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Nicholas J. Matiasz

@matiasz.com
198 followers 228 following 34 posts

▐ Scientific Program Director ▐ Center for Contemplative Research centerforcontemplativeresearch.org/…

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Nicholas J. Matiasz @matiasz.com · 17/04/2026
New episode of the Fathom the Mind podcast: I spoke with philosopher of science Prof. Michel Bitbol about phenomenology, the “hard problem” of consciousness, and why revisiting common assumptions may be exactly what scientists need to make progress. www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ynr...
youtube.com
The Role of Consciousness in Scientific Research with Prof. Michel Bitbol | Fathom the Mind Ep. 002
YouTube video by Center for Contemplative Research
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Nicholas J. Matiasz @matiasz.com · 29/10/2025
What is the objective world? Prof. Piet Hut on the history of material science. www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgZC...
youtube.com
What is the objective world? Prof. Piet Hut on the history of material science
YouTube video by Center for Contemplative Research
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Nicholas J. Matiasz @matiasz.com · 29/10/2025
On the first episode of Fathom the Mind, a new podcast produced by @the-ccr.bsky.social, Prof. Piet Hut discusses his new research program to bridge matter and mind. www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyOD... #consci #contemplativesci
youtube.com
Prof. Piet Hut on Science, Consciousness, and True Objectivity | Fathom the Mind Ep. 001
YouTube video by Center for Contemplative Research
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Evan Thompson @evanthompson.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
Episode 2 of our new podcast The Blind Spot with @adamfrank4.bsky.social and Marcelo Gleiser. www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XGa...
youtube.com
The Blind Spot Podcast - Episode 2, What Is Time? Part I
YouTube video by The Blind Spot Podcast
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Nicholas J. Matiasz @matiasz.com · 04/02/2025
This online series of talks regarding contemplative science begins in two days.
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Dave Vago @contemplativeneuro.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
If you're interested in #meditation #yoga #breathwork #psychedelics or other #mindbody research, this is your conference! Stay tuned for more info. #contemplativeresearch #contemplativescience #contemplativeneuroscience
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megan peters 🧠 @meganakpeters.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
reminder that you can attend this great symposium on zoom! talks from heavy hitters, just a stellar lineup. grateful to be included. tomorrow & friday, Jan 16-17, pacific time. #neuroskyence #psychscisci #consciousness #neuroscience #philosophy #theory #psychology www.chapman.edu/scst/confere...
chapman.edu
"Theorizing and Modeling in Neuroscience" Conference | Chapman University Toggle Section MenuChapman Universitycanva icon
Webpage for information on the
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Nicholas J. Matiasz @matiasz.com · 06/01/2025
I‘ll be giving a talk titled “What is contemplative science?” on February 5, 2025, at 11:00 a.m. PST, as part of the online series The Dawn of Contemplative Science, hosted by Les Cèdres Bleus. Speaker list and registration: mailchi.mp/217ea31ae020...
mailchi.mp
Contemplative Science-EN
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Andrew Y. Lee @andrewyuanlee.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
I'm grateful to have won the Sanders Prize in Philosophy of Mind! And it's for "A Theory of Sense-Data," where I defend one of the most unpopular, ill-reputed, and disparaged views in all of philosophy. philpapers.org/rec/LEEATO-3
philpapers.org
Andrew Y. Lee, A Theory of Sense-Data - PhilPapers
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Nicholas J. Matiasz @matiasz.com · 23/12/2024
…or artificial conation, for that matter. doi.org/10.1002/1520...
doi.org
The trilogy of mind: Cognition, affection, and conation
The tripartite classification of mental activities into cognition, affection, and conation originated in the German faculty psychology of the eighteenth century, but was adopted by the association ps....
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Nicholas J. Matiasz @matiasz.com · 05/10/2024
For anyone interested in the mind, I strongly recommend Prof. Piet Hut’s new blog “FEST” (= Fully Engaged Science and Technology — or, alternatively, Fully Empirical Science and Technology). piethut.substack.com
A hand-drawn diagram showing the relationship between the objective physical world and the subjective, mental world of a person.
