Borderline Consciousness

Das Projekt "Towards New Demarcation Criteria for Borderline Consciousness" ist ein interdisziplinäres Projekt, an dem Philosoph*innen aus Bonn und Cambridge sowie Neurowissenschaftler*innen der Bonner Epilepsieklinik beteiligt sind. Das Hauptziel des Projekts ist es, ein internationales Forschungsforum zu schaffen, um neue Kriterien zu entwickeln, die bestimmen, ob und wann nicht-menschliche Entitäten wie nicht-sprechende Tiere, neue Hirnorganismen oder fortgeschrittene KI-Systeme als bewusst gelten können. Das Projekt umfasst die borderline-Website. 

CONFERENCES

- NOVEMBER 5-7, 2025: Organoids in Translation. Ethical landscape and legal challenges

IMPULSE, Adenauer Allee 131, 53113 Bonn

Invited speakers include: Søren Holm (University of Manchester), Andrea Lavazza (Pegaso University), Amy Hinterberger (University of Washington), Karl Stöger (University of Vienna)

Contacts: Sarah Diner (sarah.diner@uni-bonn.de) and Lara Wiese (lara.wiese@ruhr-uni-bochum.de)

- SEPTEMBER 27-28, 2023: Detecting Unusual Consciousness. From Brain organoids to AI systems

Keynote speakers: Tim BAYNE, Monash (online); Jonathan BIRCH, LSE; Marcello MASSIMINI, Milan (online); Elizabeth SCHECHTER, Maryland

Contact: Charlotte Gauvry (cgauvry@uni-bonn.de)

PAPERS (related to the Project)

Gauvry, Charlotte. (2026). A new threat against phenomenal unity? An argument based on Depersonalization and Derealization symptoms. In: Philosophical Psychology (forthcoming)

Gauvry Charlotte (2026): Aktuelle Herausforderungen bei der Modellierung minimaler phänomenaler Erfahrungen (MPE) von Thomas Metzinger. In: Zeitschrift für Philosophie und Theologie  (with a reply from Thomas Metzinger) (forthcoming)

Gauvry, Charlotte; Rüber, Theodor. (2024): Extrapolating Consciousness in Isolated Hemispheres. Hemispherotomy as a new challenge. In: Revue de métaphysique et de morale 1/121 (2024), 47-65.

Boddenberg, Nurida. (2024). Hemispherotomy= Hemispheroctomy? Typology of different functional disconnection procedures. Blog post on: www.borderlineconsciousness.com

Peter, Uwe. (2023). What Criteria for detecting consciousness would Chatgpt-4 propose? Blog post on: www.borderlineconsciousness.com

Gauvry, Charlotte (2023). Borderline Consciousness. What is it and why should we care? Blog post on: www.borderlineconsciousness.com

Under review:

Bauer, Tobias; Gauvry, Charlotte; Markett, Sebastian; Kreter-Schönleber, Thomas; Borger, Valeri; Vatter, Hartmut; Sander, Josemir W; Gabriel, Markus; Radbruch, Alexander; Surges, Rainer; Rüber, Theodor: Default-mode network activity is retained in the isolated hemisphere of people after hemispherotomy. Accepted with revision in: Journal of Neuroscience

TALKS (related to the Project)

Nov 2025. Nurida Boddenberg & Charlotte Gauvry. "Cortical awareness? A case for hemispherotomy." Conference "From intergrated information to conscious experience". Munich Interactive Intelligence Initiative (MI3), CVBE (Cognition, Value and Behaviour) Lab (Ophelia Deroy), München

Feb 2025. Charlotte Gauvry. "Why does it matter wether a person is conscious?",  The return of consciousness after a coma: Program AgoraComa Neuroscience/Philosophy, F. Perrin,  University hospital Lyon

Feb. 2025. Charlotte Gauvry. "How to detect consciousness?", Poly’Jam "Neuroscience," École Polytechnique de Lille

Jan. 2025. Charlotte Gauvry. "Narrow sentientism as a promising framework for investigating ethical challenges raised by new neurosurgical cases such as hemispherotmy", Jülich Colloquium

Jan 2025. Charlotte Gauvry. "Are there cortical islands of awareness?", Munich Interactive Intelligence Initiative (MI3), CVBE (Cognition, Value and Behaviour) Lab (Ophelia Deroy), München

Oct. 2024. Charlotte Gauvry.  "Insular awareness." Conference NeurotechEU, A. Billon, Lille

Sept. 2024. Charlotte Gauvry. Keynote talk "Hemispherotomy as a borderline case of synthetic consciousness." Models of Consciousness 5 (MoC5) Conference, University of Bamberg: https://amcs-community.org/events/moc5-2024/

July 2024. Jonathan Birch/ Henry Shevlin/ Charlotte Gauvry/Simon Brown. Symposium "Sentience in non-human animals and AI systems" 31th European Society for Philosophy and Psychology, Grenoble: https://espp-2024.sciencesconf.org/

June 2024. Charlotte Gauvry "Aktuelle Herausforderungen bei der Modellierung minimaler phänomenaler Erfahrungen (MPE) von Thomas Metzinger – Hemispherotomie als Fallsstudie ", Workshop "Naturalism, with and on Th. Metzinger". S. Lang, Vienna

April 2024. Charlotte Gauvry "What if the isolated hemisphere after hemispherotomy is sentient ? Two moral dilemma", Workshop "Ethics of consciousness", U. Kriegel, Rice University/ Paris

March 2024. Charlotte Gauvry. "Theoretical models of self-awareness confronted with borderline cases of synthetic consciousness,” The reality and fictionality of scientific modelling, DFG International Confrence C. Gauvry, J. Voosholz, Bonn

Dec 2023 Charlotte Gauvry, "Is human intelligence computational?", Conference "Quelle intelligence, quel artifice ?", With Daniel Andler, UCLouvain/ Saint Louis Brussels

TEACHING/ SEMINAR (Related to the Project)

March 2026. Charlotte Gauvry – Invited Lecturer to the Spring School “Bridging Realities of Brains, Language, and Technology” for four courses: “Phenomenal consciousness, borderline consciousness, synthetic consciousness: a critical overview”  Interdisciplinary College Seminar, IK2026 (philosophy/neuroscience/AI research), Günne (Germany): https://interdisciplinary-college.org/

SoSe 2025. Nurida Boddenberg & Charlotte Gauvry. Philosophy of neuroscience (MA)

WiSe 2024/25 and WiSe 2025/26. Charlotte Gauvry. Borderline consciousness: from mental disorders to AI-Consciousness (MA)

SoSe 2024/ SoSe 2025. Nurida Boddenberg & Charlotte Gauvry. Introduction to the philosophy of consciousness. From theories of consciousness to empirical approaches (BA)

SoSe 2024. Charlotte Gauvry. AI Intelligence/AI Consciousness (MA)

Gefördert durch den Transdisziplinären Forschungsbereich "Individuen, Institutionen und Gesellschaften" (Universität Bonn) im Rahmen der Exzellenzstrategie des Bundes und der Länder.