Consciousness & Reality (C&R) 2025-26 Series LINKING BIOLOGICAL AND SYNTHETIC QUBITS TO TEST A THEORY OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Online-only event. Zoom link:
https://zoom.us/j/99505485799?pwd=fYOUh2gCTEuDgP8JlEq3ey2dvTr9Ip.1

HARTMUT NEVEN
Vice President of Engineering at Google
Founder, Quantum Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

In this talk, I will motivate the conjecture that conscious experience arises whenever a quantum mechanical superposition forms, and explain why it aligns better with the theory of special relativity than one where consciousness is attributed to the collapse of a superposition (an earlier proposal by Roger Penrose). I will then outline an experimental program, that involves coherently linking biological qubits within a brain to synthetic qubits in a quantum computer, to test the conjecture. If our conjecture holds, such a connection should enable us to expand a subject's experience and shape the qualia associated with that experience. 

ABOUT THE EVENT
This lecture will be accessible to an interdisciplinary audience. Members from all divisions of the participating institutes and universities (Caltech, MIT, Cambridge, Oxford, Stanford, UA, UCB and IMICS) are welcome to join. Select questions from the Q&A window will be answered after the lecture.

ABOUT THE SERIES
The Consciousness & Reality colloquium series promotes interdisciplinary investigations on mind, cognition, consciousness, and the nature of reality. Recordings of previous C&R colloquia can be found on the Caltech and IMICS YouTube channels and on www.imics.org/seminars.