What, Why & How do we Know ?
Dan Dennett shared this Nick Humphrey lecture at the RI. https://t.co/We3BW2QEGe Nick’s best version by far of his theory of consciousness: the positive side of illusionism, with new lines of evidential support. — Daniel Dennett (@danieldennett) September 23, 2023 I’ve watched once through and notwithstanding clear differences – evolution of warm blooded mammals (environmental independence), … Continue reading “Nick Humphrey and Mark Solms?”
Chris Fields and Mark Solms clearly seem to be aware of each other’s work even if this is the first time they’ve communicated. As the tweet says it’s a very informal chat facilitated by Mike Levin (interesting Tufts connection with Dan Dennett in my context.) Here is an informal conversation I had this week with … Continue reading “Chris Fields talks with Mark Solms”
Made no secret of the fact that I was never very impressed with Yuval Harari’s take on consciousness – what it is and how it functions – so was a little sceptical linking to this discussion facilitated by Indonesian blogger / you-tuber Gita Wirjawan. In terms of biological brains and minds, my trajectory has been … Continue reading “Solms and Harari on the Future of Humanity”
I’ve had Mark Solms (2021) book “The Hidden Spring – A Journey to the Source of Consciousness” since April last year. [Post Note: Final round-up of reading “The Hidden Spring” here. Many more references to Solms since.] Finding lots of content I recognised (eg. a major dependence on Jaak Panksepp and life as “homeostasis” – … Continue reading “The Hidden Spring of Mark Solms”
This should probably be three or four separate posts, but after a two week hiatus – the ISSS conference in Washington DC and another week touring the wider DC, MD, VA, DE, Chesapeake area – I have so much not written over and above the writing project I’ve already stalled until after my next US … Continue reading “Dear Diary – June 2024 – Systems, USA and Tyranny”
Anil Seth’s Faraday Lecture has generated a fair bit of chat. I was initially a bit too unimpressed, not enough originality – probably turned off previously by his use of “hallucination”. In fact he is synthesising many of the same sources I am. Nothing new under the sun again (from my perspective). The notes below … Continue reading “Seth is OK”
Enough Material for a Much Better Essay / Paper / Book Chapter? Some of my more important posts are effectively becoming chapters in my thesis / book(s) although they often have much repetitive context and pre-amble. And, over the years they have gathered post notes and links by accretion, so that they have become more … Continue reading “#EMFAMBE”
Evolutionary psychology just is what happens to us. “Evolutionary Psychology” as a self-identified political “ought” interpretation of evolutionary reality and the political reaction to brand it pejoratively as “EvoPsych” are just that – identitarian political movements, not to be confused with reality. I said as much just in the title of the first long piece … Continue reading “Evolutionary Psychology – Again?”
Whichever word we choose (*1) – synergy or emergence – to represent systematic parts (internal and/or external) interacting to create “more than the sum of the parts” (*2), what really matters is that we have an explanation and understanding of how IT happens (*3). How synergy leads to emergence of entirely new entities and behaviours, … Continue reading “Synergy or Emergence?”
Preamble? How do I come to be writing this post right now? See the Background “Postamble” at the bottom if necessary 😉 Straight Down to Business: [START] The Assertion – In one Sentence – There are limits to science in the sense that some aspects of the world are beyond science. (Or alternative prior statements … Continue reading “The Limits to Science?”