Seeing Clearly

In this episode me and Qualia Research Institute co-founder Andres Gomez Emilsson talk about consciousness and personal identity. We talk about “the slicing problem” (an interesting reductio of computational-functionalism), the forms of consciousness deniers, the binding and boundary problems, a possible solution to the boundary problem via EM field topology, his experimental work on psychedelics, DMT entities, and the self. If you would like early access to all my future podcasts and essays, and to read full podcast transcripts, consider becoming a paid Substack subscriber: https://cxgonzalez.substack.com/subscribeResourcesQualia Research Institute: https://qri.org/The Slicing Problem paper: https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/opphil-2022-0225/htmlDon’t Forget About the Boundary Problem paper: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/human-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2023.1233119/fullDr. Ogi Ogas podcast: QRI’s perfumes: https://qri.org/scentsI Am You book: https://link.amazon/B00c2QUjwThe Egg short story: https://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg.htmlSocialsAndres’s X: https://x.com/algekalipsoAndres’ Substack: My SocialsX: http://x.com/cxgonzalez/Substack: https://substack.com/@cxgonzalezInstagram: https://instagram.com/c.x.gonzalezTikTok: https://tiktok.com/cxgonzalezSpotify: Apple Podcasts: Time stamps0:00 — Intro and background4:00 — What is the Hard Problem?5:32 — 3 classes of qualia deniers14:06 — The problem with computationalism/functionalism25:10 — Qualia Formalism30:39 — The binding and boundary problems42:23 — Consciousness and the EM field57:47 — A solution to the boundary problem1:08:25 — Experimental work on consciousness1:32:00 — DMT entities1:41:59 — Is the thalamus is the seat of the soul?1:47:38 — The self2:00:00 — The most pleasant perfume in the world?TranscriptChristian Gonzalez (00:01:44.881):Andres Gomez-Emilson, thank you for coming on the podcast.Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:01:47.643):Thank you for having me here, Christian.Christian Gonzalez (00:01:49.875):So we have a lot to go through and I’m super excited to do so.Christian Gonzalez (00:01:53.161):But before we jump right in,Christian Gonzalez (00:01:54.683):I want to get a little bit of context so that people know what you’re on about,Christian Gonzalez (00:01:57.969):what you do research on, what your special interests are.Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:02:00.939):Yeah, yeah, so I study consciousness.Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:02:03.221):I’ve been very curious about consciousness pretty much all my life.Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:02:07.765):And I did a, my undergraduate was on Symbolic Systems at Stanford,Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:02:13.810):which is essentially the equivalent of a cognitive science degree,Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:02:17.053):which is like psychology, philosophy, computer science, primarily,Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:02:21.156):with a little bit of linguistics in my case.Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:02:25.549):And did a master’s in psychology.Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:02:28.262):I’ve worked at a number of labs and also I was a software engineer in San FranciscoAndrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:02:32.766):for a number of years.Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:02:34.468):Worked as a data scientist.Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:02:36.550):But then, yeah, decided to essentially start an organizationAndrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:02:41.494):where I could actually study what I really wanted to, which is consciousness.Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:02:46.639):Not just like, oh, working memory or cognition.Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:02:52.399):You know, social perception, like, things that people, yeah, you know, like,Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:02:56.542):if you say, I study consciousness, they might say, like, oh, you know, like,Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:02:59.884):I also study consciousness, but, you know, it might be, like, actually,Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:03:02.826):they’re just, you know, studying something like working memory or something likeAndrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:03:05.667):that.Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:03:06.888):I was interested in qualia. Like, I was interested in, like,Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:03:09.029):how the brain generates a subjective experience and, you know,Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:03:13.252):what makes an experience feel good or bad and what on earth happensAndrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:03:17.494):when you take LSD? Like, how do we make sense of that?Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:03:21.197):Right.Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:03:22.438):It’s probably impossible to like contextualize what I do also without kind of likeAndrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:03:27.082):the piece of information having to do with being very passionateAndrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:03:31.185):about reducing suffering and like really doing it in a systematic way,Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:03:35.768):kind of like really taking seriously the problem of suffering.Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:03:38.590):So like that also has been like a very,Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:03:40.291):very important kind of like guiding light in how I approach research and my projectsAndrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:03:44.614):and so on.Christian Gonzalez (00:03:45.518):Okay. So there’s like an ethical component too.Christian Gonzalez (00:03:47.059):So you’re into consciousness,Christian Gonzalez (00:03:49.021):the weird funky stuff that goes on when you do psychedelics, what’s going on there.Christian Gonzalez (00:03:53.005):And then also like, how does this connect to the more ethical questions? Correct.Christian Gonzalez (00:03:57.148):Producing suffering.Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:03:58.029):Yes.Christian Gonzalez (00:03:58.369):Cool. All right. So let’s lay some groundwork.Christian Gonzalez (00:03:59.891):Yes.Christian Gonzalez (00:04:01.492):Before we get into like your specific takes on what consciousness is,Christian Gonzalez (00:04:04.375):why don’t we just start very baseline.Christian Gonzalez (00:04:06.857):What’s the hard problem of consciousness?Christian Gonzalez (00:04:07.938):Yeah.Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:04:10.228):Yes.Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:04:11.469):I mean, I believe some people have tried to like, I mean, of course,Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:04:14.410):the hard problem of consciousness was introduced by David Chalmers.Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:04:17.031):And I forget his precise formulation, but like the,Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:04:22.294):and people have tried to formalize precise formulations.Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:04:24.855):But the main idea is that there is an explanatory gap.Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:04:29.497):When you go from function and structure in, let’s say, like the physical world,Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:04:36.571):To subjective experience that, yes, you can very much make the case that, okay,Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:04:41.674):a hundred billion neurons interacting with each other in a nervous system,Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:04:47.458):in a human brain.Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:04:49.018):You can very much imagine a sequenceAndrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:04:52.821):of explanations that would allow you to goAndrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:04:56.423):from the sensory input that the human experiences all the way up to their behavior.Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:05:03.527):You know, in terms of, you know,Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:05:05.229):how information is being passed around in the system,Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:05:07.911):is being processed in various ways, how internal representations are made.Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:05:11.835):But at no point like that turns into, oh,Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (00:05:15.578):and there is actually a subject of experience with qualia.Christian Gonzalez (00:05:19.061):Right. Why are the lights on in the first place? Yeah.Christian Gonzalez (00:05:21.643):I feel like in theory, you could have all the functions of a brain being performed,Christian Gonzalez (00:05:26.265):but there’s this extra thing of like the first person experience that seemsChristian Gonzalez (00:05:29.547):to… Get full access to Seeing Clearly at cxgonzalez.substack.com/subscribe

