Long Now Foundation 97d ago

What is consciousness — and how might we describe it scientifically? Neuroscience can map neural activity with extraordinary detail, yet the relationship between electrical signals and subjective experience remains one of humanity’s most enduring questions. Mathematician and machine learning researcher Nina Miolane approaches this question from an unexpected direction: geometry. In her work, patterns of neural activity can be understood as structures in a mathematical space. In this view, cognition may be described through the geometry of neural representations: patterns that can be measured, compared, and modeled across biological and artificial systems. In conversation with science historian Claire Isabel Webb, Miolane explores how new mathematical frameworks may help illuminate long-standing puzzles in the science of mind. If consciousness arises from structured patterns of activity, what does that imply about intelligence? Could similar patterns arise in machine systems? And what might it mean to study consciousness as a phenomenon that admits formal description?