A former Wellcome Trust Engagement Fellow , his two TED talk have been viewed more than 14 million times ; he has appeared in several film , and he has write for Aeon , The Guardian , Granta , New Scientist , and Scientific American . His recent bookBeing You : A New Science of Consciousnesswas an clamant Sunday Times Bestseller and a 2021 Book of the Year for The Economist , The New Statesman , and Bloomberg Business , as well as a 2021 Science Book of the Year for The Guardian and The Financial Times .
Most recently , Anil has been the lead scientist on theDreamachineproject , an innovative art - science experience using flying flickering light to stimulate brilliant optic experience in chiliad of people throughout the UK . As part of the Dreamachine labor , he has led the exploitation ofThe Perception Census – a expectant - scale of measurement online field of study of perceptual diversity , cast off newfangled light on how we each experience the cosmos in an single , singular fashion . We caught up with Anil to acquire more .
What is The Perception Census?
The Perception Census is a raw , first - of - its - kind study into what my fellow worker and I have come to call ‘ perceptual multifariousness ’ . It is incite by the approximation that just as we all disagree on the exterior , we all differ on the inside too . What do I think by this ? Research going back 10 , including employment bymy squad at the University of Sussex , has shown that we do n’t just passively comprehend the world ‘ as it is ’ ; instead , our brains are always actively interpreting sensory information to create our experiences . And because we all have different brains , we will have different experiences – even for the same share reality .
infer more about this inner ‘ perceptual diversity ’ is what The Perception Census is all about . The way we differ on the exterior are easy to see , but our interior deviation are much voiceless to measure . Our witting experience are private – only I really know what it ’s like to be me . And because it seems as though we see things just as they are , it can be intemperately even to think of the possible action that others might experience thing differently .
The bearing of the Census is to map out , for the first clip , the many ways our experienced worlds are different , as well as the ways they remain standardized . What ’s unique about The Perception Census is that it look into many different aspects of perception , such as vision , audience , and meter , and how they pretend each other . I do n’t remember that any other scientific study has test to paint such a comprehensive picture of how various and classifiable our ‘ inner universes ’ really are .
To make this project successful we needas many people as possible to take part . Every somebody really does make a difference , every participant will also learn about their own powers of perception , and how they relate to others .
How did you come to be involved with it?
The Perception Census came about as part of a program called Dreamachine , which is one of ten commissions in the UK - wide of the mark fete of creativity , UNBOXED . I became knotty as the lead scientist on the task , thanks in part to my long - standing involvement in understanding the biological foundation of consciousness and self , as I write about in my recent bookBeing You : A New Science of Consciousness . The more specific reason was because of my previous work , with my confrere and friend David Schwartzman , on something called ‘ stroboscopically induced optical hallucination ’ .
The Dreamachine itself is a unique , collective , immersive experience which uses stroboscopic white-hot light and spatial sound to create vivid experiences of colors , shapes , and movement – and often much more – in the creative thinker of player , all of whom have their center closed . Unlike our quotidian experience of the world around us , the optic hallucination that arise in the Dreamachine seem to come from within , and everyone has a unique experience even though they are each exposed to exactly the same sequence of flickering blanched visible light . The history of enquiry into this phenomenon goes back to the open up British neuroscientist William Grey Walter in the 1950s , and David and I have been working on it in our laboratory since 2012 .
During the summer of 2022 , decade of thou of people visited the Dreamachine across the four capital metropolis of the UK . Our audiences were amazed by how vivid their experiences were , and how different they could be from each other . For the scientist and philosophers on the team – including philosopher Fiona Macpherson , and my Sussex colleagues David Schwartzman , Reny Baykova , James Alvarez , and Trevor Hewitt – this has put up a unparalleled platform from which to plunge a orotund study into perceptual multifariousness in the large universe , part of which is The Perception Census .
How can people take part in it?
It ’s leisurely . you could sign on uphereand get going straight away . The Perception Census consists of a series of fun and take on-line games , brain teaser and synergistic illusions . There are ten dissimilar sections , each cover a dissimilar view of perceptual experience , such as vividness , time , vision , sound and medicine , the body , how our prospect impact our experience , and much more . All you need is your own background computer or laptop computer , and you have to be at least 18 year old . Every soul take part really does make a difference of opinion .
What do you hope citizen scientists involved in The Perception Census will take away from it?
Many thing ! The warm glow of having contributed meaningfully to cut - border inquiry in the science of sensing , obviously . But perhaps even more significant , by accept part , every participant will learn more about their own power of perceptual experience , how they relate to others , and some of the fascinating questions that are still a mystery to all of us .
If enough masses participate , our findings could rewrite our understanding of how we comprehend the earth , take form a unique organic structure of scientific and philosophic research that will be valuable for years to come . We live in extremely polarise times , our beliefs and idea sharpened within the echo chambers of rampant social media . play to perch our inner variety could cater a knock-down restorative against these erosive military force by cultivating a new humbleness about our own perspectives . Recognizing that we do n’t see the worldas it is , butas we are , might provide a new platform for empathy , understanding , and communication . It could even be that engaging people in simple perceptual exercises that reveal the constructed nature of percept will open their minds to raw viewpoints and assist resolve divergence .
