In this episode, we explore the idea that the true range of intensity of both pleasure and pain is orders of magnitude wider than we intuitively believe. This discovery has serious and important revision to ethical priorities for utilitarian and humanitarian movements.

In this episode, Andrés Gómez Emilsson from the Qualia Research Institute presents the Symmetry Theory of Valence (STV) to Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris and his team at The Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London.

In this episode, we discuss the nature of mathematical cognition, and how it differs from sacred geometry meditation. We argue that mathematical cognition involves the use of special kind of conscious state, where you partition your mind with a self-other divide, and then manipulate patterns of attention and awareness in order to find transitive equivalences in a network of invariants. This process of reification requires us to believe in the existence of abstract objects in order to participate in the story. We observe that the difference between mathematical cognition and sacred geometrical meditation is perhaps more subtle than it seems, and that the objects of meditation can break the self-other divide and cause "nondual states of mind". Ultimately, we conclude that computation is akin to the "sequel of mathematics", where the arrow of time is introduced, and that trying to bootstrap reality from computation might be akin to trying to get an explanation for world politics from "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers".

In this episode, we discuss how philosophy of mind and the science of consciousness has non-trivial and significant implications in the realm of ethics. We cover topics such as mixed valence states, logarithmic scales of pleasure and pain, personal identity, and the symmetry theory of valence. Finally, we brainstorm a bit about what a great reality show it would be for philosophers to take drugs and go on meditation retreats while talking about ethics and philosophy of mind.

In this episode, we explore how the paradigm of oscillatory complementarity can articulate and clarify a wide range of exotic phenomena. We discuss how concentration meditation can give rise a certain kind of oscillatory annealing, and how insight practice involves de-energizing the non-linearities (gestalts) that make up your world-simulation. We also explore how LSD non-duality can be understood as more diffuse elements of experience becoming the non-linear oscillatory complements of the field of awareness, such as "light", "space", and "being". Finally, we re-evaluate the models introduced in the original Qualia Computing article on the geometry of DMT experiences in light of this new paradigm.

In this episode, we explore the idea that our inner world-simulation is constructed with vibes interacting with one another to form gestalts, which in turn form large-scale self-reinforcing attractors aka. "realms". We explain that vibes have precise valence characteristics, and when they are above a certain level of energy they become non-linear and thus they "bounce off each other" to form gestalts. These gestalts function as non-linearities that our brain stores as building blocks, which are then stacked with each other to form complex scenes, and ultimately entire realms of experience. Importantly, the valence characteristics of vibes and those of the gestalts they give rise to are mutually reinforcing. This allows us to understand how moods work. So... be wise about your vibes!

In this episode, we explore the concept of a Full-Spectrum Supersentient Superintelligence - a mind that is capable of exploring, recruiting, and instantiating arbitrary state-spaces of consciousness for computational and aesthetic purposes. We discuss how this radically enriched conception of intelligence is needed in order to understand the true potential of superintelligence.

In this episode, we explore the question of why we are conscious. The short answer is that consciousness allows us to recruit self-organizing principles that can run on a massively parallel fashion in order to find solutions to problems at wave propagation speed. However, this answer raises more questions than it answers. In order to fully understand the role of consciousness, we need to enrich our conceptions of computation and intelligence. Once we do this, we can see that consciousness plays a vital role in our ability to quickly solve problems.

In this episode, we discuss the 'binding problem' of consciousness, and how it can be broken down into manageable subcomponents. We suggest that any solution to the binding problem must avoid strong emergence, side-step the hard problem of consciousness, circumvent epiphenomenalism, and be compatible with the modern scientific word picture. We then explain that "the binding problem" as stated is in fact conceptually insoluble, and should be reformulated as the "boundary problem". Finally, we present what we believe is a plausible solution to the boundary problem: topological segmentation.

In this episode, we explore the idea that DMT experiences can be higher dimensional in a meaningful sense. We discuss how degrees of freedom can become interlocked in such a way that they functionally emulate the behavior of a virtual higher dimension, as exemplified by the "harmonograph". We also discuss how the unique valence properties of the DMT state seem to follow what we could call a "generalized music theory" where the "vibe" of the space is the net consonance between all of the metronomes in it. Finally, we conclude with a discussion about the nature of "highly-meaningful experiences".