The three main goals of Qualia Computing are to:
- Catalogue the entire state-space of consciousness
- Identify the computational properties of experience, and
- Reverse engineer valence (i.e. discover the function that maps formal descriptions of states of consciousness to values along the pleasure-pain axis)
– Core Philosophy (2016)
Bolded titles mean that the linked article is foundational: it introduces new concepts, vocabulary, heuristics, research methods, frameworks, and/or thought experiments that are important for the overall project of consciousness research. These tend to be articles that also discuss concepts in much greater depth than other articles.
The “long” tag means that the post has at least 4,000 words. Most of these long articles are in the 6,000 to 10,000 word range. The longest Qualia Computing article is Burning Man Theme-Camps of the Year 2029: From Replicator to Rainbow God (2/2) at ~16,000 words. The second longest article is the first post about Burning Man which is about 13,500 words long (and also happens to be foundational as it introduces many new frameworks and concepts).
Quotes and transcripts are usually about: evolutionary psychology, philosophy of mind, ethics, neuroscience, physics, meditation, and/or psychedelic phenomenology. By far, David Pearce is the most quoted person on Qualia Computing.
Basic stats:
- Total number of posts: 236
- Foundational articles: 52
- Articles over 4,000 words: 31
- Original content: 148
- Quotes and transcripts: 97
2020
Titans Anonymous (quote + commentary)
Types of Binding (quote)
Modeling Psychedelic Tracers with QRI’s Psychophysics Toolkit: The Tracer Replication Tool (very long)
Learning the Trade (quote)
Improve your Indoor Air Quality by 99% by Optimizing the Use of HEPA Filters
The Fact That We Can Smell Functional Groups is Just Such a Thing (quote + commentary)
Spiral (quote)
Qualia Research Diary: Scents (very long)
That Time Daniel Dennett Took 200 Micrograms of LSD (In Another Timeline)
Self-Locatingly Uncertain Psilocybin Trip Report by an Anonymous Reader (quote)
Posthuman Art: Towards Full-Spectrum Positive Valence Amplification (transcript + analysis)
QRI’s FAQ (long)
5-MeO-DMT vs. N,N-DMT: The 9 Lenses (long)
On the Evolution of the Phenomenal Self (and Other Communications from QRI Sweden)
10 Ways Perception Distorts Reality (quote)
Mini-Series on Open Individualism
The QRI Ecosystem: Friends, Collaborators, Blogs, Media, and Adjacent Communities
Fire Kasina: Color Control Experience Report by Daniel Ingram (transcript)
5-MeO-DMT Awakenings: From Naïve Realism to Symmetrical Enlightenment (transcript + analysis/long)
Geometry Through the Eyes of Felix Klein (quote)
The Manifesto of Tactilism (quote)
Qualia Production Presents: “The Seven Seals of Security” (and Other Communications from QRI Sweden)
Making Amazing Recreational Drug Cocktails (long)
Perfumery as an Art Form (long)
Qualia Computing at: TSC 2020, IPS 2020, unSCruz 2020, and Ephemerisle 2020 [Spoiler: COVID got in the way of these events.]
A Big State-Space of Consciousness
2019
One for All and All for One (quote)
Binding Quiddities (quote)
Qualia Productions Presents: When AI Equals Advanced Incompetence
Neural Annealing: Toward a Neural Theory of Everything
Essential Therapy (quote)
Breaking Down the Problem of Consciousness
Is the Orthogonality Thesis Defensible if We Assume Both Valence Realism and Open Individualism? (quote)
Toy Story 4 – 20 Movie Review (quote)
Three Interesting Math Problems to Work on While on LSD
Psychotic Depression (quote)
Early Isolation Tank Psychonautics: 1970s Trip Reports (quote collage)
Two Recent Presentations: (1) Hyperbolic Geometry of DMT Experiences, and (2) Harmonic Society
State of the Qualia, Fall 2019
Harmonic Society (4/4): Art as Valence Modulation and Future Affective Language
Harmonic Society (3/4): Art as State-Space Exploration and Energy Parameter Modulation
The Psychobiology of Subcultures (quote)
Harmonic Society (2/4): Art as Schelling Point Creation and the Pursuit of Sacred Experiences
Harmonic Society (1/4): Art as Family Resemblance + Cool Kid Theory
Announcement: QRI Presentations at Harvard and NYU
More Dakka in Medicine (quote)
