The wider field.

Physician and researcher John C. Lilly worked on electrical stimulation, sensory isolation, altered states, and interspecies communication. His 1961 Science paper with Alice Miller documented structured vocal exchanges between bottlenose dolphins while leaving their meaning unresolved.

Orchestrated objective reduction (Orch OR) proposes that quantum processes associated with neuronal microtubules contribute to conscious moments. The idea links Penrose’s objective-reduction proposal with Hameroff’s microtubule and anesthesia research, but it remains outside mainstream neuroscientific consensus.

John Archibald Wheeler’s “it from bit” phrase proposed that physical reality may be deeply connected to information and acts of observation. It is a conceptual program in quantum foundations—not evidence that the universe literally runs as ordinary software.

Researchers and practitioners are examining whether immersive environments can model aspects of psychedelic phenomenology, support preparation or integration, or become therapeutic tools in their own right. Clinical evidence for combined use remains limited and context-dependent.

Computational-universe approaches ask whether simple rules, cellular automata, rewriting systems, or information-theoretic principles can reproduce structures associated with spacetime and physical law. Wolfram’s Physics Project is one prominent contemporary program.

BCIs translate neural activity into control or communication signals. Recent speech neuroprostheses show movement toward more natural communication for people with paralysis, while governance work emphasizes mental privacy, agency, safety, and equitable access.

Global neuronal workspace, integrated information, recurrent processing, higher-order, and predictive-processing approaches offer different accounts of consciousness. A 2025 adversarial collaboration challenged important predictions of both GNWT and IIT rather than declaring a winner.

Mind uploading usually refers to reconstructing enough of a brain’s causal organization to emulate its functions. Existing roadmaps are technology assessments, not demonstrations that memories, personal identity, consciousness, or continuity can be transferred.