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Quiz

Which theory of consciousness fits you?

9 questions about mind, matter, machines and death. Your answers are matched against 457 theories from Kuhn's Landscape of Consciousness, and you see the five closest, with where you agree and where you part ways.

There are no right answers. The Atlas describes theories; it does not rank them. Each theory's position comes from its entry in the Atlas, scored on the same scale as your answers.

How the quiz works

Every theory in the Atlas has a position on five axes, read from its entry: what is ultimately real (matter to mind), how basic consciousness is (an illusion to the ground of reality), where it is (particular brain circuits to nowhere in space), what evidence the theory rests on (experiment to tradition and extraordinary experience), and whether it needs quantum physics. Each theory also gives its own answer on AI consciousness, life after death, mind uploading and meaning.

Your answers are placed on the same scales and compared with all 457 theories. Questions about what is real and how basic consciousness is count most. The five closest theories are shown with where you agree and where you differ, and the eleven families are ranked by how close their nearest theories are.

All 9 questions and answers
  1. What is the world ultimately made of?
    • Matter and energy. A mind is something matter does.
    • Matter, but minds are real in their own right, not just a way of describing brains.
    • Something deeper that shows up as both matter and mind.
    • Two different kinds of thing: the physical and the mental.
    • Mind. The physical world is how mind appears.
  2. How basic is consciousness?
    • Less real than it seems. The inner glow is a story the brain tells itself.
    • Real but rare. It takes a complex brain.
    • Real across living things, in degrees.
    • Real well beyond brains, perhaps even in simple matter.
    • The most basic thing there is.
  3. Where is your experience happening right now?
    • In particular circuits of my brain.
    • In my brain, working as a whole.
    • In my brain, body and surroundings together.
    • Spread through nature, not only in me.
    • Nowhere in particular. It isn't located in space.
  4. What would convince you about consciousness?
    • Experiments and brain data.
    • Science and careful argument, side by side.
    • A sound philosophical argument.
    • Close attention to my own experience, through meditation or practice.
    • Spiritual tradition, or experiences like near-death reports.
  5. Does today's physics have room for minds?
    • Yes. Ordinary physics and biology are enough.
    • Quantum physics may play a part.
    • Minds need quantum physics, or physics we don't have yet.
  6. Could an AI ever be conscious?
    • Yes, if it's built the right way.
    • Possibly, but only under certain conditions.
    • No one can say.
    • No. Machines can't have experiences.
  7. Does consciousness survive death?
    • Yes.
    • Possibly, in some form.
    • No one can say.
    • No. It ends with the brain.
  8. Could your mind be uploaded to a computer?
    • Yes, in principle.
    • Possibly, with the right technology.
    • No one can say.
    • No. A copy wouldn't be me, or wouldn't be conscious.
    • No need. Consciousness carries on without a body anyway.
  9. Does consciousness give life a meaning beyond what we make of it?
    • Yes. Meaning is built into reality.
    • No one can say.
    • No. Meaning is ours to make.