Typical N,N-DMT Trip Progression According to an Anonymous Reader
Atman Retreat: Safe, Legal Psilocybin Experiences in Jamaica
Kaleidoscopic Integration: Annealing, Symmetry, and the Information Theory of Experience (quote collage)
Why Care About Meme Hazards and Thoughts on How to Handle Them
Carhart-Harris & Friston 2019 – REBUS and the Anarchic Brain (quote + analysis)
Does Full-Spectrum Superintelligence Entail Benevolence? (quote)
Glossary of Qualia Research Institute Terms (long)
Using Ibogaine to Create Friendlier Opioids
Treating Cluster Headaches Using N,N-DMT and Other Tryptamines
Cluster Headache Frequency Follows a Long-Tail Distribution
Ephemerisle: Health Homeostasis, Worldview Annealing, and the Long-Tails of Serious Fun (long)
5-MeO-DMT Trip Report by Anonymous Reader (quote)
Low-Dose Ibogaine + Opioids: A Possible Treatment for Chronic Pain, Schizophrenia, and Depression? (quote)
Top 10 Qualia Computing Articles
Ego and Symmetry on 5-MeO-DMT (transcript)
AI Alignment Podcast: On Consciousness, Qualia, and Meaning with Mike Johnson and Andrés Gómez Emilsson (transcript/long)
Timothy Leary’s Final Regrets (quote)
All-Is-One Simulation Theory (quote + analysis)
Rational 4-AcO-DMT Trip Report By An Anonymous Reader (quote)
Against Fetishizing Cortical Neurons: Prioritizing Humans As Instrumentally Rational
+Transhumanism -Signaling: Education Should Be Relevant to Meaningful Work (quote)
An Infinite Variety of Waste (quote)
Microaffect Hash Collision Theory of Déjà Vus
The Meaning Machine (quotes + analysis)
Low-Dose Ibogaine for Hedonic Tone Augmentation (quote)
Transcending and Including Integral Theory
Frequency Specific Microcurrent for Kidney-Stone Pain (quote)
Burning Man Theme-Camps of the Year 2029: From Replicator to Rainbow God (2/2) (long)
Investing Time and Resources in Happiness
Utilitronium Shockwaves vs. Gradients of Bliss (quote)
On Hitting the Actual Target of Hedonic Tone
The Resonance and Vibration of [Phenomenal] Objects (quote + analysis)
“Letter from Utopia” and Other Triple-S Transhumanist Media (quote + analysis)
Burning Man Theme-Camps of the Year 2029: From Replicator to Rainbow God (1/2) (long)
Cooling It Down To Partying It Up
Cause X – What Will the New Shiny Effective Altruist Cause Be?
Detailed 2C-B Trip Report by an Anonymous Reader (quote/long)
Free-Wheeling Hallucinations (quote collage)
Philip K. Dick’s LSD Trip (quote + analysis)
2018
Lucid LSD Trip Report from an Anonymous Reader (quote)
What is Love? Neural Annealing in the Presence of an Intentional Object (quote)
Personality Traits Are Continuous With Mental Illnesses (quote)
The Phenomenal Character of LSD + MDMA (Candy-Flipping) According to Cognitive Scientist Steve Lehar (mostly quote)
The Universal Plot: Interlude ‽ – The Slytherin Wavelength
Psychedelic Turk: A Platform for People on Altered States of Consciousness
Estimated Cost of the DMT Machine Elves Prime Factorization Experiment (quote)
Thoughts on the ‘Is-Ought Problem’ from a Qualia Realist Point of View
The Qualia Explosion (quote)
Materializing Hyperbolic Spaces with Gradient-Index Optics and One-Way Mirrors
Why don’t more effective altruists work on the Hedonistic Imperative? (quote)
The Appearance of Arbitrary Contingency to Our Diverse Qualia (quote)
Qualia Computing at Burning Man 2018: “Consciousness vs Replicators” talk (announcement)
Open Individualism and Antinatalism: If God could be killed, it’d be dead already (long)
John von Neumann (quote)
Qualia Computing Media Appearances
Marijuana-induced “Short-term Memory Tracers” (quote)
The Banality of Evil (quote)
Person-moment affecting view (quote)
Qualia Formalism in the Water Supply: Reflections on The Science of Consciousness 2018 (long)
Qualia Research Institute presentations at The Science of Consciousness 2018 (Tucson, AZ)
Modern Accounts of Psychedelic Action (quote)
From Point-of-View Fragmentation to Global Visual Coherence: Harmony, Symmetry, and Resonance on LSD (mostly quote/long)
Every Qualia Computing Article Ever
Qualia Computing Attending The Science of Consciousness 2018
Everything in a Nutshell (quote)
2017
Would Maximally Efficient Work Be Fun? (quote)
The Universal Plot: Part I – Consciousness vs. Pure Replicators (long)
