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A conscious choice

Geoffrey Carr: science editor, The Economist

What is the basis of human consciousness? An unusual experiment will put two
rival theories to the test

2021 in brief

The Mayflower Autonomous Ship, a joint venture between Promare, a marine research
organisation, and IBM, a tech firm, is due to embark on its first trans-Atlantic voyage in
April 2021. The research vessel, which has no captain, no crew and no human contact,
will collect data about the state of the ocean

IN AN IDEAL world, science would work by making unambiguous predictions

based on a theory, and then testing those predictions in ways that leave no

wiggle room about which are right and which wrong. In practice, it rarely

happens quite like that, especially in biology. But, the coronavirus always

permitting, a group of neuroscientists plan to apply this method over the

course of the coming year to the most mysterious biological phenomenon of

all: human consciousness. They are organising what is known as an