About the talk

Advances in AI have raised again the question of whether the biology of animal nervous systems matters to the mental characteristics of physical systems, especially consciousness. Godfrey-Smith will argue that nervous systems are indeed special, and a conscious artificial mind will probably have to be more brain-like than many people have supposed. He will criticize standard arguments for “substrate neutrality” and offer thoughts on which features of nervous systems are important. He'll also look at empirical work in flies and other invertebrates, and discuss some ethical angles at the end.

About the speaker

Peter Godfrey-Smith is professor of history and philosophy of science at the University of Sydney, in Australia, after previously teaching at Stanford, Harvard, and the CUNY Graduate Center. He has written six books, including Other Minds, now published in over 20 languages. His most recent is Metazoa: Animal Life and the Birth of the Mind (both published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux).

Thank you to the NYU Center for Bioethics and the NYU Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness for co-sponsoring this event.