Consciousness: a personal view and areas for discussion

Name: Consciousness: a personal view and areas for discussion
Start: 2025-09-07T04:30:00-05:00
Location: Canal House, Canal Street, NG1 7EH

Schedule

Sun, 07 Sep, 2025 at 04:30 am

UTC-05:00

Location

Canal House, Canal Street, NG1 7EH | Chippewa Falls, WI

Our conscious experience is the only thing we know for sure is real. And our view of what consciousness really is, sets our view of nearly all the other important questions of life, from the nature of reality, the meaning of life, the possibility of life after death, spirituality, morality, our relationship to others, to other creatures, to possible gods, and to the universe.
Part 1 of the talk poses questions of the origin of neurons, neural networks and brains, of the nature of other minds and of animal consciousness. It also queries how recent philosophy has contributed to the understanding of consciousness.
Part 2 (after a break, and discussion) poses questions of; does the brain produce first-person subjective experience, is there a "Hard Problem" of consciousness, do we have good theories of consciousness, if so, what are they, what is "The Bayesian Brain", and finally, how is consciousness related to artificial intelligence.
There are no definitive answers to many of the questions raised (given our current level of knowledge) but researching the topic has certainly changed some of my previous beliefs. Maybe it will change yours too.
Do come and join in this Free Thought Forum. We meet upstairs in The Canal House for coffee/tea from 10.30, with Forum starting at 11.00. We aim to finish by 12.30 and then whoever wishes to, will go for a drink and maybe lunch too.