(2026-10-01) Hoel It is of immense moral urgency and of immense civilizational importance that we solve consciousness

Erik Hoel: It is of immense moral urgency and of immense civilizational importance that we solve consciousness. (re AGI?)

Don't send me any more half-baked theories of consciousness! We don't need any more theories of consciousness! Those are cheap. I can dream up 10 theories of consciousness in the shower. But they're worthless, pennies on the street. We need money, orgs, talent, and a path.

Me: what is "solve", that it needs "money, orgs, talent, and a path"?

Scientific consensus around a particular theory would be a start. You can get more specific based on what’s likely for a theory to allow, like “lawful relationships between neural activity and experiences.”

You need a scientific theory, so for example, understanding what sort of events in the brain are necessary for consciousness. You can’t answer exactly what consciousness IS before you get a scientific answer. But we have enough of a definition to begin the investigation. https://www.theintrinsicperspective.com/p/consciousness-is-a-great-mystery

Consciousness research has been trying a decentralized approach where individuals and labs advocate for their own theories for decades. So I honestly don't think that works. We need a top-down structure that searches the space of theories neutrally, soaks up talent, and approaches the whole thing from a different angle. Like Human Brain Project, but good.

This is the goal of the new Bicameral Labs, which you can read more about here: https://bicamerallabs.org.