GET T YIMAGESX22 thangravity,sototakepartinTWCF’s
compet it ion,t he leaders of two riva l
consciousnesstheorieshavetoagreeto
anexperimentthatwillputtheirideas
tothetest.Eachsidehastoagreethatif
certainresultsareobtained,theirtheory
willbedisproved.Fivesuchexperiments
areplannedintotal,withthefirsthaving
beguninOctober2019.
Potgieterwasinspiredto launchthenew
initiativeafterattendinganeventorganised
bytheCenterForOpenSciencein2017,
af terwhich he gotchatt ingtopeople
in thefieldofconsciousnessresearch.
“Everybodyinconsciousnesssaidnearly
thesamething‘mytheoryisreallygreat
andunderappreciated;it’stestableand
I wouldlovethechanceto provemytheory
is rightandtheothersarewrong’...a lot
ofthesepeopledidn’tevenspeaktoeach
otherwithintheneurosciencedomain,
they’re quite siloed,” he says.MEETINGOFMINDS
Thefirstofthefiveexperimentscame
outofa two-daymeetingorganisedby
Christof Koch, a pioneer in consciousnessresearch,andthepresidentandchief
scientistoftheAllenInstituteforBrain
ScienceinSeattle.Potgieterhadinvited
himtoarrangethemeetingandchoose
theattendees,includingtheleadersof the
consciousnesstheoriesofhischoice,as
wellastopexperimentalistsinrelevant
methodologies,philosophers(tomaintain
‘conceptualhygiene’),a ndupcoming
youngresearcherswithtechnicalskill
andenergy,whodon’tyethavesomuch
stakeinthegamethatthey’relikelyto
bebiased.
The r u lesoft hemeet i ngsa re t hat
eachishostedbysomeoneimpartialor
atleastrespected.Thehost picksthe
otherguests,andtherearenogeneric
PowerPointpresentations.“Themeeting
hasonegoal,whichistocomeupwith
anexperimentthatcancriticallytest
oneormoretheories,”says Potgieter.
“Themarkofsuccessis,attheend,we
haveanexperimentwhereoneormore
theoristssays,‘yesthisresultfromthis
experimentwillkilloffmytheory’.”
The f i rstmeet i ng led toa nag reed
experimentthatwillpitchtheIntegrated
InformationTheoryofconsciousness(IIT)againsttheGlobal
NeuronalWorkspace Theory(GNWT).Theformerstartsby
definingwhatconstitutesa consciousexperience,andargues
fortheminimumcognitivemachinerynecessarytoproduce
it.Meanwhile,thelattersuggestsconsciousnessemergeswhen
informationisheldata kindofmentaljunctionbeforeit’s
broadcast out to other parts of the brain. “A key difference 2ABOVEDrDawid
Potgieterfrom
theTempletonWorld
CharityFoundationsetup
theexerciseandis
overseeing it
“THE MARK OF SUCCESS IS,
AT THE END, WE HAVE AN
EXPERIMENT WHERE ONE OR MORE
THEORISTS SAYS, ‘YES THIS RESULT
FROM THIS EXPERIMENT WILL KILL
OFF MY THEORY’”