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Program Sessions by Day
WORKSHOPS / SYMPOSIUM
TSC Workshops are 4 hour parallel sessions on particular topics Monday morning,
afternoon and evening. Attendance is included in your registration.
MONDAY April 22, 2024
8:30 am to 12:30 pm (Workshop speakers listed below)
- Quantum Biology
- Dual Aspect Monism
- Dreamless Sleep
- Indian Knowledge Systems and Medical Applications (IKSHMA)
2:00 pm to 6:00 pm
- Neurophysiology of Loss and Recovery of Consciousness
- Meditation and Global Spiritual Practices
- Education in Consciousness Studies
- Terminal Lucidity
SYMPOSIUM
7:00 pm to 10:00 pm - Symposium and Open Discussion
- Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness
Giulio Tononi, Christof Koch, Melanie Boly, Matteo Grasso, Paavo Pylkkanen (Moderator)
TUESDAY April 23, 2024
7:15 am - 8:00 am - Kiva Plaza
Meditation Wellness Kickoff with Deepak Chopra
PLENARY PROGRAM
8:30 am to 10:40 am - Plenary 1
'Detecting Consciousness'
Steven Laureys, Claudia Passos, Gina Poe
11:10 am to 12:30 pm - KEYNOTE/Plenary 2
'Cortical Oscillations, Waves and Consciousness 1'
Earl K. Miller
2:00 pm to 4:10 pm - Plenary 3
'Consciousness and Reality'
Donald Hoffman, Deepak Chopra, Paavo Pylkkanen
CONCURRENTS
5:00-7:00 pm - Concurrent Sessions 1-8 (Speakers TBA)
C-1, C-2, C-3, C-4, C-5, C-6, C-7, C-8
6:30-9:00 pm Welcome Reception
WEDNESDAY April 24, 2024
PLENARY
8:30 am to 10:40 am - Plenary 4
'Cortical Oscillations,Waves and Consciousness 2'
Andre Bastos, Pulin Gong, Dimitris Pinotsis
11:10 am to 12:30 pm - KEYNOTE/Plenary 5
'AI and the Future of the Mind'
Susan Schneider
2:00 pm to 4:10 pm - Plenary 6
'Psychedelics and Altered States'
Tanya Luhrmann, Brian Muraresku, Dinesh Pal
CONCURRENTS
5:00 pm - 7:00 pm - Concurrents 9-16 (Speakers TBA)
C-9. C-10, C-11, C-12, C-13, C-14, C-15, C-16
6:30 pm - 9:00 pm - Art-Tech Demos, Exhibits, Posters (Presenters TBA)
Refreshments
Cash Bar
THURSDAY April 25, 2024
PLENARY
8:30 am to 10:40 am - Plenary 7
'Mechanisms of Consciousness'
Aaron Schurger, Pieter-Jan Maes, George Mashour
11:10 am to 12:30 pm - KEYNOTE/Plenary 8
'DoDecoGraphy ('DDG') – 12 Orders of Frequency Oscillations in EEG'
Anirban Bandyopadhyay
2:00 pm to 4:10 pm - Plenary 9
Astrobiology and Astroconsciousness
Caleb Scharf, Phillipe Schmitt-Kopplin, Stuart Hameroff
6:30-9:00 pm - optional dinner under the stars - tickets required
FRIDAY April 26, 2024
PLENARY
8:30 am to 10:40 am - Plenary 10
'Dual Aspect Monism'
Harald Atmanspacher, Bill Seager, Dean Rickles
11:10 am to 12:30 pm - KEYNOTE/Plenary 11
'Molecules of Life and Consciousness from the Asteroid Bennu
Dante Lauretta
2:00 pm to 4:10 pm - Plenary 12
'The Science of Consciousness - 30 Years On'
Panel: Valerie Gray Hardcastle, David Chalmers, Christof Koch,
Stuart Hameroff, Paavo Pylkkanen
CONCURRENTS
5:00 pm - 7:00 pm Concurrents 17-24
C-17, C-18, C-19, C-20, C-21, C-22, C-23, C-24 (Speakers TBA)
7:00 pm - 11:00 pm
Art-Tech Demos, Exhibits, Posters (Presenters TBA)
Reception
Poetry Slam / No-End of Consciousness Party
Cash Bar
SATURDAY April 27, 2024
PLENARY
9:00 am to 10:30 am - Plenary 13
'Dimensions, Wavefunctions and Symmetry in the Brain'
Zirui Huang, Santosh Helekar, Sir Roger Penrose
11:00 am to 12:30 pm - Plenary 14
'Searching for Consciousness and Entanglement in Cerebral Organoids'
Alysson Muotri, Harmut Neven
Conference Close
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History and Overview - The Science of Consciousness Conference
The 1994 TSC conference was the world’s first interdisciplinary gathering devoted
to the study of consciousness. Prominent speakers addressed a packed auditorium at the University of Arizona hospital in Tucson, but it was then-unknown philosopher David Chalmers who captured the moment, describing the now-famous ‘hard problem’ of phenomenal conscious experience, distinguishing it from relatively easy problems like attention, memory and behavior. Bernard Baars presented his Global Workspace theory, Ben Libet described the timing of conscious experience, and Christof Koch argued that consciousness emerged from complex computation among simple brain neurons, signaling only via membrane surfaces and synapses. On the contrary, Stuart Hameroff discussed how microtubules inside neurons could help account for consciousness, and Roger Penrose spoke about consciousness as something other than computation, requiring a quantum connection to the most basic level of the universe.