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Nicholas J. Matiasz @matiasz.com · 04/10/2024
“The crucial point here is that we do not have empirical access to any form of matter, where empirical is defined as given in experience” —Piet Hut piethut.substack.com/p/empirical-...
piethut.substack.com
Empirical Studies of the Mind
Entry #016
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Nicholas J. Matiasz @matiasz.com · 24/09/2024
In a new chapter published by Routledge, B. Alan Wallace and I discuss how professional contemplatives can work with neuroscientists, psychologists, and even physicists—not just as study participants, but as true colleagues who help frame the research. www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi... #consci
taylorfrancis.com
Contemplative Science | 9 | Expanding the Scope of Empiricism to Incre
Science would benefit tremendously from a theory of consciousness and other mental phenomena that can be unified with contemporary theories of physics and the
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Evan Thompson @evanthompson.bsky.social · 21/04/2024
"Nobody pulls out a clock to know what time is, only what time it is." Robert Crease's perfect summary of our analysis of time (including the Bergson vs Einstein debate) in The Blind Spot. lareviewofbooks.org/article/what...
lareviewofbooks.org
What Scientists Can’t See: On Adam Frank, Marcelo Gleiser, and Evan Thompson’s “The Blind Spot” | Los Angeles Review of Books
Robert P. Crease reviews Adam Frank, Marcelo Gleiser, and Evan Thompson’s “The Blind Spot: Why Science Cannot Ignore Human Experience.”...
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Evan Thompson @evanthompson.bsky.social · 08/03/2024
A short excerpt from The Blind Spot in Big Think. bigthink.com/13-8/why-sci...
bigthink.com
The "blind spot" in science that's fueling a crisis of meaning
At the heart of many scientific challenges lies a lack of understanding of the human observer and their lived experiences.
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M.J. Crockett @mjcrockett.bsky.social · 07/03/2024
Now out in Nature: Artificial Intelligence and Illusions of Understanding in Scientific Research, coauthored with the brilliant @lmesseri.bsky.social and edited by the supremely talented Mary Elizabeth Sutherland www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Artificial intelligence and illusions of understanding in scientific research - Nature
The proliferation of artificial intelligence tools in scientific research risks creating illusions of understanding, where scientists believe they understand more about the world than they actually do.
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Nicholas J. Matiasz @matiasz.com · 05/03/2024
“Not only does this imply that we have to take consistency of mathematics, as we understand it today, on faith. It also suggests that there’s actually no objective criterion as to which axioms we should choose for doing mathematics.” iai.tv/articles/mat...
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Nicholas J. Matiasz @matiasz.com · 05/03/2024
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzwC... “…avoid the thought that a new metaphysical understanding would invalidate any of science. It may invalidate some assumptions you made about how those scientific observations come to be. But the observations reflect true regularities…” —Bernardo Kastrup
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Nicholas J. Matiasz @matiasz.com · 07/02/2024
Open-access book on the phenomenology of pure consciousness:
direct.mit.edu
The Elephant and the Blind: The Experience of Pure Consciousness: Philosophy, Science, and 500+ Expe...
An engaging and insightful journey into human consciousness.What if our goal had not been to land on Mars, but in pure consciousness? The experience of pure con
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Nicholas J. Matiasz @matiasz.com · 20/01/2024
“Considerable non-replication is thus to be expected even with the best reporting practices, and generalizations from single studies are rarely if ever warranted. … And that means we should treat statistical results as being much more incomplete and uncertain than is currently the norm.”
sonar.ch
Inferential statistics are descriptive statistics
The SONAR project aims to create a scholarly archive that collects, promotes and preserves the publications of authors affiliated with Swiss public research institutions.
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Nicholas J. Matiasz @matiasz.com · 10/01/2024
“Thus, a clear-cut distinction between subjective and objective measurements is neither advantageous nor useful, provided that the correct methodology is applied to rule out possible biases and other phenomena.” —Fabrizio Benedetti Placebo Effects, 2nd ed., Oxford University Press 2014. #consci
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Nicholas J. Matiasz @matiasz.com · 10/01/2024
“In this view, reality is not a pre-written script but a participatory drama, with each observer playing a crucial role in shaping their experience. As Fuchs put it in a lecture earlier this year, in QBism, ‘when I take an action on the world, something genuinely new comes out.’” #consciousness
vox.com
Christopher Fuchs is revolutionizing how we understand our quantum reality
The physicist and co-founder of the QBism theory is shaking up his field.
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Nicholas J. Matiasz @matiasz.com · 10/01/2024
“Even within the subfield of neuroscience where talk of consciousness is accepted, the number of scientists actually working with an open mind on new scientific theories of consciousness is extremely small.” #consciousness
theintrinsicperspective.com
Neuroscience is pre-paradigmatic. Consciousness is why
Nothing in the brain makes sense except in the light of consciousness
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Evan Thompson @evanthompson.bsky.social · 04/12/2023
MIT Press now has all the blurbs up for our book The Blind Spot!
