Can you upload a human mind into a computer? A neuroscientist ponders what’s possible

Science has done many things that seem miraculous. Why not transfer your consciousness to a machine?

Dobromir Rahnev, Associate Professor of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology • conversation
May 23, 2025 • ~7 min

What’s it like being a raven or a crow?

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a bird?

Heather Browning, Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Southampton • conversation
May 23, 2025 • ~7 min

We need to stop pretending AI is intelligent – here’s how

AI may appear human, but it is an illusion we must tackle.

Guillaume Thierry, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, Bangor University • conversation
April 14, 2025 • ~7 min

Babies and animals can’t tell us if they have consciousness – but philosophers and scientists are starting to find answers

Dogs and infants may not be able to tell us what they’re thinking, but we are developing the tools that will help us find out.

Henry Taylor, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Birmingham • conversation
Aug. 19, 2024 • ~7 min

The mystery of consciousness shows there may be a limit to what science alone can achieve

What if there’s no experiment to work out which theory of consciousness is correct?

Philip Goff, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Durham University • conversation
March 15, 2024 • ~7 min

Consciousness: why a leading theory has been branded 'pseudoscience'

There’s a battle over consciousness research – and whether it can be understood purely through science.

Philip Goff, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Durham University • conversation
Sept. 29, 2023 • ~8 min

How consciousness may rely on brain cells acting collectively – new psychedelics research on rats

We still don’t know a lot about how the networks of cells in the brain enable conscious experience.

Pär Halje, Associate Research Fellow of Neurophysiology, Lund University • conversation
Aug. 17, 2023 • ~7 min

Google's powerful AI spotlights a human cognitive glitch: Mistaking fluent speech for fluent thought

Fluent expression is not always evidence of a mind at work, but the human brain is primed to believe so. A pair of cognitive linguistics experts explain why language is not a good test of sentience.

Anna A. Ivanova, PhD Candidate in Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) • conversation
June 24, 2022 • ~9 min

Monkeys can sense their own heartbeats, an ability tied to mental health, consciousness and memory in humans

Researchers used a test designed for babies to show that rhesus monkeys can sense their own heartbeats. The finding opens up important paths of research into consciousness and mental health issues.

Eliza Bliss-Moreau, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of California, Davis • conversation
April 11, 2022 • ~5 min

Clues to consciousness: how dopamine fits into the mystery of what makes us conscious – podcast

Plus, how a team of musicologists and computer scientists completed Beethoven’s unfinished 10th Symphony using AI. Listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.

Daniel Merino, Assistant Science Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast • conversation
Oct. 7, 2021 • ~4 min

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