These views have echoed for 30 years. Most continue to see consciousness as described by Baars, Koch and many others, an emergent property of complex computation among simple brain neurons, promoting the notion that AI will be conscious. But others consider consciousness a fundamental feature of the universe, e.g. subtly connected to the brain through quantum vibrations in microtubules inside neurons, as suggested by Penrose and Hameroff. Some consider consciousness to be an illusion, others believe reality to be the illusion.
Despite disparate views, we’ve learned a lot in 30 years, and have a lot more ahead.
Themes, speakers and sessions at the upcoming conference will include:
Cortical Oscillations and Traveling Waves
Prevalent neurocomputational theories (Global Neuronal Workspace ‘GNW’, Integrated Information Theory ‘IIT’, Higher Order Theory ‘HOT’ and Predictive Coding/Recurrent Processing ‘PC/RP’) all converge on consciousness correlating with frontal ‘top-down’ cortical feedback, selectively inhibited by anesthesia. Professor Earl K Miller’s lab at MIT has shown cortical feedback to be oscillatory traveling waves which inhibit feed-forward sensory inputs which are predicted and recognized (Predictive Coding). But cortical feedback does not inhibit novel, or ‘oddball’ feed-forward inputs which can then become conscious. Earl Miller will give a Keynote talk, and with other plenary speakers delve deeply into the role of cortical oscillatory traveling waves in consciousness.
Psychedelics and Psychoplastogens
The topic of psychedelics has grown significantly in society, medicine and academic discourse. Psychedelics are also ‘psychoplastogens,’ causing neurite sprouting, neuronal growth and synaptic formation through cytoskeletal activities, and they bind and may act on 5HT2A receptors inside neurons as well as on surface membranes. Clinical trials of psychedelics in medicine and and psychiatry, and their use in personal and spiritual development, have been favorable, and we now know psychedelics have been used in nearly all cultures for millennia. Author Brian Muraresku (‘The Immortality Key’) will speak on the role of psychedelics in the origins and development of ancient and contemporary religions and rituals, e.g. the ‘Last Supper'. Stanford Anthropology professor Tanya Luhrmann (‘When God Talks Back’) will discuss the history of psychedelics and other states of consciousness including ‘hearing voices’, and cultural aspects of psychosis and dissociation.
Astrobiology and Astroconsciousness
Thus far consciousness is recognized only in living systems, but life’s nature and origin remain unknown. We do know that organic, aromatic hydrocarbon ring molecules are essential as core components in biological lipid membranes, nucleic acids and proteins, and also comprise psychedelics and most psychoactive neurotransmitter molecules. Organic rings may be essential to life and consciousness because their delocalized electron ‘pi resonance’ clouds support quantum coherence, and form quantum-friendly ‘decoherence-free’ subspaces, protected within ‘warm, wet and noisy’ biology. Organic rings are also implicated in ‘origin of life’ scenarios both in ‘Primordial soup’ hypotheses on earth, and/or from extraterrestrial sources. Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) pervade interstellar dust, are formed by stars, float in space and atmospheres, and are found in meteorites which crash on earth. NASA’s OSIRIS REx probe, led by University of Arizona Planetary scientist and conference Keynote speaker Dante Lauretta, recently returned from the asteroid Bennu with carbonaceous material whose PAHs will be analyzed using quantum optical and pharmacological tests, and results compared with those of biomolecules. Stuart Hameroff will present the 'consciousness first' proposal in which primitive pleasure from Penrose OR preceded life in the universe, prompting life’s origin and evolution in PAH-like molecules.
