Human computer interaction for conversations about being and consciousness

Conor Houghton and Aisling O’Kane

We are interested in how technology can be used to explore “big” or “difficult” questions. With this in mind we aim to develop a new citizen natural philosopher approach to the science and philosophy of consciousness. The amazing recent progress in neuroscience has relied on reductive methods that are ill-suited to big existential questions that interrogate subjective truths: we cannot define consciousness but we are all certain we are conscious. In this project we will investigate the personal experience of consciousness by collaborating with the community to collect individual experiences of the mind. This will develop a novel methodology using technologically enabled interaction to empower people to value their own experience as conscious beings and provide scientists and philosophers with insight into these experiences.