Thu, Nov 19th, 6 p.m. GMT
Online-only event. Zoom link:
https://zoom.us/j/92871253560?pwd=I4rZU3N9vLUsB0a2uSXLK5sOW5pyBP.1
GIULIO TONONI
Professor of Psychiatry & David P. White Chair in Sleep Medicine, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Distinguished Professor in Consciousness Science, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Director, Wisconsin Institute for Sleep and Consciousness
Consciousness is all we have, the one thing whose existence is immediate and irrefutable, yet science’s standard extrinsic perspective has a hard time accounting for its presence and quality. Integrated Information Theory (IIT) reverses the order and takes the intrinsic perspective: it starts from the essential properties of experience and asks what a physical substrate must be like to account for them. The answer explains why consciousness depends on some brain regions but not others, why it fades in dreamless sleep, and why space feels extended and time flowing. It also implies that what truly exists is what exists for itself, and that AI can replicate what we do but not what we are.
INTRODUCTION BY CHRISTOF KOCH
Neuroscientist and Meritorious Investigator at the Allen Institute
ABOUT THE EVENT
This lecture will be accessible to an interdisciplinary audience. Members from all divisions of the participating institutes and universities (Caltech, Stanford, MIT, Cambridge, Oxford, UA, UCB and IMICS) are welcome to join. Select questions from the Q&A window will be answered after the lecture.
ABOUT THE SERIES
The Consciousness & Reality colloquium series promotes interdisciplinary investigations on mind, cognition, consciousness, and the nature of reality. Recordings of previous C&R colloquia can be found on the Caltech and IMICS YouTube channels and on www.imics.org/seminars
Posted on 11/11/2026
