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I'm tagging people who may be interested in this paper. Feel free to rt!!! @birchlse.bsky.social@heddamorch.bsky.social@liangqianchen.bsky.social @kathrynnave.eurosky.social@lalumera.bsky.social @matteograsso.bsky.social@saiayachit.bsky.social @frosas.bsky.social@sfink.bsky.social@clist.bsky.social

Explanation, scope, and perspective: sources of schismogenesis in consciousness science

So one hope of the paper is to offer a clearer map of the field: not to declare a winner, but to show where research programs genuinely diverge, where they may still converge, and where comparison has been confused from the start. Would love to hear thoughts, objections, and feedback! 10/10

cell.com

Contemporary consciousness science faces an impasse: competing theoretical frameworks—structuralist versus functionalist, universal versus local, intrinsic versus extrinsic—appear to be inducing philo...

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These issues are not only abstract. They matter for how we think about consciousness in animals, AI, infants, brain-injured patients, and other borderline cases where theory has practical and moral consequences. Cases where consciousness should neither assumed or prematurely discarded. 9/n

Furthermore, we also argue for disciplined pluralism. Not “anything goes,” nor premature unification. But rather a research culture where competing approaches constrain one another, where translation across frameworks matters, and where assumptions and disagreements are made more precise. 8/n

Yet we are not pessimistic. We think that treating these debates as a single one can turn apparent deadlocks into more tractable disagreements by making hidden assumptions explicit and enabling more systematic comparison across theories. 7/n

We describe this dynamic as schismogenesis: a self-reinforcing process in which debate sharpens divisions instead of resolving them. In that sense, polarization in consciousness science is not just sociological noise but the product of different choices in theory-building assumptions. 6/n

This helps explain why researchers often seem to talk past one another. The disagreement is not always about data. It is often about background commitments: what consciousness is taken to be, what would count as an explanation for consciousness, and what a theory is even supposed to cover. 5/n

Our main claim is that these are not 3 separate debates. Together, they define an integrated problem space that shapes: 1) what counts as evidence, 2) how findings are interpreted, 3) which research programs get prioritized. 4/n

We focus on 3 meta-theoretical debates: Explanation: is consciousness better explained in terms of structure or function? Scope: should a theory be universal, or restricted to systems more like us? Perspective: should consciousness be approached intrinsically or extrinsically? 3/n

In the past 35 years, consciousness science has made much empirical progress, but the field still often feels stuck. Why? We argue that some of the deepest disputes are usually discussed in isolation, even though they are tightly connected and determine how we understand "consciousness." 2/n

Naotsugu Tsuchiya @naotsuchiya.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Reposted by Francesco Ellia

We are very excited to share this new preprint @yutogashi.bsky.social @oizumim.bsky.social with the excellent video providing the idea! The paper explains how this approach actually goes into more details in revealing subtle individual difference and complex structures of color qualia.

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Reposted by Francesco Ellia

Coleen Murphy @ctmurphy1.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Every time I upload a paper to #bioRxiv, I wonder why it can't be this easy at every journal 🧪

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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

This paper and lecture by @wgpm.bsky.social address a long standing question about #IIT: if #consciousness is intrinsic, how does it relate to its #environment? From our @qualiastructure.bsky.social Qualia Structure & IIT Summer School 2025!

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Reposted by Francesco Ellia

Zhang Chuyin @zhangchuyin.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

Be mindful of the subjectivity of conscious experience! Our poster "Free descriptions reduce friction between report and visual experience" at 2025 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference @ellia.bsky.social @naotsuchiya.bsky.social @qualiastructure.bsky.social doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

doi.org

Free descriptions reduce friction between report and visual experience

Poster presentation at 2025 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference

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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 01/11/2025

Of course, if this model would be able to explain why a human brain is conscious in the way it is, why certain parts of such brain don’t look conscious, why consciousness seems to go away during certain physiological states, then I could take it more seriously.

Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 01/11/2025

I disagree, it’s an hypothesis that you cannot test and that it’s not embedded in an explanatory framework..

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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 01/11/2025

Goff position is not a theory nor explains anything. In fact, it’s no more a solution to the HP than claiming that there’s some magic involved.

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Reposted by Francesco Ellia

Consciousness - tlab @qualiastructure.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

[Qstr-IIT summer school 2025] Day 1 Matteo Grasso: Introduction to Integrated Information Theory youtu.be/cwPGZ1CacVU?... Highly accessible!

youtu.be

[Qstr-IIT summer school 2025] Day 1 Matteo Grasso: Introduction to Integrated Information Theory

YouTube video by Neural basis of Consciousness & Qualia Structure

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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

I will check this reference out! My understanding is that you can always push functions a bit further till the point you have a description of the substrate. Then either it collapse in identity theory or become a substrate relevant framework, such as the one proposed by @anilseth.bsky.social.

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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

I couldn’t access my account since it was linked to my old institution email. I contacted the customer support and asked them to delete my account and they claimed they did so (oddly enough they didn’t ask any proof of ID). I suggest you to do the same, it’s a bad platform anyway.

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Reposted by Francesco Ellia

Anil Seth @anilseth.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

New paper! Toward a unified taxonomy of information dynamics via Integrated Information Decomposition, out now in @pnas.org - led by @frosas.bsky.social, Pedro Mediano, & Adam Barrett, w/ @andrealuppi.bsky.social @robincarhartharris.bsky.social, me, & Dan Bor. www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10....

pnas.org

Toward a unified taxonomy of information dynamics via Integrated Information Decomposition

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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

This is a core issue that I have with the recent paper on AI and consciousness based on computational functionalist theories. Also the term theory is very inflated nowadays. I am guilty of that myself, but something to think about.

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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

New preprint out! My friend @zhangchuyin.bsky.social is new on Bluesky, he is a brilliant student close to the end of his PhD, please follow him!

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Francesco Ellia @ellia.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

Check out our new preprint on theories of #consciousness!

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We argue that there is a genuine, hard-to-reconcile (perhaps impossible?), schism, most likely given by the extrinsic and intrinsic dimension we highlighted.

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Of course we aren't immune by our own biases! So we would be delighted to hear your feedbacks about this project. Since the scope of this paper is very broad there is a chance that if you work in #consci you might have something to tell me or @naotsuchiya.bsky.social @qualiastructure.bsky.social !

The potential lack of a 'common measure' (or #incommensurability) could be the reason why, many times, proponents of different frameworks seem to talk past each other, instead of *to* each other. This also prompted a reflection on #cognitivebias in consciousness science [4/n]

Notably, both clusters are differentiated for both foundational assumptions on what the scientific investigation of #consciousness should concern, and crucial questions to be asked by such research. [3/n]