How a leading neuroscientist lost a 25 year bet on proving the brain produces consciousness
A leading neuroscientist lost a 25 year bet against a leading philosopher of consciousness. The bet: by 2023 the neural basis for consciousness would be found. The loser delivered a case of expensive wine but then upped the ante and asked for another 25 years.
Christof Koch is one of the primary leaders in the search for consciousness. He started with Francis Crick, the famous co-discoverer of DNA, who turned to the search for how the brain creates consciousness. Now Koch leads the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, one of the preeminent research centers focused on neuroscience.
Koch is an avid popularizer of the Integrated Information Theory (IIT) developed by Giulio Tononi. This is a panpsychist theory that insists some form of consciousness exists in every particle of matter but that it depends on the interconnectivity of various parts. This connectivity can be measured and where it reaches a level of density, consciousness emerges. Koch called this theory, which has helped develop, the only promising theory of consciousness.
David Chalmers, the Australian philosopher now at New York University, is well-known for describing phenomenal consciousness as “the hard problem.” He bet Koch on June 20, 1998 that in 25 years the…