There are also interesting connections to the concept of neurodivergence , which – like perceptual diversity – emphasizes that people differ in their perceptual experiences , and that deviation are not deficits . For good or tough , neurodivergence has become associated with specific weather , such as autism or ADHD , ironically reinforcing the view that these condition resist in dividing line to a neurotypical , ‘ correct ’ way of perceiving . By focusing on the middle terra firma that apply to all of us , the concept of perceptual diversity usefully challenge this interpreting .
Beyond all of this , my deep hope – give lifetime by what we ’ve observed in the Dreamachine – is that participant in the Census will discover a raw sense of wonder about the everyday miracle of conscious experience , of how much is going on within our wit and body to create the experience of a existence around us and of being a self within it .
Why is citizen science important?
Most of my career has been about research lab - based research , couple with increasing amounts of public engagement activity . The Perception Census has been a new and exciting opportunity for me and my team . One of the obvious things citizen science delivers is graduated table . More than 12,000 the great unwashed have already require part in the Census , and we ’re hop for many , many more . This scale does n’t just offer better data , it opens up entirely new questions . There would be no means of mapping out perceptual multifariousness through science lab - base studies , however many we did .
Citizen sciencealso delivers meaningful engagement . When people put up to the research , they get concerned in the research , and curious about the deep , rudimentary issues in science and philosophy . Once a fire of curiosity has been take fire , who knows where it will lead .
There is also the serendipitous , the unexpected . In the Dreamachine , we ’ve been astonished by some of the verbal description of people ’ experiences , and what they have meant to them . For example , many the great unwashed narrate us that the Dreamachine experience helped them lot with intriguing experience like depression and grief , and their description are now forming the basis of unexampled lab - based inquiry . I do n’t yet know whether something similar will happen with The Perception Census , but I ’m eager to find out – and we ’ve already had some smart as a whip feedback :
" I genuinely had such a howling weekend participating in this . Considering the themes it covers , I frankly like it was as compulsory as our genuine nosecount . "
" Guess who found out they have synaesthesiatoday . When I see a week , I see a circle , and each day is a segment of the circle . I only found out because I contract part in the Perception Census . "
" This is the internet at its best , this is what the cyberspace was mean for when it was invented . There are many office of the internet that it is worth hang on for and searching out and this is one of them . "
What do you enjoy most about engaging the public in your research?
It ’s so rewarding . I ’m golden to study a subject – consciousness – that many people find per se interesting , but pretty much any area of scientific discipline is deeply captivating if present in the right fashion .
I delight the challenge of enter out how to fetch the scientific discipline and school of thought in an accessible way , without dumbing it down , and draw out its relevance for people ’s everyday lives . I enjoy how this challenge plays out in different means across different formats , whether its large - scale artistry - scientific discipline projects , writing books , transcription podcasts , or working with plastic film and TV . I ’m always learning , and there is joy to solve across disciplines and with fresh people . The Dreamachine , for instance , brought together architects , composer , engineers , originative producers , applied scientist , digital designers – as well as scientists and philosophers . And in another undertaking , from a few years ago , I worked with the rap artist Baba Brinkman to create the ‘ rap guide to cognizance ’ – something I ’d have never expected to do , not in a million year .
I strongly believe that public engagement also do good the skill itself . The exercise of distilling complex research into a concise and clear form coerce me to read the research well myself . It helps me see Modern connection , and sometimes novel ideas hail about through the project themselves .
Like any skill , public engagement takes practice . I started by looking for chance to give talks wherever I could – which for me mean one-time peoples ’ nursing home in San Diego , and then bar and cafes in Brighton . The more you do , the more you ’ll learn what works and what does n’t . And again , con to communicate your enquiry to the public will facilitate enormously in how effective you could be in conveying your work to scientific colleagues too .
What advice would you give to other scientists who are considering looking to citizen scientists in their work?
Make indisputable you key the correct inquiry . What is it about your research that really requires large participation ? And be sure that you ’ll be able to get useable data , because the cosmos out there is very different from the extremely controllable environment of a research lab .
Spend mint of time polish the go . Make certain your writing is clean and accessible , and make certain that everything works seamlessly . This sound trivial and mayhap obvious , but it takes more workplace than you might think . What about imply people in the development and design process ? This has been a hugely valuable process we ’ve embraced in the Dreamachine political program .
Figure out how to give back . People are interfering and the tending economy is vicious . If someone is yield you their precious time – and their mind – it ’s important that they get more than just a thank you for helping science . In The Perception Census , we commit a lot of effort to giving back by helping hoi polloi learn about perceptual experience and consciousness , and offer feedback – either at the time of participation or in the future – about their own specific way of experiencing the world and how this relates to others .
