Michael Edward Johnson

I’m a philosopher and neuroscientist working on consciousness, valence, cognition, and the physical basis of suffering and well-being. Most broadly, I believe the real and the good exist and deserve a formal account; my headline result so far is the Symmetry Theory of Valence.

Major works include Principia Qualia (2016), Neural Annealing (2019), Vasocomputation (2023), and A Paradigm for AI Consciousness (2024). Principia Qualia was written as the founding document of QRI. I chose to leave the organization in 2022.

Recent interests in biology involve understanding how “vasocomputation latches” fit into the Levin/Lane/Becker/Ling bioelectricity lineage. Recent interests in philosophy include machine consciousness, branchial ecology, and what attributes we should build into synthetic descendants before they shape our light cone.

You can email me at johnsonmx@gmail.com. If I’m not responsive please don’t take it personally; I’m usually writing/thinking.

My research is almost entirely funded by retroactive donations; if you like the work I’ve done, consider supporting it via a direct donation.

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