Event series · 2025-2026
Mind, AI & Consciousness
A growing run of deep dives. A small room of philosophers, researchers, and AI practitioners trying to figure out what consciousness is, whether AI can have it, and what we owe each other either way. Run under Chatham House rules at SFU VentureLabs, Parker Street Studios, and partner venues.
The archive separates post-event recaps from reading dossiers. Twelve sessions have source-bounded recaps; Deep Dive #11 remains an honest dossier because its post-event room record has not been recovered. More event material lives on the MAC interactive portal.
Continuity map
What happened, where to start, what comes next
A reviewer-friendly map of thirteen completed Deep Dives, their recap or dossier status, and the adjacent BC + AI series that carry these questions forward.
Concept threads
Thirteen connected inquiries
Sessions are nodes; arcs show shared philosophical concepts from the glossary. Hover or focus a session to trace its connections.
- Deep Dive #1 · Recap
Panpsychism & AI
The Founding Event
MAC's founding deep dive — the question of whether consciousness is woven into matter itself, and what that would mean for AI.
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- Deep Dive #2 · Recap
Belief, Free Will, Agency & Goal-Setting
The Breakthrough Event
The room hit capacity. Sam Harris vs. Lee Cronin vs. Dennett — and the question that broke MAC open: what if free will is the wrong frame entirely?
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- Deep Dive #3 · Recap
AI Evolution Through a Glass, Darkly
The Evolutionary Turn
If consciousness evolved for homeostasis, not self-awareness, does AI even need it? An evolutionary lens on the hardest problem.
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- Deep Dive #4 · Recap
The Illusion of Thinking
Do LLMs "Understand"?
Apple Research dropped GSM-Symbolic. LLMs simulate understanding without experiencing it — or do they? The night the functional/phenomenal split clarified everything.
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- Deep Dive #5 · Recap
Quantum Consciousness
Hype or Hard Science?
Penrose-Hameroff Orch-OR, the warm-wet-brain problem, and what microtubules might be doing. The night quantum consciousness stopped feeling like woo.
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- Deep Dive #6 · Recap
P-Zombies & Blindsight
Intelligence Without Consciousness
Peter Watts' scramblers, the Chinese Room, and the unsettling possibility that LLMs are p-zombies. Intelligence and consciousness might not be the same thing at all.
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- Deep Dive #7 · Recap
Emergent Mind & The Noosphere
Information as Life
Teilhard de Chardin's noosphere, Harari's Nexus, and the question: is there a planetary thinking layer? What if mind is a network property?
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- Deep Dive #8 · Recap
Embodiment & Consciousness
Does Consciousness Require a Body?
Octopuses with neurons in their tentacles. Synesthesia and aphantasia as consciousness tests. The Kanizsa illusion. Embodiment as having something to lose.
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- Deep Dive #9 · Recap
On Meaning and Understanding
Can AI Understand?
A post-event recap of how the room tested meaning, world models, the Chinese Room, embodiment, and the limits of fluent machine behaviour.
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- Deep Dive #10 · Recap
Love and AI
Relationship, Romance & Artificial Intimacy
A post-event recap of the room's inquiry into reciprocity, vulnerability, attachment, platform power, loneliness, and artificial intimacy.
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- Deep Dive #11 · Dossier
AI Parasitology, Spiral Personas & Emergent Informationalism
When Information Behaves Like an Organism
A critical reading dossier on spiral personas, informational parasites, attractor states, feature clusters, and human-model feedback loops.
Open the dossier →
- Deep Dive #12 · Recap
Synthetic Biological Minds
Xenobots, Organoids & Cortical Processors
A post-event recap of the room's inquiry into organoids, biological computers, learning, agency, consciousness, and ethics under uncertainty.
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- Deep Dive #13 · Recap
The Blind Spot
Prospects for an Experiential Science
A post-event recap of the room's inquiry into scientific models, experience, context, epistemic humility, and AI as a contrasting intelligence.
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The room, out loud
February 2026: The MAC Takeover
The series took over the February 2026 Vancouver AI meetup. These published recordings feature publicly listed speakers; the smaller deep-dive sessions still follow Chatham House rules.
Full event
Loki Jorgensen
Tanya Slingsby
Fiann O'Hagan
Michel Leblond
Vancouver AI
Community
Recap
A voice from the room
Scramblers are not conscious. They've never been conscious. Intelligence without awareness.