I am a philosopher of cognition. This means that I apply the tools of conceptual analysis and theoretical model building to answer fundamental questions about human cognition - about the way that human beings think. I am currently an assistant professor at the Hokkaido University's Center for Human Nature, Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience. 

​My research investigates the implications of a leading new perspective on cognition, which conceptualizes the mind as an engine of knowledge-driven predictions (i.e., the “predictive mind”). I work to integrate this body of work with the so called “4E cognition” view, which emphasizes the role of embodied processes in constituting what we call a mind. By foregrounding the role of action, emotion, social interaction and technology in cognitive processing, I have developed new naturalistic accounts of philosophically central concepts, such as embodiment, consciousness, curiosity and playfulness, desire, addiction, depression and mood disorders, depersonalization and self-less experiences in meditation, and human happiness and flourishing. ​As part of this work, I am a researcher on Andy Clark’s prestigious and highly interdisciplinary 4-year European Research Council (ERC) project Expecting Ourselves: Embodied Prediction and the Construction of Conscious Experience

Most recently, my research has begun to explore how these same developments in cognitive neuroscience may help us gain a clearer understanding of the impact that our increasingly technologically-mediated world has on our well-being. By leveraging theoretical insights from predictive processing, we are now in the position to develop new perspectives on contemporary discussions in domains such as human-computer interaction and socio-technical systems, with a specific emphasis on human well-being. 

A few upcoming things...

New Pre-Print Available Now!

Trust as Extended Control: Active Inference and User Feedback During Human-Robot Collaboration written with Felix Schoeller, Roy Salomon and Karl J. Friston

In the context of Human-Robot Collaborations, trust can be cast (via active inference) in terms of virtual control over an artificial agent. This approach helps to ground human factors in cognitive neuroscience and offers possible improvements to the design of human-centered technology. Check it out!
Podcasting about the Predictive Brain! 

Thanks to the amazing podcaster Jamie Slevin, and the team at The Scientistt Podcast, for inviting me to speak on my resent research on depression, addiction, meditation and the predictive brain. 

​Check it out here. 
Upcoming Special Issue: Predictive Processing and Consciousness

Tobias Schlicht, Andy Clark and myself are editing an exciting new special issue in Review of Philosophy and Psychology. Our collection will deliver an innovative, highly interdisciplinary account of the nature, scope and (importantly) the very possibility of conscious experience, based on the vision of the brain as a prediction machine – an inner engine continuously striving to anticipate the incoming sensory barrage.  

Coming soon, stay tuned.  
New Publication: Losing Ourselves: Active Inference, Depersonalization, and Meditation

Brand new publication with George Deane and Sam Wilkinson on the nature of selfless experiences, both the dysphoric experiences native to dissociative disorders and the euphoric ones sought after by meditators. 

You can find it here.
NEW Aeon Article: The Value of Uncertainty

"Understanding our own relationship with uncertainty has never been more important, for we live in unusually challenging times. Climate change, COVID-19 and the new order of surveillance capitalism make it feel as if we are entering a new age of global volatility. Where once for many in the West there were just pockets of instability (deep unpredictability) in a sea of reliability – albeit sometimes in disagreeable structures and expectations – it lately seems as if there are just pockets of stability in a swirling sea of hard-to-master change. By better understanding both the varieties and the value of uncertainty, and recognising the immense added value of turning our own uncertainties and expectations into concrete objects apt for test and challenge, we become better able to leverage the power of our own predictive brains".

You can find the article here: 

This article was just featured as the cover story in the excellent Italian research magazine Internazionale. 
Welcome to the Nested Mind Network

I am part of an exciting new research group in the Nested Mind Network​ dedicated to the development of new computational models of resilience and anti-fragility, and applying those models to better understand the nature of flourishing in individuals, businesses, communities and cities. 

The Nested Minds Network (NMN) is an international, multilab research community currently connecting research groups at more than 19 universities, in 8 countries). NMN advocates an approach to studying the mind that draws on various methodologies and framework, from neuroscience, machine learning, biology, and psychology to philosophy, anthropology, and the arts. A central imperative of the network is to inspire and encourage interdisciplinary research and to be the guarantor of beneficial cross-pollinations between people and labs around the world. This marks a return to the original spirit of cognitive science, which at its inception was conceived as a collective, interdisciplinary effort to understand an object that escapes the perspective of any one discipline: the living mind. This ethos is a reflection of our collective belief that tackling the big questions about minds requires just such a collaborative effort.

Hot new research on this topic coming soon!