The predictive brain & the quest to understand consciousness | Anil Seth

Neuroscientist Anil Seth explains how much we can learn about consciousness by studying the brain, including: • What groundbreaking studies with split-brain patients and blindsight have already taught us about the nature of consciousness. • Anil’s theory that our perception is a “controlled hallucination” generated by our predictive brains. • Whether looking for the parts of the brain that correlate with consciousness is the right way to learn about what consciousness is. • Whether our theories of human consciousness can be applied to nonhuman animals. • Anil’s thoughts on whether machines could ever be conscious. • Disagreements and open questions in the field of consciousness studies, and what areas Anil is most excited to explore next. Chapters: • Cold open (00:00:00) • Luisa’s intro (00:01:02) • The interview begins (00:02:42) • How expectations and perception affect consciousness (00:03:05) • How the brain makes sense of the body it’s within (00:21:33) • Psychedelics and predictive processing (00:32:06) • Blindsight and visual consciousness (00:36:45) • Split-brain patients (00:54:56) • Overflow experiments (01:05:28) • How much can we learn about consciousness from empirical research? (01:14:23) • Which parts of the brain are responsible for conscious experiences? (01:27:37) • Current state and disagreements in the study of consciousness (01:38:36) • Digital consciousness (01:55:55) • Consciousness in nonhuman animals (02:18:11) • What’s next for Anil (02:30:18) ---- The 80,000 Hours Podcast features unusually in-depth conversations about the world’s most pressing problems and what you can do to solve them.