David Chalmers

David John Chalmers is an Australian philosopher and cognitive scientist who serves as University Professor of Philosophy and Neural Science at New York University, where he co-directs the Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness. He is best known for formulating the hard problem of consciousness, which distinguishes between the "easy" problems of explaining cognitive functions and the hard problem of explaining subjective experience, and for popularizing the philosophical zombie thought experiment. He is also known for his 2022 book Reality+, in which he argues that virtual reality is a genuine reality rather than an illusion and that a meaningful life is possible within a virtual world.