Decoding Consciousness, Psychedelics, and the Mind

Event ID: PP1162485

Sat, Mar 14, 2026 | 7:30 PM - 8:30 PM

Venue: Salon E (Hilton Austin Downtown)

View on Official SXSW

Summary

After a lifetime studying consciousness, famed neuroscientist Dr. Christof Koch had a profound, "no self, no memories, no time, no space, just terror and ecstasy" experience after deliberately taking a potent psychedelic. He argues, if we claim to be students of consciousness, we must explore its most dramatic manifestations. This story launches into the most urgent questions of our time: What is consciousness, really? As AI rapidly advances and we grow complex "mini-brains" in labs, understanding what it means to "feel" or "be" is no longer just philosophy—it's critical for our future.

Contributors

Raw Event JSON

Large nested arrays are compacted for page readability. Full payload remains in dataset files.

Open JSON payload
{
  "id": "PP1162485",
  "track": "Culture",
  "focus_area": null,
  "category": "Presentation",
  "event_id": "PP1162485",
  "event_type": "panel",
  "format": "Presentation",
  "genre": null,
  "subgenre": null,
  "name": "Decoding Consciousness, Psychedelics, and the Mind",
  "presented_by": null,
  "publish_at": "2025-11-03T16:30:00.000-06:00",
  "reservable": true,
  "reservable_id": "PP1162485",
  "reserved": false,
  "date": "2026-03-14",
  "end_time": "2026-03-14T15:30:00.000-05:00",
  "start_time": "2026-03-14T14:30:00.000-05:00",
  "message": null,
  "image": {
    "alt_text": "Decoding Consciousness, Psychedelics, and the Mind",
    "credit": null,
    "url": "https://images.sxsw.com/94nak2wnvraUeIs1y4d8iNFDZ4w=/950x633/images.sxsw.com/187/b1394280-7852-957a-6dc4-f565d10a2b8a/pp1162485"
  },
  "credentials": [
    {
      "name": "Platinum Badge",
      "type": "platinum"
    },
    {
      "name": "Innovation Badge",
      "type": "innovation"
    }
  ],
  "contributors": [
    {
      "id": 7826,
      "company": "Allen Institute",
      "credential_types": [
        "innovation"
      ],
      "entity_id": 1935312,
      "name": "Christof Koch",
      "speaker_types": [],
      "title": "Meritorious Investigator At The Allen Institute, Chief Scientist At The Tiny Blue Dot Foundation",
      "image": {
        "alt_text": "Christof Koch",
        "credit": null,
        "url": "https://images.sxsw.com/C9holottUdAjd7BslZh_5fBEXZg=/600x600/images.sxsw.com/48/b4abe3be-53f5-4850-0a6c-fb2b564f2b2d/pcid-883779"
      },
      "speaker_type": "Speaker",
      "details": "Christof Koch, a Meritorious Investigator at the Allen Institute, boasts a distinguished career in neuroscience. Educated in physics in Germany and with postdoctoral work at MIT's AI Lab, he was a professor at Caltech for over two decades before joining the Allen Institute as Chief Scientific Officer and later President. His passion lies in neurons—the building blocks of perception and consciousness—and identifying all neuron types in mouse and human brains. He's made significant discoveries on neuronal integration and co-developed the Integrated Information Theory of consciousness with Giulio Tononi. Koch's work blends theoretical and experimental neuroscience with philosophy and AI, evident in his book, \"The Feeling of Life Itself – Why Consciousness is Everywhere But Can’t be Computed.\"",
      "links": {},
      "type": "person"
    }
  ],
  "venue": {
    "accessible": false,
    "age_policy": null,
    "floor": "4",
    "id": "V0377",
    "indoor_outdoor": "INDOOR",
    "name": "Salon E",
    "parent_id": "V0365",
    "parent_venue_name": "Hilton Austin Downtown",
    "venue_entry_info": null,
    "formats": null,
    "location": {
      "address": "500 E 4th St.",
      "lat_lon": [
        30.2651364,
        -97.7381904
      ],
      "city": "Austin",
      "postal_code": "78701",
      "state": "TX",
      "name": "Hilton Austin Downtown"
    },
    "root": {
      "accessible": null,
      "age_policy": null,
      "floor": null,
      "id": "V0365",
      "indoor_outdoor": null,
      "name": "Hilton Austin Downtown",
      "parent_id": null,
      "parent_venue_name": null,
      "venue_entry_info": null,
      "formats": null
    },
    "events": "[omitted 5 venue events]"
  },
  "description": "After a lifetime studying consciousness, famed neuroscientist Dr. Christof Koch had a profound, \"no self, no memories, no time, no space, just terror and ecstasy\" experience after deliberately taking a potent psychedelic. He argues, if we claim to be students of consciousness, we must explore its most dramatic manifestations.  This story launches into the most urgent questions of our time: What is consciousness, really? As AI rapidly advances and we grow complex \"mini-brains\" in labs, understanding what it means to \"feel\" or \"be\" is no longer just philosophy—it's critical for our future.",
  "experience_level": "Beginner",
  "accessibility": [
    "American Sign Language",
    "Closed captioned"
  ],
  "accessible_venue": false,
  "add_bcl_url": false,
  "add_slido": false,
  "age_policy": null,
  "american_sign_language": true,
  "apple_url": null,
  "audio_description": false,
  "caption_url": null,
  "closed_captioned": true,
  "cpe_credit": false,
  "has_subtitles": false,
  "hash_tags": [],
  "high_sensory_experience": false,
  "live": false,
  "long_description": "After a lifetime studying consciousness, famed neuroscientist Dr. Christof Koch had a profound, \"no self, no memories, no time, no space, just terror and ecstasy\" experience after deliberately taking a potent psychedelic. He argues, if we claim to be students of consciousness, we must explore its most dramatic manifestations.  This story launches into the most urgent questions of our time: What is consciousness, really? As AI rapidly advances and we grow complex \"mini-brains\" in labs, understanding what it means to \"feel\" or \"be\" is no longer just philosophy—it's critical for our future.",
  "meeting_url": null,
  "meeting_url_live": false,
  "mentorly_url": null,
  "mobile_audio_url": null,
  "open_captioned": false,
  "playlist_tag": null,
  "rebroadcast": false,
  "recommended_ids": [],
  "search_conversions": null,
  "short_program": false,
  "slido_url": null,
  "sort": "DECODING CONSCIOUSNESS, PSYCHEDELICS, AND THE MIND",
  "source": "Official",
  "squad_up_url": null,
  "stream_embed": null,
  "stream_id": null,
  "stream_url": null,
  "strobe_warning": false,
  "subdiscipline": null,
  "summit": null,
  "summit_display_name": null,
  "tags": [
    {
      "id": 2484,
      "name": "Psychedelics",
      "created_at": "2024-02-13T18:44:03.535-06:00",
      "updated_at": "2024-02-13T18:44:03.535-06:00",
      "sort": "PSYCHEDELICS",
      "alpha": "P"
    },
    {
      "id": 951,
      "name": "Science",
      "created_at": "2016-11-04T11:44:17.754-05:00",
      "updated_at": "2024-01-25T14:52:52.593-06:00",
      "sort": "SCIENCE",
      "alpha": "S"
    }
  ],
  "talent_attending": null,
  "title_only": false,
  "track_display_name": "Culture",
  "trailer_id": null,
  "trailer_url": null,
  "video_on_demand": null,
  "vimeo_id": null,
  "vod": false,
  "xr_project_type": null,
  "youtube_id": null,
  "related_sales_client": null
}