Dmitry Volkov (businessman)

Films and music

In 2015 Volkov and his SDV Arts & Science Foundation organized the Street Piano Festival in Moscow. The following year the festival continued as the Transcendental Pianos Festival, held in September, from 16 to 18, 2016 in the Muzeon Park of arts. At the opening ceremony, Volkov performed together with Igor Butman, Olya Kroytor, Vladimir Nesterenko, Oleg Akkuratov, Anton Baronin, Polina Osetinskaya and Valery Grokhovsky playing pianos.^[28]

Performance art

In 2015 Volkov supported the publication of a series of “Contemporary Art” albums focusing on the works of contemporary Russian artists and their role in the context of Russian and world culture development. The albums were presented during the events with participation of the artists: Oleg Kulik, Vinogradov & Dubosarsky. Together with Oleg Kulik, Volkov organized the performance in St. Petersburg “Proof of the existence of the External World”. In the summer of 2015, Volkov organized an expedition with Social Discovery Ventures’ employees to the Burning Man, where he presented his art project with Oleg Kulik – the OraculeTang robot-monkey. In the summer of 2017, he returned to the Burning Man festival together with the famous Russian artist Andrey Bartenev. They presented a joint project “Alliens? Yes!” that consisted of 4 alien figures from 4 to 12 meters and an alien parade. The project was rated by Business Insider as one of the wildest arts at Burning man.^[29][30]

In 2015, Volkov arranged a pop-up exhibition of contemporary technological art titled “Superconduction: the challenge of art & technology” in Riga which was devoted to the new company’s office and coworking space opening in the heart of the city. In 2016, Volkov became a co-founder of the SDV Arts & Science Foundation established by SDVentures. The Foundation is aimed to support & initiate projects in the field of contemporary art & philosophy. In the same year, the Foundation became a member of the Board of Trustees of the Tretyakov Gallery Support Fund. Among supported projects in the State Tretyakov Gallery during that year was the “Modern Art 1960-2000: Restart” exhibition and the “Leonid Sokov Unforgettable Meetings” exhibition.^[31]

Since 2016, Volkov has become a patron of the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art.^[32] In 2016/2017, the SDV Arts & Science Foundation headed by Volkov became the official partner of the annual scholarship of the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art for Russian emerging artists and established its own grant “Art and Technology” for those artists who worked at the intersection of science and technology. As a part of the grant programme, the SDV Arts & Science Foundation held the art residence for the granted artists in Riga, in its co-working OraculeTang Space.

In March 2017, Volkov took part in "The Secret Millionaire" TV show on the Pyatnitsa (Friday) TV channel. The TV show involved rich people in a social project aimed at searching for people or projects that need financial support in the Russian regions.^[33]

One of the projects that gained support from Volkov appeared to be Arsenal, the branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts in Nizhny Novgorod. Since May 2017, Volkov has been the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Fund "Cultural Capital of the Volga Region". The Fund is a strategic partner of the Volga-Vyatka Branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts forming part of the State Museum and Exhibition Centre ROSIZO of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation (Arsenal).^[34][35]

In 2017 Volkov made another contribution to "Burning man". He presented a co-project with Andrey Bartenev "Aliens? - Yes!" - four alien figures from 4 to 12 meters and an alien parade.^[36]

Thesis

In 2008 Volkov passed the Ph.D. defense on theme of "Daniel Dennet's theory of consciousness".^[7] In 2009 he co-founded Moscow Center for Consciousness Studies in Moscow State University; this center assists and supports Russian researchers of consciousness and analytical philosophy. In 2012, Volkov published a book Boston Zombie: D. Dennet and his Theory of Consiousness.^[3] He mounted philosophical expedition in Greenland in summer 2014, which was related to the "problem of free will in analytical philosopy".^[4] Volkov and Dennet organized debates on consciousness phenomenon.^[16] In August 2017, Volkov became one of the initiators of the dialogue between Russian scientists and the 14th Dalai Lama on consciousness. The meeting took place in Delhi.^[37][38][39]

In March, 2017, Volkov participated as the opponent of Tatyana Chernigovskaya in a discussion about artificial intelligence.^[40][41]

Research and main ideas

With regard to the history of contemporary philosophy of mind, Volkov expanded Daniel Dennett's theory of consciousness. In the book “Boston Zombie: Daniel Dennett's Theory of Consciousness” he stated that Daniel Dennett's multiple-drafts model is not verifiable and thus cannot be an empirical hypothesis. He also pointed to the disagreement between the multiple-drafts model and the more recent Daniel Dennett's tenet of “Fame in the Brain”. He suggested a detailed interpretation of the “Two Black Boxes” and “Where Am I?” thought experiments. In terms of analytic philosophy, Volkov developed a narrative theory of freedom and moral responsibility. He identified the dependence of free will and moral responsibility issues on the mental causation, determinism and personal identity subproblems. He presented the “Library of First Editions” thought experiment as a counterexample for Jaegwon Kim's causal exclusion argument. In the article “What Does Pereboom's Manipulation Argument Prove” he criticized Derk Pereboom’s ideas in detail and gave additional scenarios of “manipulation”. Volkov developed a solution to the “disappearing agent objection” using the four-dimensional view of person. He criticized V. Vasilyev’s argument from the causal trajectories using the alternative “Twin Argument” in the article “Does V. Vasilyev’s Argument from the Causal Trajectories Refute Local Supervenience of Mental Properties upon Physical Properties?”. Volkov systematized the requirements for the narrative which may be the basis for conviction that a single personality extended in time exists. He defended supercompatibilism in terms of free will and moral responsibility, according to which freedom and responsibility are compatible both with determinism and indeterminism. He took part in the debate over free will, moral responsibility, modern and classical compatibilism with V. Vasilyev organized by the Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences. He is one of the organizers of a cognitive cruise with the leading neuroscientist S. Dean and the philosopher D. Dennett. He is among the initiators of publishing a series of “Philosophy of Mind” books by Editorial URSS, a Russian scientific literature publishing house. He is an advocate of modern analytic philosophy methods.^{[42][43] [44]}