Watch the full episode now: https://cxgonzalez.substack.com/p/the-gulf-oasis-hypothesis-with-archeologistWhen I wrote We Found Eden, arguing that we know the time and place that inspired the Garden of Eden myth, I didn’t anticipate such a positive reaction. I recieved an outpouring of support in the form of dozens of paid subscribers due to that article, so for that I am grateful.But what the people who (understandably) didn’t click through the ~70 footnotes in that piece might not know is that a core backbone of that piece came from a 2010 paper New Light on Human Prehistory in the Arabo-Persian Gulf Oasis by Dr. Jeffrey Rose. Dr. Rose argues for the Gulf Oasis Hypothesis, the thesis that we have good reason to think that the Persian Gulf, during much of the Pleistocene, provided a much needed oasis for the hunter gatherers of the Arabian Peninsula. At this time sea levels were much lower, and the Gulf, which is today only covered by around 40m of water, was completely exposed. This paper was, in my estimation, a tour de force of evidence consolidation and extrapolation. It is for this reason that I flew from San Francisco to Faro, Portugal to speak to Dr. Rose directly to talk about the Gulf Oasis Hypothesis. This is that conversation.If you want to go even deeper, consider reading Dr. Rose’s Book free book on the topic: An Introduction to Human Prehistory in Arabia: The Lost World of the Southern Crescent Get full access to Seeing Clearly at cxgonzalez.substack.com/subscribe