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Alexander Tin @alexander-a-tin.bsky.social · 06/12/2023
Are you feeling sick? NIBIB says it has expanded its free "Home Test to Treat program" beyond just COVID-19 Adults will now be able to get Pfizer's Lucira molecular home tests, which were authorized by FDA earlier this year for both COVID-19 and influenza www.nih.gov/news-events/...
A screenshot of text that reads in part: "With its expansion, the Home Test to Treat program will now offer free testing, telehealth and treatment for both COVID-19 and for influenza (flu) A and B. It is the first public health program that includes home testing technology at such a scale for both COVID-19 and flu. The program initially will provide the LUCIRA® by Pfizer COVID-19 & Flu Home Test, the first U.S. Food and Drug Administration-authorized test that can detect both viruses in a single test at home. For those indicated, treatment must begin within a limited window from onset of symptoms, underscoring the importance of continuity of care, from diagnosis to treatment. In addition, providing these services virtually, while individuals remain at home, is intended to expedite the time to treatment and the convenience of accessing services virtually from home. Any adult (18 years and older) with a current positive test for COVID-19 or flu can enroll to receive free telehealth care
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Matthias Michel @matthiasmichel.bsky.social · 23/11/2023
(2/2) Some researchers argue that we can’t know what people subjectively experience. All we know is what people *think* they experience. This drives skepticism towards consciousness research. I show that these worries are unwarranted. We can objectively know what people see.
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Matthias Michel @matthiasmichel.bsky.social · 23/11/2023
(1/2) I have a new paper related to the problem of objectively determining what people consciously experience. It's here: philpapers.org/rec/MICTOA-2. Published in a book coming out soon on 'Conscious and Unconscious Mentality'. The book looks really great!
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Nicholas J. Matiasz @matiasz.com · 22/11/2023
“Every scientific paper should have a reflexive treatment of the experimental investigation as a cultural practice that contributes to how the phenomena are being framed and understood.”
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Kristin Andrews 🇨🇦🇺🇸 @kristinandrews.bsky.social · 20/11/2023
My latest for Aeon. 30 years ago we gave up the assumption that language is needed for consciousness, with great results. But consciousness remains puzzling. I suggest we can make real progress into the nature of consciousness by giving up the assumption that it requires a complex brain.
aeon.us5.list-manage.com
Are we ready to study consciousness in crabs and the like? | Aeon Essays
Consciousness science should move past a focus on complex mammalian brains to study the behaviour of ‘simpler’ animals
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Nicholas J. Matiasz @matiasz.com · 19/11/2023
“A next frontier in #consciousness research is the disclosure of our metaphysical conflict of interests. Those who proudly claim they have no point of view are indeed blind. There is not a more dangerous philosophy than a science that pretends it does not have one. Know thy metaphysics!”
eneuro.org
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Nicholas J. Matiasz @matiasz.com · 13/11/2023
The Global Flourishing Conference will be virtual and free to attend. 29–30 November 2023 #FlourishingConf www.humanflourishing.org
humanflourishing.org
Global Flourishing Conference
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Evan Thompson @evanthompson.bsky.social · 10/11/2023
Than some knew, I'd say. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Brain and body are more intertwined than we knew
A host of disorders once thought to be nothing to do with the brain are, in fact, tightly coupled to nervous-system activity. A host of disorders once thought to be nothing to do with the brain are, i...
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Evan Thompson @evanthompson.bsky.social · 29/10/2023
Thanks to Carlo Rovelli for this new blurb for The Blind Spot: “An intriguing and important reflection on the complexity of the role that we ourselves play within the scientific world picture.” www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/739505...
penguinrandomhouse.com
The Blind Spot by Adam Frank, Marcelo Gleiser, Evan Thompson: 9780262048804 | PenguinRandomHouse.com...
A compelling argument for including the human perspective within science, and for how human experience makes science possible. It’s tempting to think that science gives us a God’s-eye...
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Evan Thompson @evanthompson.bsky.social · 24/10/2023
Good to see philosophers reconsidering introspection in light of mindfulness meditation practices.
academic.oup.com
Transparency and the Mindfulness Opacity Hypothesis
Abstract. Many philosophers endorse the Transparency Thesis, the claim that by introspection one cannot become aware of one's experience. Recently, some authors
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Michael C. Anderson @memorycontrol.bsky.social · 16/10/2023
Hello everyone. I have decided to give BlueSky a try. Any neuroscience folks out there?
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Michela Massimi @michelamassimi.bsky.social · 12/10/2023
Thanks to Ricardo Lopez for inviting me to the Dissenter podcast series. The outcome is here youtu.be/KwTyeSVSXG4 — we briefly touch on various aspects of my book Perspectival realism.
