Advancing consciousness science

Understanding consciousness is one of the most substantial challenges of 21st-century science and is urgent due to advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies.

Consciousness research is gradually transitioning from empirical identification of neural correlates of consciousness to encompass a variety of theories amenable to empirical testing.

Future breakthroughs are likely to result from the following: increasing attention to the development of testable theories; adversarial and interdisciplinary collaborations; large-scale, multi-laboratory studies (alongside continued within-lab effort); new research methods (including computational neurophenomenology, novel ways to track the content of perception, and causal interventions); and naturalistic experimental designs (potentially using technologies such as extended reality or wearable brain imaging).

Consciousness research may benefit from a stronger focus on the phenomenological, experiential aspects of conscious experiences.

“Solving consciousness”—even partially—will have profound implications across science, medicine, animal welfare, law, and technology development, reshaping how we see ourselves and our relationships to both AI and the natural world.

A key development would be a test for consciousness, allowing a determination or informed judgment about which systems/organisms—such as infants, patients, fetuses, animals, organoids, xenobots, and AI—are conscious.