Riccardo Manzotti
Riccardo Manzotti has a PhD in Robotics and degrees in The Philosophy of Mind and Computer Science. He teaches Psychology of Perception at the International University of Languages and Media (IULM) in Milan, Italy, and has been a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at MIT. He has specialised in artifical intelligence (AI), artificial vision, perception and, most of all, the issue of consciousness. After working in the field of artificial vision, he focused his research on the nature of phenomenal experience, how it emerges from physical processes and how it is related to objects perceived. His book The Spread Mind: why Consciousness and the World are one was published by OR books in November 2017.
In his article Books to get inside your head (The Guardian 9 July 2018), Tim Parks writes:
"Boldest, however, is philosopher and robotics engineer Riccardo Manzotti. In The Spread Mind: Why Consciousness and the World Are One he strenuously denies that there is anything in the head but neurons and electrochemistry; the experience that constitutes our lives lies outside, one with the object, which is as it is thanks to the presence of our bodies and indeed our neurons. What is extraordinary is how systematically and engagingly Manzotti is able to reconcile this externalist and physicalist approach with the findings of neuroscience, the theory of relativity and even quantum mechanics."
During his visit in December 2018, Professor Manzotti will give the public lecture The Spread Mind: A mind-object identity approach to the problem of consciousness.