video: lectures
Zeno Goes to Copenhagen. A talk at the Science of Consciousness conference in Interlaken in June 2019. On ideas about measurement and wave-function collapse, coauthored with Kelvin McQueen, building on the ideas in our earlier paper on consciousness and collapse. After the talk there is a brief prize presentation followed by a conversation with René Descartes, played brilliantly by Ronnie de Sousa (the conversation is completely unrehearsed — I had only a faint clue that this was coming). (Interlaken, June 2019) There is also a much briefer version of the Zeno talk online, from the FQXi conference in Tuscany a few weeks later, but this is so rushed that it is probably incoherent. (Barga, July 2019).
Structuralism and the Limits of Skepticism. My talk at a conference on “The Structure of Reality and the Reality of Structure” at Erasmus University in Rotterdam in 2019. May be hard to follow as the handout isn’t shown, and I was a little jet-lagged. (Rotterdam, June 2019).
What is Conceptual Engineering? My talk at a conference on “Foundations of Conceptual Engineering” at NYU in 2019. With apologies for the disturbing camera angle! (NYU, November 2019).
The Language of Mind. A brief and sleepy 8:30am presentation on meta-problem ideas to a small workshop on possible minds, followed by discussion with an interesting group. (Connecticut, September 2018)
★The Meta-Problem of Consciousness. A talk at Google on the meta-problem. There’s some excellent discussion with Google engineers at the end. (Google New York, February 2019). Also online are my keynote talk on the meta-problem at the 2018 Tucson consciousness conference (Tucson, April 2018), and a leisurely version with plenty of discussion at the 2018 Mind Brazil workshop (Tiradentes, August 2018).
Grounding and Analyticity A talk at a conference in Madrid on “The Question of Ontology” (Madrid, February 2018).
The Virtual and the Real. An audience video of my midnight talk at the Night of Philosophy in Brooklyn Library. It was crowded and hard to hear speakers so I stood on a table and shouted. (NYC, January 2017)
Dirty Secrets of Consciousness. A talk in the opening session on “dirty secrets” at the FQXI conference on physics and the observer in Banff in August 2016 (same conference as the reverse debate with Carlo Rovelli listed under conversations).
★The Hard Problem of Consciousness: 300 Years On. A lecture at Moscow State University on the history of the hard problem and recent progress in philosophy and science, highlighting some Russian contributions along the way. A little slow and long, because it was being simultaneously translated, but it covers a lot of ground. (Moscow, June 2016)
★The Virtual and the Real. On virtual reality and whether virtual worlds are real or illusory. My part starts at 43:00. The video also includes a talk by Deepak Chopra and some discussion between us afterward. (Tucson, April 2016.)
Spatial Experience and Virtual Reality – A lecture at Western Ontario, with an introduction by David Bourget. Roughly the same as the first Nicod lecture below. (London, Ontario, September 2015)
2015 Jean Nicod Lectures: Spatial Experience and Virtual Reality. This is the first lecture on spatial illusions and virtual reality. The other three lectures were (2) Three Puzzles about Spatial Experience, (3) Finding Space in a Nonspatial World, and (4) Structuralism about Computation, about Space, and about Reality. (Paris, June 2015)
Introduction to Panpsychism – A brief introduction at a workshop on panpsychism following ASSC2014, held in a beautiful church between Brisbane and Byron Bay. (Byron Bay, July 2014)
★Greenland response. An informal response to some remarks by Paul Churchland (on a boat off the coast of Greenland) of my views on the science of consciousness, followed by a very meaty discussion (separate link) with useful exchanges with Andy Clark, Jesse Prinz, Martine Nida-Rumelin, Paul Churchland, Nick Humphrey, Anton Kuznetzov, and Dan Dennett. This is the discussion somewhat inaccurately reported as a “showdown” between Dan Dennett and me in the New Yorker. (Greenland, June 2014)
Consciousness and the Collapse of the Wave Function. In Göttingen I couldn’t resist talking about the interpretation of quantum mechanics, focusing on the consciousness-collapse ideas that Kelvin McQueen and I have been developing. (Göttingen, May 2014)
The Hard Problem: 300 Years On – My talk on the history of the hard problem and on recent progress, in a session at Tucson 2014 on “The Hard Problem: 20 years On”. The video also includes talks by Dan Dennett, Don Hoffman, and some discussion. (Tucson, April 2014)
★TED: How Do You Explain Consciousness? This has had many more viewers than anything else here, and also made the top five for most-commented TED talks, but the delivery is slow and stiff (I’m not a morning person). The video editors cut out my best line: “’emergence’ is sometimes used as a magic word to make us feel better about things we don’t understand, but I’m sure that never happens at a TED conference”. (Vancouver, March 2014)
Why Isn’t There More Progress in Philosophy? – Royal Institute of Philosophy lecture, introduced by Ted Honderich. (London, December 2013)
Three Puzzles About Spatial Experience – Low-quality audio and video of a talk at the “Phenomenality and Intentionality” conference in Crete, with a reply by Maria Venieri. (Heraklion, June 2012)
★TEDxSydney: Is Your Phone Part of Your Mind? – A Sydney TED talk on the extended mind, with many more visuals and props than the other TED talk, though also a little stiff. There’s also an associated behind-the scenes video following my experience of the conference. (Sydney, May 2011)
Constructing the World. A summary of the project of my 2012 book, at a 2010 conference on psycho-ontology in Jerusalem. (Jerusalem, December 2010.)
2010 John Locke Lectures: Constructing the World (audio) – Six lectures on “Constructing the World” at Oxford University in 2010″. I have video somewhere but the quality isn’t great. (Oxford, May 2010)
Verbal Disputes. (Audio.)
★Simulation and the Singularity – The original version of my paper on the singularity, presented at the Singularity Summit in 2009. This one is pretty accessible for a wide audience. (New York, October 2009)
The Extended Mind Revisited – Low-quality recording of a talk on the extended mind in Hong Kong. (Hong Kong, June 2009)
The Varieties of Self-Awareness. A wrap-up talk at a conference on self-consciousness as CSU Fullerton (broken into 8 parts). (LA, May 2009.)
Theories of Consciousness – A lecture on the science of consciousness for a class on philosophical issues in brain science run by Alex Byrne and Pawan Sinha at MIT. (Cambridge, Spring 2009)
★On the Search for the Neural Correlates of Consciousness. My talk at Tucson 1996. The main point is serious, but there are some fun and games with a consciousness meter at the beginning and the end. (Tucson, April 1996.)
★The Hard Problem of Consciousness. My original talk on the hard problem at the first Tucson conference in 1994. Although Stuart Hameroff here says that I was “prancing around like Mick Jagger” with “hair down to [my] butt”, you’ll see that the truth is not quite so exciting. (Tucson, April 1994.)