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Debbie Ridpath Ohi @debbieohi.com · 11/10/2023
New Bluesky users! Before following people, I strongly advise filling out your profile. This helps people decide whether or not to follow you back. I also advise making at least one post to show you're not just creating a placeholder acct & leaving. For more tips, see debbieohi.link/bluesky-tips
Illustration showing a woman looking at her smartphone screen looking slightly irritate. In the thought bubble above her head: a blank Bluesky account. She ends up deciding NOT to follow them back in case they're a placeholder account, spammer, or bot. She thinks "Name sounds sort of familiar. Wish they included a profile link!"
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Steve Esser @steveesser.bsky.social · 11/10/2023
Clearly argued paper from Lisa Miracchi Titus on why current AI models (instances of what she calls “statistics-of-occurrence” models or ‘SOMs’) lack semantic understanding. #philsky #philsci #consciousness www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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Evan Thompson @evanthompson.bsky.social · 08/10/2023
Stuart Kauffman's blurb: “We are in a crisis that is global and civilizational in scale and existential. A conceptual transformation is needed. The Blind Spot shows us why.”
penguinrandomhouse.com
The Blind Spot by Adam Frank, Marcelo Gleiser, Evan Thompson: 9780262048804 | PenguinRandomHouse.com...
A compelling argument for including the human perspective within science, and for how human experience makes science possible. It’s tempting to think that science gives us a God’s-eye...
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Nicholas J. Matiasz @matiasz.com · 09/10/2023
“When John thinks about himself, he is thinking about John, but not when he is thinking about his self; he can hurt himself but not his self (whatever role these curious entities play in our mental world).” —Noam Chomsky, “What Kind of Creatures Are We?” #consciousness #linguistics
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Nicholas J. Matiasz @matiasz.com · 09/10/2023
“Another potential growth area for PS is in the use of mixed methods. … Best practice guides from psychology and neighboring fields (e.g., Humphreys et al., 2021; Reischer & Cowan, 2020) can encourage the responsible use of qualitative and mixed methods.” —@simine.com #consciousness #consci
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Johannes Kleiner @johanneskleiner.bsky.social · 03/10/2023
Another wonderful feed called "𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵" was made by @singhal.bsky.social! It follows #consciousness hashtags. Find it here 👉 bsky.app/profile/did:...
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Johannes Kleiner @johanneskleiner.bsky.social · 03/10/2023
I'm making a 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱 to help us move over. 👉 It follows all of the wonderful people in consciousness science. Everyone from ASSC, AMCS, MESEC, etc. is cordially invited! Ping me or answer to be added! Find it here: bsky.app/profile/did:... Initial list 😍 ⬇️
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Evan Thompson @evanthompson.bsky.social · 03/10/2023
My blurb: "Not since William James has such meticulous attention been given to pure awareness experiences & their significance for science & philosophy. Metzinger has performed a Herculean labor & no future science of consciousness will be possible without assimilating his findings and arguments."
mitpress.mit.edu
The Elephant and the Blind
An engaging and insightful journey into human consciousness.What if our goal had not been to land on Mars, but in pure consciousness? The experience of pure ...
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Penny Pexman @pennypexman.bsky.social · 25/08/2023
On Aphantasia, Imagery, and Embodiment: New paper out this week in Nature Reviews Psychology, with Emiko Muraki and Laura Speed: rdcu.be/dj7UQ
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Paul Hünermund @p-hunermund.com · 24/09/2023
🚨 Submission deadline in one week! Don't forget to send your presentation proposal for #CDSM23. More info ➡️ causalscience.org
Call for paper Causal Data Science Meeting November 7–8, 2023
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 30/09/2023
Twitter has the highest prevalence of disinformation among six online platforms studied by the EU. Fake news comes primarily from Russia’s disinformation operation, a "weapon of mass manipulation." www.scmp.com/tech/big-tec...
scmp.com
EU official: X, formerly Twitter, is the biggest source of fake news
A study of six online platforms in Poland, Slovakia and Spain finds that Twitter has the highest prevalence of disinformation.
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Dr Buki Fatona @bukifatona.bsky.social · 30/09/2023
It was mathematics, the non-empirical science par excellence, wherein the mind appears to play only with itself, that turned out to be the science of sciences, delivering the key to those laws of nature and the universe that are concealed by appearances. —Hannah Arendt, The Life of the Mind
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Nicholas J. Matiasz @matiasz.com · 30/09/2023
This statement seems unobjectionable to me. Can anyone point me to cogent arguments that argue against it? #consciousness
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