FASS Brown Bag Seminar by A/P Camilo Libedinsky | The Neural Replay Thought Experiment: Exploring the Physical Basis of Phenomenal Consciousness and Intelligence
Dear all,
You are cordially invited to the first session of the FASS Brown Bag Seminar Series in Semester 2 of AY25/26. A/P Camilo David Libedinsky (NUS Psychology) will be presenting a talk titled "The Neural Replay Thought Experiment: Exploring the Physical Basis of Phenomenal Consciousness and Intelligence."
Date: 29 Jan, 12pm-1pm
Venue: Zoom and in-person (FASS Research Division Seminar Room AS7 06-42)
Lunch will be provided for in-person attendees.
The Neural Replay Thought Experiment: Exploring the Physical Basis of Phenomenal Consciousness and Intelligence
I will discuss a thought experiment that challenges intuitions about what constitutes an intelligent and sentient being. In the Neural Replay Thought Experiment we record the neural activity (voltage) of all the neurons in your nervous system, and then we replay the activity of all neurons by injecting current into each neuron. Do you still have a mind? Are you still conscious during the replay? I want to assess your intuitions regarding the association between physical and mental processes using this intuitive thought experiment. Link to preprint: https://osf.io/k38pg (Libedinsky, Camilo. "The Neural Replay Thought Experiment: Exploring the Physical Basis of Phenomenal Consciousness and Intelligence." 2025).
A/P Camilo Libedinsky (Psychology) earned a Biology degree in Chile and a Neuroscience PhD from Harvard. After postdoctoral research in Singapore, he established his NUS lab in 2015 to study intelligent behaviors in humans and non-human primates.