Dezhi Luo
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United Kingdom
PhD Student
University College London (UCL)
Machine Learning/Technical AI, Neuroscience/Cognitive Science, Philosophy/Ethics, Interdisciplinary
United Kingdom PhD Student University College London (UCL) Machine Learning/Technical AI, Neuroscience/Cognitive Science, Philosophy/Ethics, Interdisciplinary
Project
A formal toy framework for implementing the iterative natural kinds strategy in consciousness science
Project Overview
Recent work in consciousness science has proposed the iterative natural kinds (INK) strategy (Bayne et al., 2024) as a principled way to extend tests for consciousness beyond humans by grounding them in population similarity rather than intuition or specific test outcomes. While influential, this strategy remains largely conceptual, lacking a formal framework that specifies how populations, evidence, and similarity relations should be represented and updated over time.
This project aims to develop a minimal, formal “toy” framework that captures the core logic of the INK strategy in a transparent and extensible way. Rather than testing real systems or proposing new consciousness measures, the project focuses on formalization: clarifying how evidence from a consensus population could rationally license extensions to nearby populations, and how uncertainty should be updated as new evidence accumulates. The resulting framework is intended as a foundational tool for future empirical and theoretical work on consciousness, AI sentience, and related constructs.
Mentor
About the Scholar
I am an incoming MPhil/PhD student in philosophy at UCL. Before I was an undergrad at the University of Michigan’s Weinberg institute for Cognitive Science, a visiting student at UCL Faculty of Brain Sciences affiliated with the MetaLab, and an AI Fellow at the Institute of Philosophy. I spent my first-year in the Cognitive Science MA programme at The University of Edinburgh. I am most interested in the theoretical foundations of cognitive science and its implications to the responsible development of AI, with a focus on consciousness, agency, and understanding. Outside of these I enjoy alternative music, post-modern fictions, and random streetwalking.
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