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Consciousness
In this excerpt from "One Hand Clapping," Nikolay Kukushkin makes the case that neurons reveal how memory, meaning, and even consciousness emerge from the same biological roots in humans, sea slugs, and beyond.
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
7mins
How can the brain — a piece of matter — love? Physics and chemistry explain the material world, but they can’t explain why it feels like something to be alive. This is the mystery of consciousness, according to these experts.
Unlikely Collaborators
Neuroscientist Rachel Barr shares her favorite books on the brain and how they shaped her approach to the field.
3mins
Biologist Tyler Volk PhD, psychiatrist Bruce Greyson MD, and palliative care physician BJ Miller MD, reveal how confronting mortality can improve the way we live.
Unlikely Collaborators
6mins
Everything you experience is filtered through your brain, and everyone’s brain is different. Neuroscientist Christof Koch explains how understanding this can deepen your connection to the world around you.
Unlikely Collaborators
9mins
“You can be aware of sadness from a point of view that is not merely sad, and you can be aware of fear from a point of view that's not merely afraid.”
A conversation with neuroscientist Erik Hoel about the future of consciousness research.
A conversation about intelligence and consciousness with philosopher Peter Godfrey-Smith.
"For many people, the idea that consciousness is a set of tricks is offensive," the late philosopher told Big Think in 2012. "I think that's a prime mistake."
Philosophers once prophesied that evolution would lead to minds far greater — and stranger — than our own.
These expert-recommended books try to answer the questions of consciousness, from its fundamental nature to its role in human experience and the natural world.
After the trauma of a high-risk medical procedure, Eric Markowitz discovered a kind of consciousness that lives not in thought — but in presence.
A universal signature could make surgeries safer — and help reveal what holds consciousness together.
5-MeO-DMT may offer a practical way to access and study consciousness in its most basic form.
The overlooked reason why "AI consciousness" isn't coming anytime soon.
"Ordinary dreams are, perhaps, the clearest articulation of what it is like to be."
A conversation with Annaka Harris on shared perception, experimental science, and why our intuition about consciousness is wrong.
5mins
What happens when the boundaries of “you” disappear? James Fadiman, PhD, Jamie Wheal, and Matthew Johnson, PhD explore how supported experiences with psychoactive drugs can dissolve identity and reveal a deeper reality.
Unlikely Collaborators
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
The Big Bang was hot, dense, uniform, and filled with matter and energy. Before that? There was nothing. Here's how that's possible.
17mins
"The sense that we are a solid entity, an unchanging entity that exists someplace in our body and takes ownership of our body, and even ownership of our brain rather than being identical to our brain, that is where the illusion lies."