problem, and Fields of Consciousness

Andres Gomez Emilsson is the director of research at the Qualia Research Institute where he works to build a science of consciousness to improve the lives of sentient beings. His work at QRI ranges from psychedelic theory, to neurotechnology development, and mapping the computational properties of consciousness. 

Qualia Research Institute: https://qri.org/

Andres' Twitter: https://twitter.com/algekalipso

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Video episode: https://youtu.be/xJzBjBo24g8

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Timestamps:

0:00 Intro
2:13Are current AI systems conscious? 
4:10 Marr's levels of analysis 
9:16 Searle’s Chinese room thought experiment 
20:53 The binding problem 
35:25 Computers do not leverage the EM field to do computationally useful things 
46:46 Equanimity and the sense of self 
53:36  Binding is frame invariant and provides computational benefits 
56:41 Avoiding strong emergence 
58:37 Sidestepping the hard problem of consciousness
59:03 Avoiding epiphenomenalism
1:01:07 Being compatible with modern scientific world picture 
1:04:56 Experiments for testing to see if electromagnetic fields of human brain form unified global topology 
1:07:14 Merging your consciousness field topology with someone else’s 
1:14:07 Summary of if current AI models are conscious 
1:16:55 Doing and undoing the topological twist of consciousness 
1:24:56 What it’s like to be the field before topological segmentation 
1:27:43 Why is there something rather than nothing?
1:32:04 Does valence add up to zero? 
1:35:42 The symmetry theory of valence 
1:39:20 Does the static field of consciousness have an experience? 
1:41:07 Grounding ethics in open individualism and valence realism 
1:44:57 Clarifying ethical thought experiments with a science of consciousness 
1:47:33 Why does valence exist?
1:48:45 What does it mean for the field to tear? 
1:50:51 Infinite universes through the fracturing of nothing 
1:53:20 Would replacing humans with happy AIs solve the alignment problem? 
1:55:28 If AIs don’t leverage field topology for computation, does that null the alignment problem? 
1:58:30 Non-linear wave computing 
2:01:08 How does the enteric nervous system fit into sentience? 
2:03:49 Why is the electromagnetic field especially relevant to consciousness 
2:05:25 Cosmological qualia 
2:07:40 Hedonium shockwaves and Andres’ shirt 
2:08:32 The perfume “Hedonium Shockwave” by Andres Gomez Emilsson 
2:15:47 Using Hedonium Shockwave to explore consciousness 
2:17:46 The future of art given the rise of AI models 
2:22:42 Final thoughts from Andres
2:23:53Where to find and follow Andres