Nicolas Rouleau and Michael Levin

It is commonly assumed that a useful theory of consciousness (ToC) will, among other things, explain why consciousness is associated with brains. However, the findings of evolutionary biology, developmental bioelectricity, and synthetic bioengineering are revealing the ancient pre-neural roots of many mechanisms and algorithms occurring in brains – the implication of which is that minds may have preceded brains. Most of the work in the emerging field of diverse intelligence emphasizes externally observable problem-solving competencies in unconventional media, such as cells, tissues, and life-technology chimeras. Here, we inquire about the implications of these developments for theories that make a claim about what is necessary and/or sufficient for consciousness. Specifically, we analyze popular current ToCs to ask: what features of the theory specifically pick out brains as a privileged substrate of inner perspective, or, do the features emphasized by the theory occur elsewhere. We find that the operations and functional principles described or predicted by most ToCs are remarkably similar, that these similarities are obscured by reference to particular neural substrates, and that the focus on brains is more driven by convention and limitations of imagination than by any specific content of existing ToCs. Encouragingly, several contemporary theorists have made explicit efforts to apply their theories to synthetic systems in light of the recent wave of technological developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and organoid bioengineering. We suggest that the science of consciousness should be significantly open to minds in unconventional embodiments.

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Alberto Antonioni & Eugenio Valdano 

Communications Physics volume 8, Article number: 51 (2025)

Traditional academic training of early-career researchers is often conditional to the funding, structure and managerial style of the research group. With the workshop Complexity72h (www.complexity72h.com), we present an original format where early-stage researchers—from Master students to early-stage group leaders—can experience the whole scientific process, testing and acquiring writing, collaborative and leading skills in just 72 h.

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