Maxwell J. D. Ramstead
VERSES AI Research Lab, Los Angeles; Department of Philosophy, McGill University
Functionalist What matters is the organisation of the processing, not the material
Maxwell J. D. Ramstead is Director of Research at VERSES AI and an affiliated researcher in the Department of Philosophy at McGill University. His interdisciplinary work combines the philosophy of cognitive science, evolutionary anthropology, and the Free Energy Principle, focusing on how predictive systems coordinate across biological, cognitive, and sociocultural scales.
In the 2026 paper “A Rosetta Stone hypothesis for neurophenomenology” (Neuroscience of Consciousness), co-authored with Lancelot Da Costa, Anil Seth, Karl Friston, and Lars Sandved-Smith, Ramstead contributed to formalizing the relationship between first-person phenomenological data and predictive generative models. The paper operationalizes Francisco Varela’s neurophenomenological programme by demonstrating how variational belief updating provides a shared mathematical syntax for subjective lived experience, behavioral actions, and underlying neural processes.
Ramstead’s broader research focuses on multiscale active inference, examining how nested Markov blankets allow agents to self-organize from cellular dynamics up to cultural institutions. His work provides a formal grounding for computational phenomenology, treating consciousness not as an isolated epiphenomenon but as an intrinsic structural component of deep generative models that navigate complex environments.
Known for. Multiscale active inference, cultural affordances, computational neurophenomenology, shared intentionality
Coverage on this site
- Anil Seth and Karl Friston Build a Predictive Processing Bridge to Neurophenomenology September 2026
Related researchers
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Anil SethSussex Centre for Consciousness Science, University of SussexThe beast machine hypothesis, and controlled hallucination as an account of perception
- Karl FristonUniversity College London. Chief Scientist, VERSES AIThe free energy principle and active inference
- Lancelot Da CostaDepartment of Mathematics, Imperial College London; Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College LondonMathematical foundations of active inference, Bayesian mechanics, computational neurophenomenology, continuous-time variational inference
- Lars Sandved-SmithSussex Centre for Consciousness Science, Department of Informatics, University of SussexComputational phenomenology, active inference models of the self, temporal thickness, predictive processing
- Hedayat AbedijooACE Conscious Studio / IndependentACE.await (2026), the ACE decision framework (Agency, Connection, Exchange)
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Blaise Agüera y ArcasGoogle VP and Fellow, CTO of Technology & SocietyComputational functionalism, active inference, on-device neural computing, What Is Intelligence? (2025), and Who Are We Now? (2023)
Maxwell J. D. Ramstead is listed with the other functionalists and computationalists, who hold that what matters is the organisation of the processing, not the material. The theory family behind that position is set out in the index of consciousness theories. Every researcher covered on this site is indexed in the directory of consciousness researchers.