Podcast #54 – Understanding Consciousness – with Theoretical Physicist and Renown Author Dr. Amit Goswami

What do you get when you merge theories of consciousness with quantum theory? The answer is Dr. Amit Goswami's unique paradigm of science called “science within consciousness.” Amit Goswami is a former professor of theoretical nuclear physics at the University of Oregon where he served since 1968. He is also the author numerous books including The Self-Aware Universe, Physics Of The Soul and The Quantum Doctor.

Episode Summary: Could we one day upload ourselves into a computer or chip? Dr. Keith Wiley thinks that one day, we might be able to replicate consciousness within another entity. In this episode, he speaks to us about why uploading human identity in a computer substrate might be possible in the coming decades, and the type of progress we’re making today in the areas of computing and mapping the brain.

Dr. Patrick Hopkins is a philosopher and bioethicist. In this interview, we don't contemplate traditional bioethic concerns of animal testing or disease treatment. Instead, we discuss some important considerations of how emerging technologies might alter our bodies, minds, personalities and gender – and, indeed, what "human" might imply in the first place.

Regis Kopper runs the Duke Immersive Virtual Environment, or “DiVE.” His research focuses on the interactions of virtual and real humans. In this interview, he discusses his predictions for the non-gaming applications of virtual reality - and the surprising evidence that virtual reality humans might “relate” to us in much the way that real humans do. What happens when we can’t tell the difference?

Dr. Gholson Lyon is a psychologist, speaker and researcher at Cold Spring Harbor. He is outspoken about the impact of genomic research in the medical world. In this episode, we talk about the impact of genetic research and integrating of the personal genome in the coming five years.