CogNation

This episode is dedicated to the memory of colleague and friend Grace Baron [https://wheatoncollege.edu/news/no-time-like-now/]. Joe and Rolf talk to Dr. Matthew Goodwin, a professor at Northeastern University whose research focus is on autism. His most recent paper [https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2813185] used biosensing (heart rate, skin conductance, etc.) to predict aggressive behavior in profound autistic individuals up to three minutes before the event.

Joe and Rolf discuss the ideas of perceptual psychologist Donald Hoffman, who has argued that our perceptual systems have no access to reality, since evolution is driven by fitness functions, not objective truth. He has also argued that our perception is a user interface (like a desktop on a computer, or a VR headset), and that objects such as the moon don't exist when we are not apprehending them.   Hoffman, Donald. The case against reality: Why evolution hid the truth from our eyes. WW Norton & Company, 2019. Bagwell, J. N. (2023). Debunking interface theory: why Hoffman’s skepticism (really) is self-defeating. Synthese, 201(1), 25.

Neil Markey, a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, used meditation for years to deal with depression and PTSD. He is currently CEO of Beckley Retreats, a group that runs retreats to Jamaica and the Netherlands for guided psychedelic experiences. He talks about his path from the military to consulting to his work with Beckley, how guided psychedelic retreats are run (including work to prepare in advance, as well as to integrate after), and how he envisions the future of psychedelics for both treatment of disorders and for enhancing quality of life for those without disorders. Special Guest: Neil Markey.

We discuss the recent controversy about Integrated Information Theory (IIT), a theory about the neural correlates of consciousness, with Felipe De Brigard, a philosophy and psychology professor at Duke University who signed a letter describing the theory as pseudoscience. The letter: https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/zsr78/ [https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/zsr78/] The adversarial collaboration: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0268577 [https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0268577] Description of IIT: https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011465 [https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011465]

Joe and Rolf talk to psychedelic researcher Robin Carhart-Harris. Robin is at the cutting edge of research on the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics such as psilocybin (magic mushrooms), LSD, and DMT. He discusses psychotherapy and the unconscious mind, models of what psychedelics are doing in the brain, and many other topics. A really fascinating and in-depth conversation. You can find links to his published research as well as a series of videos on harm reduction at the following link: https://www.carhartharrislab.com/ [https://www.carhartharrislab.com/] Special Guest: Robin Carhart-Harris.