Robert J. Sawyer

Hugo and Nebula Award-Winning Science Fiction Writer

Archive for the 'Consciousness' Category

Mood-tracking apps work … sort of

Tuesday, November 9th, 2010

Interesting article here about a little app that helps you monitor your mood. As the article says, there’s no sophisticated psychological model at work — but I think that doesn’t really matter. As a science-fiction writer who often explores artificial intelligence (for instance in Wake, Golden Fleece, and Factoring Humanity), it seems to me the […]

Toward a Science of Consciousness

Friday, November 27th, 2009

When I’m asked what scientific topic fascinates me the most, I usually cite consciousness studies. Certainly, the nature of consciousness — and the question of why we have internal lives, of why it is like something to be alive — is at the heart of much of my fiction, perhaps most notably these days in […]

Podcast: Sawyer neurosciences talk at Penn

Saturday, May 9th, 2009

On Wednesday, May 6, 2009, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning science-fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer gave an invited 90-minute talk at the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience [pictured] at the University of Pennsylvania (“Penn”). Sawyer was the first science-fiction writer ever invited to speak at the Center. Sawyer’s talk delved into the cognitive science, neuroscience, and other […]