For: Independent learners who want to move from the basic question of experience to an explicit comparison of research approaches.
What you will work towards
- Distinguish an experience, a report and a recorded signal.
- State the scope of an attributed theoretical proposal.
- Construct a comparison of predictions without equating task performance with experience.
- Identify assumptions linking a numerical measure or model to a claim.
Download the ordered reading list
World Science U · Source-checked annotation
Christof Koch -- The Puzzle of Consciousness
Start with the first-person/third-person problem in Koch’s introductory lesson before comparing proposed answers.
Try thisWrite one question about what is experienced and one question about what an observer could measure. Explain why they are related but not identical.
World Science Festival · Source-checked annotation
Can Theories of Consciousness Supercharge AI?
Introduce a clearly named Global Workspace Theory application through VanRullen’s AI discussion.
Try thisMake two columns: success at an AI task and evidence about experience. Place each claim you identify in one column and write the extra argument needed to connect them.
World Science U · Source-checked annotation
Integrated Information Theory
Contrast the workspace-inspired application with Koch’s explicit integrated information proposal.
Try thisWrite the starting commitment of the theory and one observation it would need to explain. Mark which statements are definitions, assumptions or empirical claims.
University of Oxford Podcasts · Source-checked annotation
Consciousness in Humans and in Other Things
Add Seth’s embodied predictive perspective without substituting it for either of the preceding positions.
Try thisIdentify the aspect of experience or selfhood being explained and formulate one question that would distinguish the explanatory target from the previous two talks.
University of Oxford Podcasts · Source-checked annotation
Moving beyond integration and differentiation in measures of neural dynamics
Examine the construction of information-dynamics measures after learning why a theory needs measurements.
Try thisCreate a glossary entry for redundancy and synergy using the source, then state what further argument would be needed before a measure could count as evidence about consciousness.
University of Oxford Podcasts · Source-checked annotation
Generative models of the mind: neural connections and cognitive integration
Inspect how a modelling framework and its boundaries can influence an explanation.
Try thisDraw the system boundary assumed by a model discussed in the abstract. List one process inside, one outside and a reason that changing the boundary could matter.
World Science Festival
What Creates Consciousness?
Return to the broader philosophical problem after comparing models and measurements.
Try thisUse the linked 2025 adversarial-study reading to make a five-column table: theory, preregistered prediction, measurement, result, interpretation. State one unresolved question rather than declaring a winner.
A short starting route
Steps 1, 2, 3. These steps establish the problem and two explicitly attributed approaches; use the testing-theories guide and 2025 paper before drawing empirical conclusions.
Continue more deeply
Read the 2025 adversarial comparison and its differing interpretations, then return to the Oxford Models of Consciousness series for an advanced continuation. Continue at source ↗
Limits of this route
The route combines 2015 teaching material, 2019 conference proposals and 2024 discussions. Specified descriptions, paired summaries and the 2025 paper’s abstract, predictions and discussion framing were inspected. Full videos and supplementary analyses were not reviewed. The AI application does not establish machine experience; numerical measures are not labelled validated detectors. Steps 5–6 are the advanced branch.
Sources and editorial check · 2026-11-07
Official descriptions and the specifically recorded paired summaries or reading sections; sequence and original tasks checked against those sources. No full-video viewing or human peer review.
Checked by agent. This is not human peer review.
- 1.1 The Puzzle of Consciousness - World Science U
- 1.2 The Puzzle of Consciousness - World Science U
- Can Theories of Consciousness Supercharge AI? | World Science Festival
- 4.1 Integrated Information Theory - World Science U
- 4.2 Integrated Information Theory - World Science U
- Consciousness in Humans and in Other Things | University of Oxford Podcasts
- Pedro Mediano - Moving beyond integration and differentiation in measures of neural dynamics | University of Oxford Podcasts
- Inês Hipólito - Generative models of the mind: neural connections and cognitive integration | University of Oxford Podcasts
- What Creates Consciousness? | World Science Festival
- Consciousness (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
- Adversarial testing of global neuronal workspace and integrated information theories of consciousness | Nature