168 | Anil Seth on Emergence, Information, and Consciousness

<p>Those of us who think that that&nbsp;<a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2101.07884" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the laws of physics underlying everyday life</a>&nbsp;are completely known tend to also think that consciousness is an emergent phenomenon that must be&nbsp;<a href="http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/19311/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">compatible</a>&nbsp;with those laws. To hold such a position in a principled way, it’s important to have a clear understanding of “emergence” and when it happens. Anil Seth is a leading researcher in the neuroscience of consciousness, who has also done foundational work (often in collaboration with&nbsp;<a href="http://users.sussex.ac.uk/~lionelb/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lionel Barnett</a>) on what emergence means. We talk about information theory, entropy, and what they have to do with how things emerge.</p><p><em>Support Mindscape on&nbsp;</em><a href="https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Patreon</em></a><em>.</em></p><p>Anil Seth received his D.Phil in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence from the University of Sussex. He is currently a professor of cognitive and computational neuroscience at Sussex, as well as co-director of the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science. He has served as the president of the Psychology Section of the British Science Association, and is Editor-in-Chief of the journal&nbsp;<a href="https://academic.oup.com/nc/pages/Editorial_Board" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Neurosci</em>ence of Consciousness</a>. His new book is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.anilseth.com/books" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Being You: A New Science of Consciousness.</em></a></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.anilseth.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Web site</a></li><li><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=3eJCZCkAAAAJ&amp;hl=en&amp;oi=ao" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Google Scholar publication