Mike Johnson is a philosopher and neuroscientist working on the science consciousness. His major works include Principia Qualia (2016), Neural Annealing (2019), Vasocomputation (2023), and A Paradigm for AI Consciousness (2024). In this conversation we work through the three sub-hypotheses of vasocomputation, latches at multiple levels of resolution, Thomas Hanna’s sensory motor amnesia, John Sarno and chronic pain, active inference and Mike Levin’s nested agents, sub-agents as semi-sovereign regimes anchored in organs like the stomach and heart, and what kinds of evidence might ultimately confirm, or falsify, the theory.

Timestamps

0:00:00 – Intro

0:01:30 – Physical signatures and cutting the Gordian knot

0:06:25 – What is vasocomputation?

0:10:15 – The latch mechanism, latch bridges

0:14:20 – Role of the hippocampus, Hebbian reinforcement

0:16:35 – Thomas Hanna and sensory motor amnesia

0:19:30 – Physical and mental decoupling

0:24:00 – “Grabbing” as the core human physical and mental movement

0:26:15 – Treasure maps and maps with treasures, Sarno

0:28:30 – Pain as allostatic imperative and bodily boundaries

0:33:20 – Three types of latches

0:38:00 – Piriformis release and voice-typing anecdotes

0:43:45 – Agents vs priors, what is a subagent

0:48:35 – Internal Family Systems

0:52:00 – Active Inference

0:59:15 – Semi-sovereign regimes

1:05:30 – The stomach as the first brain, cognition as digestion

1:11:00 – Only smooth muscles latch

1:14:00 – Persistence of latches

1:18:50 – Connecting to chronic pain

1:21:10 – Performance envelopes, material science of tissue types

1:23:40 – Fascia

1:28:15 – Open problems in vasocomputation

1:32:00 – The question game

Links

Mike Johnson’s Website:

opentheory.net

“The Games of Life” talk:

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