Andrés Gómez Emilsson
| |
| Born | 1990 Mexico City, Mexico |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Consciousness researcher |
| Education | Stanford University (master's degree in computational psychology) |
| Organization | Qualia Research Institute |
| Known for | Qualia formalism; research on emotional valence and altered states of consciousness |
| Website | Qualia Computing |
Andrés Gómez Emilsson (born 1990) is a Mexican-born consciousness researcher and transhumanist. He is a co-founder, president, and director of research of the Qualia Research Institute (QRI), a United States nonprofit research group that studies the mathematical structure of conscious experience.[1] His work combines computational psychology, psychophysics, philosophy of mind, and the phenomenology of psychedelic and meditative states.
Gómez Emilsson is known for developing research programs around qualia formalism, the Symmetry Theory of Valence, the geometry of altered states, and the binding and boundary problems of consciousness. These projects connect basic consciousness research with the transhumanist aim of understanding and eventually reducing suffering, but several of their central claims remain hypotheses rather than established results in neuroscience.
Background and transhumanism
Gómez Emilsson was born in Mexico City and developed early interests in mathematics, science, and philosophy. QRI's institutional history states that he earned a master's degree in computational psychology from Stanford University, won first place in the Norway Mathematical Olympiad, and co-founded the Stanford Transhumanist Association.[2]
According to a 2017 speaker biography, a transformative spiritual experience shifted his attention toward consciousness. While leading the Stanford Transhumanist Association, he met David Pearce and adopted the abolition of suffering as a central personal objective.[3] A 2015 Harper's Magazine profile described him as a negative hedonistic utilitarian, although his later work has generally been presented through the broader language of valence, qualia realism, and consciousness science.[4]
Qualia Research Institute
Gómez Emilsson, Michael Edward Johnson, and Romeo Stevens incorporated QRI as a nonprofit in 2018. The institute describes its goals as developing a mathematical language for consciousness, understanding emotional valence, and building technologies intended to improve well-being. It operates outside academia while pursuing both theoretical work and empirical collaborations.[2] Gómez Emilsson's work there has ranged from algorithm design and neurotechnology to psychedelic theory and the mapping of possible conscious states.[1]
One of QRI's organizing ideas is qualia formalism: the hypothesis that the structure of each conscious experience can be represented by a corresponding mathematical object. Within that program, the Symmetry Theory of Valence (STV) proposes a relationship between the symmetry of a conscious state and how pleasant or unpleasant that state feels. Michael Edward Johnson first articulated STV in Principia Qualia; Gómez Emilsson subsequently developed its phenomenological interpretation, possible counterexamples, and testable predictions.[5]
Research
Gómez Emilsson has used first-person reports as data for models of unusual conscious states. In The Hyperbolic Geometry of DMT Experiences (2016), he proposed that recurring spatial features reported under wikipedia:DMT may be modeled using hyperbolic geometry. The essay explicitly describes its evidence as a synthesis of anonymous reports and presents a phenomenological hypothesis rather than a demonstrated neural mechanism.[6]
His later peer-reviewed work with Chris Percy has addressed how theories of consciousness define unified subjects. Their 2022 paper on the "slicing problem" argues that purely computational descriptions may permit multiple arbitrary ways of dividing a physical process into candidate conscious systems.[7] A 2023 hypothesis paper proposed topological segmentation in electromagnetic fields as a possible way to explain boundaries around conscious subjects.[8] Percy and Gómez Emilsson later examined whether a dynamic interpretation of Integrated information theory could address phenomenal binding.[9]
Gómez Emilsson and Percy also proposed the heavy-tailed valence hypothesis: that the intensity of human pleasure and pain may span at least two orders of magnitude rather than fitting a narrowly bounded scale. A pilot survey of 97 adults produced tentative support, while the authors identified limitations and further tests needed before stronger conclusions could be drawn.[10]
Transhumanist relevance and assessment
Gómez Emilsson's distinctive contribution to transhumanism is to recast questions about happiness and suffering as problems of measurement, formal modeling, and neurotechnology. His essay Wireheading Done Right examined whether stable positive affect could be combined with responsiveness, agency, and continued exploration rather than indiscriminate reward stimulation.[11] QRI has similarly linked valence research to mental health, animal welfare, and the design of future artificial or enhanced minds.[2]
The research program is exploratory. STV's proposed mapping between symmetry and valence has not become a consensus theory, the DMT model is grounded primarily in reports, and the electromagnetic boundary proposal was published as a hypothesis-and-theory article. Gómez Emilsson's peer-reviewed publications have nevertheless moved portions of QRI's work from informal essays toward explicit arguments, pilot data, and falsifiable research questions. Its significance therefore lies both in its substantive proposals and in its effort to make abolitionist concerns about suffering tractable to consciousness research.
Selected publications
- Gómez-Emilsson, Andrés, and Chris Percy (2022). "The ‘Slicing Problem’ for Computational Theories of Consciousness". Open Philosophy, 5: 718–736.[7]
- Gómez-Emilsson, Andrés, and Chris Percy (2023). "Don't Forget the Boundary Problem! How EM Field Topology Can Address the Overlooked Cousin to the Binding Problem for Consciousness". Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 17.[8]
- Gómez-Emilsson, Andrés, and Chris Percy (2023). "The Heavy-Tailed Valence Hypothesis: The Human Capacity for Vast Variation in Pleasure/Pain and How to Test It". Frontiers in Psychology, 14.[10]
- Percy, Chris, and Andrés Gómez-Emilsson (2025). "Integrated Information Theory and the Phenomenal Binding Problem: Challenges and Solutions in a Dynamic Framework". Entropy, 27(4).[9]
See also
External links
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 QRI Presents: Reverse Engineering DMT Phenomenology with Non-Linear Optics, Qualia Computing, 13 November 2025.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Qualia Research Institute: History & 2021 Strategy, Qualia Research Institute, 25 January 2021.
- ↑ Qualia Computing at Consciousness Hacking, Qualia Computing, 24 May 2017.
- ↑ Come With Us If You Want to Live, Harper's Magazine, January 2015.
- ↑ The Symmetry Theory of Valence 2020 Overview, Qualia Research Institute, 17 December 2020.
- ↑ The Hyperbolic Geometry of DMT Experiences, Qualia Research Institute, 12 December 2016.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 The “Slicing Problem” for Computational Theories of Consciousness, Open Philosophy, 5, 2022.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Don't Forget the Boundary Problem!, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 17, 2023.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Integrated Information Theory and the Phenomenal Binding Problem, Entropy, 27(4), 2025.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 The Heavy-Tailed Valence Hypothesis, Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 2023.
- ↑ Wireheading Done Right, Qualia Research Institute, 20 August 2016.