{"id":237918,"date":"2026-05-28T22:06:58","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T03:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/05\/conversation-with-nic-rouleau-part-1-some-thoughts-on-the-mind-as-material"},"modified":"2026-05-28T22:06:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T03:06:58","slug":"conversation-with-nic-rouleau-part-1-some-thoughts-on-the-mind-as-material","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/05\/conversation-with-nic-rouleau-part-1-some-thoughts-on-the-mind-as-material","title":{"rendered":"Conversation with Nic Rouleau, part 1: \u201cSome thoughts on the mind as material\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3talIGE_v9Y?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This is a ~1 hour talk and discussion, comprising part 1 of a conversation with a really interesting young neuroscientist, as well as friend, collaborator, and our Center member, Nicolas Rouleau (<a href=\"https:\/\/allencenter.tufts.edu\/nicolas\">https:\/\/allencenter.tufts.edu\/nicolas<\/a>\u2026 goes over unconventional aspects of neuroscience touching on free will, cybernetics, consciousness, and a lot more. We start a discussion which is continued in part 2. For more information:<\/p>\n<p>Nic\u2019s website: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rouleaulab.com\">www.rouleaulab.com<\/a>.<br \/> X account: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DrNRouleau\">@DrNRouleau<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Recent papers to check out:<\/p>\n<p>Sellar, E.P., Rouleau, N. (In Review). A cybernetic framework for synthetic biological intelligence in the era of neural tissue engineering. Preprint doi: 10.31234\/osf.io\/md2wf_v1.<\/p>\n<p>Kansala, C., Cicek, E., Nkansah-Okoree, V., Golding, A., Murugan, N.J., Rouleau, N. (In Review). Superstitious conditioning forms the experience of free will under causal determinism. Preprint doi: 10.31234\/osf.io\/fk3yt_v2.<\/p>\n<p>Roskies, A. \\&amp; Rouleau, N. (Forthcoming, In Press). Research on brain organoids should prioritize questions of agency, not consciousness. AJOB Neuroscience.<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/05\/conversation-with-nic-rouleau-part-1-some-thoughts-on-the-mind-as-material\">Continue reading \u201cConversation with Nic Rouleau, part 1: \u201cSome thoughts on the mind as material\u201d\u201d | &gt;<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is a ~1 hour talk and discussion, comprising part 1 of a conversation with a really interesting young neuroscientist, as well as friend, collaborator, and our Center member, Nicolas Rouleau (https:\/\/allencenter.tufts.edu\/nicolas\u2026 goes over unconventional aspects of neuroscience touching on free will, cybernetics, consciousness, and a lot more. We start a discussion which is continued [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1902,3,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bioengineering","category-biological","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237918\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}