Susan Schneider

Susan Schneider is an author, philosopher and cognitive science researcher. She is the NASA and Baruch Blumberg Chair of Astrobiology for the 2019 – 2020 year, a Library of Congress Distinguished Scholar Chair and a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. She is an associate professor at the University of Connecticut as well as the director of the university’s AI, Mind and Society Group. Schneider also belongs to Yale’s Ethics and Technology Group.
Schneider writes about the fundamental nature of the self and mind, especially from the vantage point of issues in philosophy, artificial intelligence and astrobiology. The topics she has written about most recently include radical brain enhancement, spacetime emergence, superintelligence, the nature of life, whether minds are in some sense programs, panpsychism and the nature of persons. She has been featured by The New York Times, Science, Nautilus, Smithsonian, Discover, PBS, The History Channel and more.

Programming descriptions are generated by participants and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SXSW.