Joscha Bach is a German cognitive scientist, AI researcher, and philosopher who explores one of humanity’s most profound questions: how minds work and whether machines can truly think. Known for his work on cognitive architectures, artificial intelligence, mental representation, emotion, social modeling, multi-agent systems, and philosophy of mind, Bach bridges the gap between abstract philosophy and practical AI development. He has worked at prestigious institutions including MIT Media Lab and Harvard, where he develops computational models that attempt to recreate human-like thinking in machines.
Bach argues that “consciousness is a simulated property of the simulated self”—suggesting that our sense of being aware might itself be a kind of sophisticated mental software. Through his MicroPsi project, he creates virtual agents that help us understand how intelligence emerges from simple computational processes, making him a leading voice in debates about artificial general intelligence and machine consciousness.
