The annual conference that has served as the primary gathering point for interdisciplinary consciousness research since the 1990s is reconstituting itself. Consciousness Science 2026 is scheduled for October 11 through 16 at Paradise Point Resort in San Diego, and will run under independent governance after the University of Arizona's previously planned Tucson meeting for 2026 was cancelled earlier this year. The event's official site lists 600 to 700 expected participants, with Roger Penrose, Susan Schneider, and a broad interdisciplinary programme spanning neuroscience, philosophy, quantum biology, bioelectricity, and machine consciousness among the confirmed content tracks. The reconstitution demonstrates how institutional crises reshape the infrastructure of scientific fields.
The field's oldest debate found a new home and kept going, which is what matters most.