Michael Edward Johnson is a co-founder of the Qualia Research Institute and an independent researcher in the fields of consciousness, neuroscience and philosophy. Michael is, in my view, one of the most under appreciated thinkers around, so it brings me great pleasure to present this survey of his ideas to you all.We talk about mathematical theories of consciousness (dual-aspect monism), the symmetry theory of valence, panpsychism and super organism consciousness, vasocomputation, Buddhism, moral realism through valence realism, AI consciousness and AI alignment.If you found this podcast valuable, consider becoming a patron. My patrons help keep this show sustainable and ensure I can keep bringing you the most interesting thinkers in the highest quality possible.0:00 — Highlights0:51 — Intro2:30 — Are the big labs incentivized to play down consciousness?7:09 — What is consciousness?10:03 — Dual-aspect monism18:14 — Symmetry theory of valence24:00 — Wait so panpsychism?30:18 — The binding problem34:08 — Is a corporation conscious?42:51 — Vasocomputation, embodied bayesian priors, and trauma49:50 — The self50:57 — Why do latches stay closed?54:29 — Cancer55:27 — “The hand of the mind is the vascular system”56:52 — Vasocomp. and predictive processing59:04 — Tanha1:02:50 — The multiple paths to Vasocomp.1:04:46 — What is Enlightenment?1:10:54 — How to open latches1:18:00 — Empirical validation?1:18:57 — Moral realism grounding in valence1:32:38 — Objections to valence utilitarianism1:40:32 — Is AI conscious?1:49:58 — Is AI consciousness good for alignment?1:57:38 — Michael’s longterm visionReferencesQualia Research Institute: https://qri.org/Michael’s book Principia Qualia: https://opentheory.net/PrincipiaQualia.pdfIntegrated Information Theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_information_theorySymmetry Theory of Valence: https://opentheory.net/2021/07/a-primer-on-the-symmetry-theory-of-valence/Noether’s Theorem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noether’s_theoremRomeo Stevens’ X: https://x.com/RomeoStevens76Nick Cammarata’s X: https://x.com/nickcammarataMichael (plus3happiness)’s X: https://x.com/Plus3HappinessThe Feeling of Value: Moral Realism Grounded in Phenomenal Consciousness: https://amzn.to/4qQTo88Reasons and Persons: https://amzn.to/4haQUhyMichael’s SocialsMichael’s Blog: https://opentheory.net/Michael Johnson’s X: https://x.com/johnsonmxeA beautiful overview of Michael’s core ideas: https://hyperspace.opentheory.net/My Socials:X: http://x.com/cxgonzalez/Substack: https://substack.com/@cxgonzalezInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/c.x.gonzalez/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cxgonzalezSpotify: Apple Podcasts: Get full access to Seeing Clearly at cxgonzalez.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode of Seeing Clearly, MIRI President and co-author of If Everyone Builds It, Everyone Dies Nate Soares and I discuss existential risk from artificial super intelligence. We first run through the case for AI doom before I push back on some of his assumptions.Nate Soares is the President of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI) and co-author (with Eliezer Yudkowsky) of If Anyone Builds It, Everyone DiesOrder Nate’s Book: https://amzn.to/4wpQXve0:00 — Highlights0:40 — Is super intelligence inevitable?2:07 — The default outcome3:09 — AI Scepticism vs. Takeoff11:01 — What might ASI want?17:37 — Why would ASI kill us all?18:20 — Would ASI change its own goals?23:21 — Would ideal humans values converge?24:53 — The fundamental assumption in Rationalism35:47 — Does moral realism imply alignment?56:42 — p(moral convergence)1:00:35 — Will ASI be an optimizer?1:04:13 — Emotionally dealing with potential apocalypse Get full access to Seeing Clearly at cxgonzalez.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode of Seeing Clearly, professor Michael Huemer and I run through his argument for moral realism: the thesis that there are objective moral facts knowable via intuition. We cover every other metaethical theory and show why each of them fails and how moral realism responds to the most popular objections against the view. I did my best to pressure Professor Huemer by steel manning anti-realism every step of the way.Link to buy Michael Huemer’s book Ethical Intuitionism: https://amzn.to/4wDCTOl 1:01 — What is metaethics?2:52 — The 5 metaethical theories10:58 — Why are philosophers, and not linguists, talking about semantics?13:36 — Why non-cognitivism (emotivism, prescriptivism) is wrong19:11 — Why quasi-realism is wrong24:09 — Why naturalism is wrong27:49 — The Open Question argument and can we just deny it?29:34 — Is the is/ought gap real?33:11 — If normative facts depend entirely on descriptive facts, are they really different?37:16 — Why subjectivism is wrong54:04 — The Principle of Phenomenal Conservatism56:41 — Why nihilism is wrong58:11 — Isn’t it more intuitive to be a nihilist given a modern scientific worldview?1:10:09 — What if someone just doesn’t have realist intuitions?1:18:44 — Does evolution debunk morality?1:25:42 — How could we possibly know “non-natural” moral facts? Can meditation help?1:36:25 — If you’re wrong about morality, does anything bad actually happen?1:39:16 — What are moral statements true *about*?1:46:19 — Does the Form of the Good = a value attractor state?1:48:48 — Do souls exist? Get full access to Seeing Clearly at cxgonzalez.substack.com/subscribe

