{"podcast":{"title":"Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas","slug":"sean-carroll-s-mindscape-science-society-philosophy-culture-arts-and-ideas-444522","podcast_index_feed_id":444522,"rss_url":"https://rss.libsyn.com/shows/604590/destinations/5264190.xml","website_url":"https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/b/0/6/d/b06d098337897af116c3140a3186d450/21d641ef836c48dff270cbede4360d187bdd6c56cb126be7d6f51078db34d4675527fa72e13c86bb573ec42c5d4fc493e18e7d95fec734ec77168fc379baefcf.jpeg","author":"Sean Carroll","episode_count":436,"summary":"Ever wanted to know how music affects your brain, what quantum mechanics really is, or how black holes work? Do you wonder why you get emotional each time you see a certain movie, or how on earth video games are designed? Then you've come to the right place. Each week, Sean Carroll will host conversations with some of the most interesting thinkers in the world. From neuroscientists and engineers to authors and television producers, Sean and his guests talk about the biggest ideas in science, philosophy, culture and much more.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-21T04:17:06.610110+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/sean-carroll-s-mindscape-science-society-philosophy-culture-arts-and-ideas-444522"},"episode":{"title":"339 | Ned Block on Whether Consciousness Requires Biology","slug":"339-ned-block-on-whether-consciousness-requires-biology","published_at":"2026-01-05T14:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/sean-carroll-s-mindscape-science-society-philosophy-culture-arts-and-ideas-444522/339-ned-block-on-whether-consciousness-requires-biology","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/sean-carroll-s-mindscape-science-society-philosophy-culture-arts-and-ideas-444522","url":"https://1d1ac211-8392-45fe-82db-99fa7f77076e.libsyn.com/339-ned-block-on-whether-consciousness-requires-biology","audio_url":"https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/1d1ac211-8392-45fe-82db-99fa7f77076e/ned20block.mp3?dest-id=5264190","summary":"It's become increasingly clear that the Turing Test -- determining whether human interlocutors can tell whether a conversation is being carried out by a human or a machine -- is not a good way to think about consciousness. Modern LLMs can mimic human conversation with extraordinary verisimilitude, but most people would not judge them to be conscious. What would it take? Is it even possible for a computer program to achieve consciousness, or must consciousness be fundamentally \"meat-based\"? Philosopher Ned Block has long argued that consciousness involves something more than simply the \"functional\" aspects of inputs and outputs. Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/01/05/339-ned-block-on-whether-consciousness-requires-biology/ S upport Mindscape on Patreon . Ned Block received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard University. He is currently Silver Professor in the Department of Philosophy at New York University, with secondary appointments in Psychology and Neural Science. He is also co-director of the Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness . He is Past President of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology and was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Web site NYU web page PhilPeople profile Google Scholar publications Wikipedia","meta_description":"It's become increasingly clear that the Turing Test -- determining whether human interlocutors can tell whether a conversation is being carried out by a h…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4262,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/sean-carroll-s-mindscape-science-society-philosophy-culture-arts-and-ideas-444522/episodes/339-ned-block-on-whether-consciousness-requires-biology/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/sean-carroll-s-mindscape-science-society-philosophy-culture-arts-and-ideas-444522/339-ned-block-on-whether-consciousness-requires-biology.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}