Philosopher · Machine-learning engineer · Cognitive Scientist
Minds, wherever they turn up
I work on what could have a mind, on Earth or off it, built or born, how we would recognize one, and what a system’s own account of itself is worth as evidence. That question runs through The Illusion Engine, through papers on hallucinations, self-reports, machine experience, and through the fungi and dead languages I keep getting distracted by. I am at the Center for Cognitive Science, University of Zagreb, and lead machine learning at Meedan.
Šekrst sounds like a cat walking on your keyboard, but it's like shack-cursed.
Research →
Three books, dozens of papers, and some random essays. Ask me for a PDF, I'd love to send it to you.
Find Me →
Where I am speaking next, and where I have been. Nodding from a distance counts.
Teaching →
Introduction to AI for cognitive science students, and what I teach alongside it.
The Book →
The Illusion Engine: The Quest for Machine Consciousness. Springer Nature, 2025.
Bio →
Who I am, what I did before, and the cats.
Contact →
Preprints, review copies, talk invitations, press. Or to tell me the cat is wrong.
Springer Nature · 2025
The Illusion Engine
The Quest for Machine Consciousness
Can an artificial system experience the world? The book follows that question through philosophy, neuroscience and the architecture of current AI, from cybernetics and the imitation game to large language models, hallucinations and the hard problem. 305 pages, hardcover, softcover and eBook.
Next up
Upcoming talks
4–6 Nov 2026 · Online · International Society for the Philosophy of the Sciences of the Mind
- Talk, co-author Barbara GeldLost in Transformers: Natural Language Autoencoders and the Limits of Machine Introspection
5–6 Nov 2026 · Banská Bystrica, Slovakia · Matej Bel University
Representation and Values in Science and Art
- KeynoteSciences Without Subjects: How Astrobiology, AI, and Cognitive Science Reshape Scientific Values
12 Nov 2026 · Prague, Czechia · Czech Academy of Sciences
Illusions of Consciousness in Humans and AI
- KeynoteGödel, Escher, Backprop
Recently
Past talks
16 Oct 2026 · Mexico City (online) · National Autonomous University of Mexico
Workshop: From Logic to Language: New Takes on Philosophy of AI
- Talk, co-author Barbara GeldAre Natural Language Autoencoders the Right Path to AI Alignment?
12–16 Oct 2026 · Copenhagen, Denmark · University of Copenhagen
- TalkAll Work and No Play Makes LLM a Dull Boy
2 Oct 2026 · Zagreb · Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb
Department of Sociology, PhD Colloquium
- TalkKako je Potjeh tražio referenciju: umjetna inteligencija u akademskoj svakodnevici [How Potjeh Sought a Reference: Artificial Intelligence in Everyday Academic Life]
News
Recently published
2026
Fungal Memory and Minimal Cognition is out in Topics in Cognitive Science.
2026
Clause Encounters of the Third Kind, with A. Kovačić, in Oxford Intersections: AI in Society.
2026
Astrobiology and the Transformation of Scientific Epistemology, in S. J. Dick (ed.), Astronomy and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press.
2026
Introduction to Deep Learning, 2nd edition, with Sandro Skansi, forthcoming from Springer.
2025
Do Large Language Models Hallucinate Electric Fata Morganas? in the Journal of Consciousness Studies.