Women, Life and Science
We are women, living a full life, have a professional career in science or in some form or another have been involved in the industry.
Women, Life and Science
What is Consciousness?
What if everything material possesses a spark of individual consciousness?
From plants and cells to atoms, the idea challenges the long-held belief that consciousness requires a complex brain, like those of humans or mammals. Recent research suggests that basic forms of awareness or cognition might emerge even in simple organisms—or systems without brains at all.
But what about artificial systems, like large language models? Could consciousness arise in machines?
Join me and our guest, Dr. Francisco Aboitiz, as we delve into this fascinating theory and uncover fresh perspectives on the nature of consciousness and cognition.
About Dr. Francisco Aboitiz
Francisco Aboitiz is the director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Neuroscience and professor of psychiatry at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. His research includes the evolution of the brain and cognition, and the neurocognitive underpinnings of conditions such as ADHD, autism, multiple sclerosis, and epilepsy. He is also involved in social projects, such as implementing robotics workshops for children in schools of social risk and screening resilience signatures in adolescent mothers. Dr. Aboitiz has authored more than 140 scientific articles and is the author of A Brain for Speech. A View From Evolutionary Neuroanatomy and A History of Bodies, Brains, and Minds: The Evolution of Life and Consciousness.