10/09/2026
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Antonio Damasio has been working to solve the conundrum of consciousness almost since modern neuroscience first began to tackle the problem over three decades ago. In the early 1990s, the Portuguese neuroscientist was among the first to publish research suggesting that feelings such as hunger and pain might provide the foundations for consciousness, that familiar experience of being alive, awake, and self-aware in the world.
Today, Damasio has plenty of scientific company in his empirical approach to consciousness. But among consciousness researchers there are many prominent and conflicting theories of what consciousness is and how it functions, which differ significantly. Damasio belongs to the camp that believes that consciousness requires a body. Other theorists argue that all you need is sophisticated information processing architecture, which could exist without any kind of fleshy home.
Damasio has written many books about his work and ideas over the years, starting with Descartes Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain, published in 1994. Now he has published another volume: Natural intelligence & the Logic of Consciousness.
Nautilus spoke with Damasio about why he has more confidence in his theory concerning the biological imperative for consciousness now than ever, whether a robot body could develop AI consciousness, and how natural intelligence could explain someone like Donald Trump.
The conversation:
https://nautil.us/does-consciousness-require-a-body-1284886?giftLink=0bdd89db54e48ba77a7c27aa44a10f2b