Factory farming is humanity’s greatest sin. In this episode I speak with Itsi Weinstock, an animal welfare advocate at Senterra Funders. We talk about what’s really going on in factory farming, why it matters, and what you can do to help.2:14 — Moral realism4:41 — Itsi’s work6:20 — Factory farming12:07 — Value lock in from AGI13:09 — How feasible is fighting economic forces?14:18 — Legal challenges15:14 — Moral progress18:15 — The Christian argument for animal welfare21:25 — Empathy isn’t what matters22:57 — Strongest arguments against animal welfare25:32 — What you can do to help30:48 — Pascal Mugging by insects33:32 — Recent wins for animal welfare35:40 — Moonshots39:05 — Working with the machine instead of against40:58 — In 50 years, what went right/wrong?43:29 — Call to actionDonate: https://www.farmkind.giving/Calculate cost to offset your diet: https://www.farmkind.giving/compassion-calculatorWant to help with your time or money? Get in contact with Itsi directly itsi (at) senterrafunders.orgSocials Substack (long form philosophy + memes): https://substack.com/@cxgonzalezX: https://x.com/cxgonzalez/ Instagram (short form philosophy): https://www.instagram.com/c.x.gonzalez/TikTok (short form philosophy): https://www.tiktok.com/@cxgonzalez Get full access to Seeing Clearly at cxgonzalez.substack.com/subscribe

Watch UNRAVELING THE DREAM: Jake’s Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@FrameProblemsJake’s X: https://x.com/jakeorthwein1:08 — Origin of the film4:00 — Bayesian brain, predictive processing, free energy principle13:53 — Direct experience vs. symbolic thinking25:46 — Buddhism and identity30:38 — Emptiness vs metaphysics39:17 — Is suffering all that matters? Meaning and Buddhist utilitarianism1:01:38 — Valence realism vs. emptiness. What could make moral facts true?1:11:57 — Jung and predictive processing1:20:54 — Moving from rationalism to post-rationalism1:32:07 — The grammar of wisdom traditions1:40:17 — Fractal hierarchies Get full access to Seeing Clearly at cxgonzalez.substack.com/subscribe

Dr. Ogi Ogas is a mathematical neuroscientist and, in his own words, a prophet. This is our conversation on God and consciousness.1:44 — Who or what is God?17:06 — Mind vs. matter, purpose vs. physics27:05 — What does God want?29:15 — Darwinism applied to super organism31:06 — Fractal reality, hyper minds 36:40 — Moral intuition and psychological/spiritual development48:56 — The ladder of purpose, utility function coupling through love1:05:27 — The emergence of the first cities and the “I”1:07:30 — What is consciousness?1:16:49: — The hard problem of consciousness isn’t hard1:36:46 — Purpose Get full access to Seeing Clearly at cxgonzalez.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode we talk with Moral Law Within about God, secular morality, moral realism, reasons, intuitions, Kantian ethics, and more. Florence Bacus is a PhD student at Harvard studying Kantian ethics. 1:49 — God and religion5:39 — What is truth?8:15 — Morality without God10:39 — Obligation11:50 — Reasons20:05 — Morality grounded in consciousness (Valence realism)27:33 — Morality without God cont.30:00 — Kantian ethics36:44 — Why universalize?42:18 — Kantian Contractualism43:10 — 4 categories of moral theories46:36 — Logic as bedrock47:25 — Is everything intuition?50:44 — What is philosophy?52:53 — Are there objective moral facts?56:29 — The Kantian argument for veganism1:02:53 — Applying to grad school Get full access to Seeing Clearly at cxgonzalez.substack.com/subscribe

Leona is a consciousness researcher, a practitioner of Non-Dual Shaiva Tantra and the Cofounder of The House of Hyperstition (hyperstitio.us).This was an enlivening conversation that only got better as the time flew by. We cover several fascinating topics earmarked below. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did participating in it. 1:06 — Embodied decision making, non-doing35:36 — Chakras43:00 — Translating and communicating woo concepts48:55 — Acting from your body, not your mind51:40 — When is conceptual thought useful?55:58 — Flow-maxxing as a meta-desire1:08:27 — Creating a golden age, distributed cognition1:14:45 — Preserving agency within a fractal super organism1:17:35 — Psychological development1:19:15 — What is Neo-Hermeticism? Why this podcast?1:30:08 — House of Hyperstition, social roles, healing1:41:25 — The Self (top-down vs. bottom up)1:47:10 — Good vs. bad egregores1:51:58 — What is God?2:00:27 — Divine coordination2:04:42 — Love is gravity2:06:52 — Virtue ethicsLeonaTwitter: https://x.com/dismaienHouse of Hyperstition: hyperstitio.usChristianTwitter: https://x.com/cxgonzalezSubstack: https://substack.com/@cxgonzalezTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cxgonzalezInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/c.x.gonzalez/Relevant linksVisualizing narratives: https://www.community-archive.orgNeo-Hermeticism: Meta-rationality: https://metarationality.com Get full access to Seeing Clearly at cxgonzalez.substack.com/subscribe