It is therefore easy to think that consciousness evolved to benefit us as individuals. But we have argued that consciousness may have evolved to facilitate key social adaptive functions. Rather than ...

A physicist has proposed a radical new theory of consciousness – and it could finally explain what happens when you die. Consciousness does not emerge from human brains, according to Professor Maria ...

Why did the experience of consciousness evolve from our underlying brain physiology? Despite being a vibrant area of neuroscience, current research on consciousness is characterised by disagreement ...

Michael Pollan's widely anticipated new book, A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness, brings his signature acumen and wit to one of science's essential mysteries. Along the way, he pursues ...

As AI—and the ethical debate surrounding it—accelerates, scientists argue that understanding consciousness is now more urgent than ever. They argue that explaining how consciousness arises—which could ...

WHAT is consciousness? This is arguably the biggest remaining mystery of the human brain. No wonder it is known as “the hard problem”. We can’t even agree whether consciousness is one thing or a ...

Could artificial intelligence (AI) become conscious? What used to be a philosophical “thought experiment” is now a real-world conundrum. AI’s explosive development, especially the Large Language ...

THE idea that quantum phenomena in the brain can explain consciousness has persisted for decades on the fringes of mainstream research. There is something appealing about an attempt to explain ...

As AI—and the ethical debate surrounding it—accelerates, scientists argue that understanding consciousness is now more urgent than ever. Researchers writing in Frontiers in Science warn that advances ...