Dual-Aspect Monism is a philosophical position framing consciousness and its relation to the physical by considering the mental and the physical as two aspects of one underlying reality which is neither mental nor physical. In Western history, dual aspect monism goes back to Spinoza, but has links to Platonic thinking and even to Eastern spirituality (such as non-duality). In the 20th century it was revitalized by foundational work in quantum physics and depth psychology, as outlined by Wolfgang Pauli, Carl Gustav Jung, Arthur Eddington, John Wheeler, David Bohm, and Basil Hiley. Harald Atmanspacher will speak and lead discussion.
Megahertz EEG ('DDG', ‘DoDecoGraphy’)
Electroencephalography (EEG) celebrates its 100 year anniversary in 2024. Recording brain electrical signals from the scalp in frequency bands up to 100 hertz (‘Hz’), EEG is very useful, but the origin and overall relation of EEG to consciousness and brain function remain mysterious, there being no ‘unified theory’ of EEG. However, over the past 15 years Anirban Bandyopadhyay has used nanotechnology to study cytoskeletal microtubules inside neurons and has found oscillations and conductances in self-similar resonance patterns (‘triplets-of-triplets’) which repeat in hertz, kilohertz, megahertz, gigahertz and terahertz, every 3 orders of magnitude over 12 orders. At a larger scale of neuronal networks, Anirban’s team has used dielectric resonance probe arrays to map functional megahertz and gigahertz excitations inside neurons. Recently megahertz and gigahertz oscillations with triplet patterns (DDG) have been detected from the scalp in humans, buried in EEG. Anirban Bandyopadhyay will discuss and demonstrate DDG at the conference.
Theories of Consciousness
Theories of consciousness have persisted and consolidated since 1994. Baars’ ‘Global Workspace’ became Dehaene and Changeux’s more anatomical ‘Global Neuronal Workspace’ (‘GNW’), and Rosenthal and Lau popularized ‘Higher Order Theory’ (‘HOT’), frontal ‘top-down’ cortical projections. Integrated Information Theory (‘IIT’) by Tononi and Koch emphasized optimal information integration, characterized by the term ‘Phi’. Championed by prominent authorities, IIT became ‘the leading theory’, but was critically characterized as ‘pseudoscience’. Another theory, Predictive Coding/Recurrent Processing (PC/RP) by Lamme, Friston and others suggest the brain continually compares its models of the world to sensory inputs, inhibiting those which match prediction, and enabling consciousness of novel or ‘oddball’ inputs which don’t. Operating at multiple smaller, faster, quantum scales inside neurons, the Orch OR theory (orchestrated objective reduction) by Penrose and Hameroff suggests microtubules inside neurons ‘orchestrate’ quantum vibrations which enable sequences of Penrose objective reduction (OR), and moments of conscious experience. How to decide? Cognitive neuroscientist Aaron Schurger is co-authoring a book about theories of consciousness and will present his objective overview and comparison of a dozen theories in Plenary 7. Monday evening will feature a Symposium and Open Discussion of IIT with proponents Giulio Tononi, Christof Koch, Melanie Boly and Matteo Grasso. Paavo Pylkkanen will moderate and lead discussion and questions from live and online audience. In Plenary 12, David Chalmers, Christof Koch, Stuart Hameroff, Paavo Pylkkanen and JCS editor Valerie Gray Hardcastle will discuss the state of consciousness studies and theories after 30 years
Consciousness and Reality
Is consciousness an illusion, as many neuroscientists say? Or is external reality the illusion, as Eastern philosophers and others contend? In this session a neuroscientific view of consciousness as illusory will be presented. Then Donald Hoffman will discuss ‘conscious realism’, in which reality consists of conscious agents interfacing with illusory reality, like icons in a computer game. Hoffman and colleagues claim this ‘conscious realism’ extends outside spacetime in a complex amplituhedron geometry. Deepak Chopra will give the traditional view from ancient Eastern philosophy that an all-encompassing consciousness is our reality, and that the material world is illusion. Bohmian Philosopher Paavo Pylkkanen will discuss neuroscientific illusionism, and the reality of Bohm’s quantum potential in consciousness.
Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is growing rapidly. Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT seem conceivably conscious, and most theories of consciousness are purely computational. Meanwhile, AI technology promises upgrades in cognitive function and consciousness through implants, interfaces and other technologies. Philosopher Susan Schneider, Director of the Center for the Future Mind at Florida Atlantic University, former Astrobiology Chair at NASA and author of ‘Artificial You: AI and the Future of the Mind’ will be Keynote Speaker at the conference, discussing Mind Design, Global Brain and AI Megastructures.
Detecting Consciousness
Much can be learned from extremes of consciousness. Steven Laureys is a clinical neurologist and world authority in the care of brain-damaged patients with altered states of consciousness, ranging from fully unconscious coma to fully aware, but ‘locked-in’ syndromes. He and his colleagues employ PET, fMRI and structural MRI, EEG, ERP with clinical signs, verbal and TMS stimulation to find conscious awareness. In recent years Laureys has used these same techniques to study consciousness in enhanced meditative states and is the author of
‘The no-nonsense meditation book’. Also, in Plenary 1 Claudia Passos will describe her work testing for consciousness in infants, and Gina Poe will discuss the possibility of consciousness in dreamless sleep. In Plenary 9 Anirban Bandyopadhyay will discuss megahertz DDG as a monitor of consciousness, and in Plenary 13 Santosh Helekar will describe his ‘sentiometer’ which uses a version of the double slit experiment to purportedly detect consciousness.
Searching for Consciousness in Cerebral Organoids
Cerebral organoids are artificially grown miniature organs resembling the brain.
Cultured from pluripotent stem cells and developing over months in a rotating bioreactor, cerebral organoids generate measurable EEG-like behavior, comparable to a pre-term infant. UCSD’s Alysson Muotri discovered different EEG-like frequency bands in organoids could phase couple, and Alysson will speak about effects of anesthesia and psychedelics on organoid ‘EEG’. Hartmut Neven from Google Quantum AI will discuss a project looking for quantum spin and entanglement in cerebral organoids. Xenon is an inert gas anesthetic with several isotopes, e.g. differing by spin 1/2. Previous work showed that xenon with ½ spin was a significantly weaker anesthetic, e.g. determined by mice righting reflex, than xenon without spin 1/2. This was taken to imply that nuclear spin ½ promoted or increased consciousness, possibly by increasing entanglement, and thus partially antagonized the xenon anesthetic effect. Hartmut’s group will look at effects of xenon isotopes on EEG-like activity in organoids as evidence for quantum spin and entanglement in the brain, and possible future interfacing between brain and quantum computer.
Workshop Morning Sessions
8:30 am to 12:30 pm
Monday, April 22, 2024
Quantum Biology
Paige Derr, NIH/NCATS; Nirosha Murugan, Sittampalam Gurusingham, NIH/CATS;
Philip Kurian; Travis Craddock, Nova SE; Anirban Bandyopadhyay, NIMS
Dual Aspect Monism
Michael Silberstein, Elizabethtown College; Jeffrey Kripal, Rice U;
William Seager, U of Toronto; Robert Prentner, Munich U;
Harald Atmanspacher, Collegium Helveticum, ETH Zurich
Indian Knowledge Systems and Medical Applications - (IKSHMA)
Faculty and students from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi ('IIT Mandi)
will present remotely.
Dreamless Sleep
JF Pagel, U of Colorado; Jerome Alonso, U of Calgary; Antonio Zadra, U of Montreal;
Gina Poe, UCLA.
Workshop Afternoon Sessions
2:00 pm to 5:30 pm
Monday, April 22, 2024
Neurophysiology of Loss and Recovery of Consciousness
M. Bruce MacIver, Stanford U; Kathleen Vincent, Harvard U; Anthony Hudetz, U Michigan
Education in Consciousness Studies
Laurel Waterman, OISE, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto; Joan Walton, York St. John U; Molly Beauregard, Hidehiko Saegusa IIT Mandi; Kunal Mooley CalTech; Thomas Bever, U Arizona
Meditation and Global Spiritual Practices
Thomas Brophy, CIHS/Ions; Deepak Chopra; Hidehiko Saegusa, IIT Mandi, U Arizona; Jeffery Martin, CIHS; Christopher Lord
Terminal Lucidity
Michael Nahm, Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology, Freiburg, Germany;
Natasha Tassell-Matamua, Massey U, New Zealand; Chris Roe, U of Northampton, UK; Marjorie Woollacott, U of Oregon; Maryne Mutis, Université de Lorraine, France;
Karalee Kothe, U of Colorado
Symposium
Monday, April 22, 2024
7:00 to 10:00 pm
Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness
Christof Koch, Allen Institute, Tiny Blue Dot Foundation, Seattle;
Giulio Tononi, U Wisconsin, Melanie Boly, U Wisconsin, Matteo Grasso, U Wisconsin. Moderated by Paavo Pylkkanen, U Helsinki & U of Skövde
LINKS
ABSTRACT- Submissions (via Oxford Abstracts)
Deadline: December 31 - Notifications: January 15+
GROUP HOTEL BLOCK (LOEWS) - RESERVATION LINK
LOEWS Ventana Canyon Resort - Tucson (Room Block closes March 29)
$169 per night - Group Rates Available: April 17 through May 1, 2024
Daily Hotel shuttles to Sabino Canyon for hike or Tram ride - see website for details.
