Scientific Colloquium
January 20, 2006


Half a century ago, many did not think it was possible to understand the secret of life. Then two scientists, Jim Watson and Francis Crick, discovered the structure of DNA, forever changing biology and the way we view ourselves in the natural order of things.  We are now once again facing a similar pursuit in determining the material basis of the conscious mind. Consciousness is one of the major unsolved problem in science today. How do the salty taste and crunchy texture of potato chips, the unmistakable smell of dogs after they have been in the rain, the awfulness of a throbbing tooth pain, or the sight of the summit illuminated by the setting sun, emerge from networks of neurons and their associated synaptic and molecular processes?

I will outline a framework that Francis Crick and I have developed over the past twenty years to come to grips with this ancient mind-body problem. At its heart is a sustained, empirical program to discover and characterize the Neuronal Correlates of Consciousness,  the minimal set of neural events jointly sufficient for any one conscious sensation. 

         I will summarizes what is known about the biology and neurology of consciousness,  outline the limits to our knowledge, and discusses some of the ongoing experiments using visual illusions to manipulate the relationship between physical stimuli and their associated conscious percepts.

         I will end by discussing some of the implications of this research for building conscious machines.