Bernard J. Baars
Bernard J. Baars is a cognitive neuroscientist and former Senior Fellow in Theoretical Neurobiology at The Neurosciences Institute in San Diego. He is widely recognized as the originator of Global Workspace Theory (GWT), one of the foundational computational and neurobiological paradigms in contemporary consciousness science.
Baars introduced Global Workspace Theory in A Cognitive Theory of Consciousness (1988) using the architectural metaphor of a theater. In this model, unconscious specialized neural processors operate in parallel across the brain, while conscious processing corresponds to a bright spot on a global stage illuminated by selective attention. When information reaches the central global workspace, it is broadcast widely across the nervous system, allowing otherwise autonomous cognitive routines to synchronize, integrate novel contexts, and guide executive action.
Within artificial intelligence and neural network research, Baars’s global workspace architecture serves as a primary blueprint for integrating specialized transformer layers, memory buffers, and multi-agent coordination systems, defining conscious access as a global information broadcast mechanism independent of biological substrates.
Known for. Global Workspace Theory (GWT), cognitive architecture of conscious access, A Cognitive Theory of Consciousness (1988), In the Theater of Consciousness (1997)
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Every researcher covered on this site is indexed in the directory of consciousness researchers, grouped by the position their published work defends. The positions themselves are set out in the index of consciousness theories.