Use the reservation link to obtain the group rate. See CCS website for more information.
CONFERENCE REGISTRATION (Eventbrite)
Standard $550
Student: $450
Remote: $250
optional Thursday dinner $95
ACTIVITIES AND SOCIAL EVENTS
TSC 2024 will include keynote speakers, plenary sessions, in-depth workshops, concurrent sessions, poster sessions, book and technology exhibits, demos, health & wellness exhibitors, swim, tennis, pickleball, poetry slam, no-end to consciousness party
TENNISCENTRIC with Mark Valladares (W, Th, Fri, Sat: 7:00 am - 8:00 am)
DEMOS EXHIBITS - ART-TECH - updating
Exhibits: center@arizona.edu
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The Science of Consciousness Conferences | since 1994
Center for Consciousness Studies, UArizona
The Science of Consciousness (TSC) conferences are the pre-eminent world gatherings on all approaches to the profound and fundamental question of how the brain produces conscious experience, a question which addresses who we are, the nature of reality and our place in the universe. TSC conferences have been held in Tucson since 1994, (every 2 years) and are recognized around the world. TSC International held its first conference in 1995 and continues in alternate years. TSC Conference is the world's largest, longest running and premier interdisciplinary conference addressing the fundamental questions regarding consciousness, the brain, reality and existence, organized by the Center for Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona.
TSC conferences since 1998 have been organized by the Center for Consciousness Studies (CCS) at the University of Arizona. With funding from the Fetzer Institute, and approval from the Arizona Board of Governors, CCS was founded in 1998 by University of Arizona Professors Alfred Kaszniak (Psychology), Alwyn Scott (Mathematics), and Stuart Hameroff (Anesthesiology), and Jim Laukes from Extended University. Kaszniak was the first CCS Director, followed by David Chalmers who joined Philosophy in 1999, and then Hameroff from 2004 to the present. He hired Abi Behar-Montefiore as Assistant Director, and the two have been primarily responsible for TSC conferences. UArizona Regents Professor Tom Bever became CCS Co-Director, and with support from the Eugene Jhong Foundation started an education program in Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona, including an undergraduate minor. Another UArizona Regents Professor, Planetary Scientist Dante Lauretta (head of NASA’s OSIRIS Rex probe of the asteroid Bennu) is CCS Associate Director, and CCS shares space on the UArizona campus with his new Arizona Astrobiology Center. Lauretta and Hameroff are also funded by the Eugene Jhong Foundation to develop ideas in astrobiological origins of life and consciousness. Others serving on TSC Program Committee and CCS Advisory Board include Justin Riddle, Jay Sanguinetti, and Harald Atmanspacher.
VIDEO ARCHIVE:
CCS-TSC YOUTUBE CHANNEL
TSC Past CONFERENCE VIDEOS & ADDITIONAL PROGRAMS 2010-2023
Join our E-list for Conference Updates
Signed:
Stuart Hameroff, MD
Director, Center for Consciousness Studies
University of Arizona
Abi Behar Montefiore
Assistant Director, Center for Consciousness Studies
University of Arizona
Tom Bever, PhD
Co-Director, Center for Consciousness Studies
University of Arizona
Dante Lauretta, PhD
Associate Director, Center for Consciousness Studies
Director, Arizona Astrobiology Center
University of Arizona
Advisory Board
Justin Riddle, Jay Sanguinetti, and Harald Atmanspacher
email: center@arizona.edu
www.consciousness.arizona.edu
Nov 30, 2023 UPDATED - Announcement & Call for Abstracts - The Science of Consciousness 2024
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