No-Self vs. True Self (quote)
Qualia Manifesto (quote)
Traps of the God Realm (quote)
Avoid Runaway Signaling in Effective Altruism (transcript)
Burning Man (long)
Mental Health as an EA Cause: Key Questions
24 Predictions for the Year 3000 by David Pearce (quote)
Why I think the Foundational Research Institute should rethink its approach (quote/long)
Quantifying Bliss: Talk Summary (long)
Connectome-Specific Harmonic Waves on LSD (transcript)
ELI5 “The Hyperbolic Geometry of DMT Experiences”
Qualia Computing at Consciousness Hacking (June 7th 2017) (announcement)
Principia Qualia: Part II – Valence (quote)
The Penfield Mood Organ (quote)
The Most Important Philosophical Question
The Forces At Work (quote)
Psychedelic Science 2017: Take-aways, impressions, and what’s next (long)
How Every Fairy Tale Should End
Political Peacocks (quote)
OTC remedies for RLS (quote)
Their Scientific Significance is Hard to Overstate (quote)
Memetic Vaccine Against Interdimensional Aliens Infestation (quote)
Raising the Table Stakes for Successful Theories of Consciousness
Qualia Computing Attending the 2017 Psychedelic Science Conference
GHB vs. MDMA (quote)
2016
The Binding Problem (quote)
The Hyperbolic Geometry of DMT Experiences: Symmetries, Sheets, and Saddled Scenes (long)
Thinking in Numbers (quote)
Praise and Blame are Instrumental (quote)
The Tyranny of the Intentional Object
Schrödinger’s Neurons: David Pearce at the “2016 Science of Consciousness” conference in Tucson
Beyond Turing: A Solution to the Problem of Other Minds Using Mindmelding and Phenomenal Puzzles
David Pearce on the “Schrodinger’s Neurons Conjecture” (quote)
Samadhi (quote)
Panpsychism and Compositionality: A solution to the hard problem (quote)
LSD and Quantum Measurements: Can you see Schrödinger’s cat both dead and alive on acid? (long)
Wireheading Done Right: Stay Positive Without Going Insane (long)
Just the fate of our forward light-cone
Information-Sensitive Gradients of Bliss (quote)
A Single 3N-Dimensional Universe: Splitting vs. Decoherence (quote)
Algorithmic Reduction of Psychedelic States (long)
So Why Can’t My Boyfriend Communicate? (quote)
Psychedelic alignment cascades (quote)
Work Religion (quote)
Qualia Computing in Tucson: The Magic Analogy
In Praise of Systematic Empathy
David Pearce on “Making Sentience Great” (quote)
Peaceful Qualia: The Manhattan Project of Consciousness (long)
You are not a zombie (quote)
What’s the matter? It’s Schrödinger, Heisenberg and Dirac’s (quote)
The Biointelligence Explosion (quote)
A (Very) Unexpected Argument Against General Relativity As A Complete Account Of The Cosmos
The Super-Shulgin Academy: A Singularity I Can Believe In (long)
The effect of background assumptions on psychedelic research
2015
An ethically disastrous cognitive dissonance…
Some Definitions (quote)
Who should know about suffering?
Ontological Qualia: The Future of Personal Identity (long)
Why does anything exist? (quote)
State-Space of Background Assumptions
Psychedelic Perception of Visual Textures 2: Going Meta
On Triviality (quote)
State-Space of Drug Effects: Results
How to secretly communicate with people on LSD
Generalized Wada Test and the Total Order of Consciousness
Psychophysics for Psychedelic Research: Textures (long)
I only vote for politicians who have used psychedelics. EOM.
David Pearce’s daily morning cocktail (2015) (quote)
Psychedelic Perception of Visual Textures
A workable solution to the problem of other minds
The fire that breathes reality into the equations of physics (quote)
Phenomenal Binding is incompatible with the Computational Theory of Mind
David Hamilton’s conversation with Alf Bruce about the nature of the mind (quote)
Manifolds of Consciousness: The emerging geometries of iterated local binding
The psychedelic future of consciousness
Discussion of Fanaticism (quote)
What does comparatively matter in 2015?
Suffering: Not what your sober mind tells you (quote)
Reconciling memetics and religion.
The Reality of Basement Reality
2014
And that’s why we can and cannot have nice things
Breaking the Thought Barrier: Ethics of Brain Computer Interfaces in the workplace
How bad does it get? (quote)
Crossing borders (quote)