Research
One question,
two directions.
What would it take to recognize a mind that isn't ours? We ask it two ways — searching outward, and studying awareness itself.
Mapping the origins
of the mind.
Here, and beyond.
An independent research lab and community in San Francisco, studying where intelligence comes from — and how we'd recognize it beyond Earth.
One question,
01 SETI & Astrobiology
Outer Minds
Led by Caleb Strom, PhD
Detection methods for signatures of life and intelligence beyond Earth — built around an in-house technosignature instrument, radio telescope time, optical SETI, and missions to ocean worlds like Europa and Enceladus.
- Signal detection
- Biosignatures
- Planetary missions
02 Neurotech & Cognitive Science
Inner Minds
Co-led by Skylar Smith and Morgan Hough
Measuring how the brain perceives, learns, and reasons — through neural recording, physiological measurement, and controlled experiments. Open to neuroscience projects of every kind.
- Neural recording
- Cognitive science
- Embodied cognition
Mission
Why we're asking these questions
Consciousness and intelligence remain two of the least understood phenomena in science. We study them rigorously.
Why
Drawing on neuroscience, cognitive science, philosophy of mind, and astrobiology, we're building frameworks to recognize intelligence in forms radically unlike our own — including beyond our planet. We're early: laying down the questions, collaborators, and methods for the years ahead.
Aligned with the scope of
- SETI Institute
- NASA
- Blue Marble Space Institute of Science
- Templeton World Charity Foundation
- Mind & Life Institute
- BIAL Foundation
Team
Who's behind it
01 / Outer Minds
Caleb Strom, PhD
Co-Lead, Outer Minds
Planetary scientist and former research scientist intern at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His PhD at the University of North Dakota studied the geology of Uranus's moons Miranda and Ariel, finding model support for subsurface oceans; he returns to JPL as a postdoc in Fall 2026. At OtherMinds he's building an ML anomaly-detection model for spacecraft imagery of planetary surfaces, working where planetary science meets technosignatures: how intelligence shapes planetary processes.
02 / Inner Minds
Skylar Smith
Co-Lead, Inner Minds
Independent builder working across signal processing and computational research, and lead developer of Transmuter, a computational drug-discovery platform. A background in digital signal processing and spectral analysis drives Inner Minds' approach to reading brain activity, biofeedback, and physiological signals.
03 / Inner Minds
Morgan Hough
Co-Founder, OtherMinds · Co-Lead, Inner Minds · Executive Director, NeuroTechX
Executive Director of NeuroTechX, the international neurotechnology nonprofit and the lab's lead neuroscience partner and sponsor. He studied clinical neurology as a DPhil candidate at the University of Oxford and holds BAs from Reed College (psychology; biochemistry and molecular biology) and St. John's College. His career in neuroimaging and neurotechnology spans research and lab-management roles in UCSF's neurology and radiology departments, a research fellowship at King's College London, and software engineering management at the EEG maker Electrical Geodesics.
Open 24 hours
The Other Minds
Laboratory
The space
A round-the-clock lab where neurotech, SETI, astrobiology, signal processing, and AI are treated as different instruments pointed at the same mystery.
- Location
- Frontier Tower
- Floor
- 15th Floor
- City
- San Francisco, California
- Coordinates
- 37.7749° N, 122.4194° W
- Access
- Members, 24 hours a day
-
01
Research
Neuroscience, SETI, computation, and perception — treated as one connected field.
-
02
Technology
Shared workstations, compute, and instrumentation for real experiments.
-
03
Collaboration
Researchers, engineers, philosophers, and artists, side by side.
-
04
Community
People who do their best thinking around hard questions.
Membership
Join a small, ambitious research community.
Not a desk rental. Members get:
- 24-hour laboratory access
- Research equipment and compute
- Dedicated workspace for independent research
- Priority invitations to lectures and workshops
- A room to present work, get feedback, and collaborate
Instrumentation
Technology & equipment
Astronomy / Astrobiology / SETI
Outer Minds
- Xenarch — the lab's proprietary detection instrument
- Signal-processing workstations
- Remote telescope workstations — multi-monitor stations for operating telescopes over the internet
- Data-analysis bay with large-format displays
- Public-facing observation area
- Astrobiology reference library
- Telescope time through an institutional collaborator — JWST, the VLA, Keck, the Allen Telescope Array (Hat Creek Radio Observatory, SETI Institute), IRTF, and optical-SETI programs By proposal
Neuroscience / Human Measurement
Inner Minds
- Research-grade EEG (32–64 channel), including Emotiv 32-channel systems with control computers running NeuroTechX EEG-ExPy and Lab Streaming Layer (LSL) for synchronized recording
- fNIRS, including the Kernel Flow TD-fNIRS device (via access arrangement)
- High-precision eye-tracking — Pupil Labs and Tobii
- Physiological suite: heart-rate variability, skin conductance, respiration, and continuous pupillometry
- Non-invasive brain stimulation (tDCS / tACS)
- Motion capture
- Stimulus-presentation workstations (PsychoPy / E-Prime)
- Lab materials sponsored by NeuroTechX
Both divisions
Shared
- NVIDIA DGX Spark on site, for large machine-learning models and data analysis
- Robot arms
By proposal Accessed through proposals with our institutional collaborators. We help members prepare them.
Events
Open evenings
A few curated evenings a year — guest lectures, visiting scientists, workshops, and lab tours, often with universities and space institutions. The rest of the time, it's a working lab.
Our next gathering is in the works
Join the mailing list below to hear first.
OtherMinds Meet 2: From Consciousness to Extraterrestrial Life
Two tracks at Frontier Tower's Alien Lounge: Inner Minds on consciousness and neurophenomenology, Outer Minds on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
Event details (opens in a new tab)Stay in the loop
Follow our research
Or write to us
othermindslab@gmail.com