The Science of Consciousness (‘TSC’) conference is the world’s longest running inter-disciplinary conference on broad and rigorous approaches to all aspects of the study and understanding of consciousness, the nature of existence and our place in the universe. addressing fundamental questions regarding consciousness, the brain, reality, and existence. 

TSC emphasizes broad and rigorous approaches to all aspects of the study and understanding of consciousness. Topical areas include neuroscience, philosophy, psychology, biology, quantum physics, cosmology, meditation and altered states, AI/machine consciousness, culture and experiential phenomenology. 

The Conference: 
The Science of Consciousness (TSC) conferences (since 1994) are the pre-eminent world gatherings on all approaches to the profound and fundamental question of how the brain produces conscious experience, a question which addresses who we are, the nature of reality and our place in the universe. The Science of Consciousness is an interdisciplinary conference emphasizing broad and rigorous approaches to all aspects of the study and understanding of conscious awareness. 

We face a crossroads in the age-old study of consciousness. Over the past thirty years approaches to understanding consciousness have diverged along two distinct paths: 1) ‘neurocomputational’ views of the brain as a complex computer of simple neurons, a view compatible with AI systems becoming conscious, and 2) ‘funda-mental’ views in which consciousness is intrinsic to the universe, connected to the brain through quantum biology. Exploring the funda-mental view, TSC embraces neuroscience biology far more rigorously than AI-compatible simple neurons. Ironically, conscious AI may be most likely to occur in biomimetic quantum computers.   

In 1994, the first TSC Consciousness conference  "Toward a Science of Consciousness" -  later known  as  TSC - "The Science of Consciousness" was held in Tucson, Arizona at the University of Arizona Medical Center.  TSC-1994 is widely regarded as a landmark event, and the subsequent series of biennial conferences in Tucson and alternate years abroad have attracted extraordinary interest. After being neglected for many years (i.e. during a period of dominance by behaviorism in psychology), interest in the science of consciousness exploded in the last decades, with much progress in neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and other areas. The Center for Consciousness Studies was formed in 1998 with a seed grant from the Fetzer Institute. The aim was to bring together the perspectives of philosophy, the cognitive sciences, neuroscience, the social sciences, medicine, and the physical sciences, the arts and humanities, to move toward an integrated understanding of human consciousness.  Other groups tend to focus either on cognitive neuroscience, philosophy or purely phenomenal experiential approaches, whereas we integrated these areas, but "thinks outside the box" of conventional wisdom which has thus far, at least, failed to make significant breakthroughs. We supported original research on consciousness, not only to understand the origins of consciousness, but to advance therapies for mental and cognitive disorders.  

TSC Conferences since 1994

San Diego TSC Oct 11-16, 2026 - upcoming

The Science of Consciousness 

tsc2026.org

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