What, Why & How do we Know ?
Just completed Chapters 7, 8 & 9 of the Hidden Spring, having been looking forward to 7 when I finished 6, here. Wow, this is good stuff from Solms. The contents / subjects … Free Energy Principle – Homeostasis, “self-evidencing” in self-organising systems, statistical thermodynamics, entropy and information, efficiency. Markov-blankets between self-organised layers, two-way / … Continue reading “Before Returning to the Cortex”
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”
A Summary of Iain McGilchrist “The Matter With Things” My writings on Iain McGilchrist’s TMWT, and TME (The Master and Emissary) before it, are many, but unfortunately that means that no single post, since my reading of TMWT, gives any introductory overview for a new reader. So here goes: What is the matter with things? … Continue reading “What is the Matter with Things?”
[Latest updates re The Matter With Things: Preview in preparation for its arrival Initial impressions on receiving the book. Thoughts on completing Part 1 Thoughts on completing Part 2 (this post) Review on completing Part 3 & the whole (tba). ] I’m in a bit of a quandary. I have now, actually since the middle … Continue reading “Meta Communication of Things”
Mentioned earlier collecting previous links in preparation for receiving Iain McGilchrist’s latest, well here it is: Iain McGilchrist The Matter With Things – Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World Volume I – The Ways to Truth Introduction Part 1 – Chapters 1 to 9 plus Coda The Hemispheres and the Means … Continue reading “There We Have It”
I’m reading Adam Zeman’s “A Portrait of the Brain” (2008). I’ve previously read his “Consciousness: A Users Guide” (2002) after seeing him give a talk in Cambridge in 2003. He’s become short-hand for me as the “Z” in from Austin to Zeman in listing all the various neuroscientists who have investigated “abnormal” behaviours in real … Continue reading “The Architecture of the Brain”
Busy, Busy, Busy. Mentioned strange times regarding work-load and productivity a few posts ago; my pipeline stuffed with unread bookmarks and unresolved references, and a to-do-list with at least seven dimensions of priorities to juggle, personally and professionally. Not exactly “treading water”, but difficult to discern progress going anywhere. Ironic that the immediately previous Wittgensteinian … Continue reading “A remarkable book. It changes everything.”
Iain McGilchrist’s film “The Divided Brain” was released last week. The film one half of your brain doesn’t want you to see. An hour and a quarter of anyone’s time well spent. [Full disclosure: I have written positively about McGilchrist’s work before, and contributed to crowdfunding of the film project.] “The halves of our brain … Continue reading “The Divided Brain – a Director’s Cut”
Was about to post a placeholder for a piece on the need for “Religion by any other name.” I last mentioned the concept – a merging of causes in a Humanistic value-model – in response to a Rabbi Sacks talk. (And did I see a article only yesterday “destroying” Alain de Botton over his taking … Continue reading “The Stories That Bind Humanity”
As an atheist who believes in the fundamental nature of information and meaning this episode of Future Proofing on Faith – “how the functions of religion could be taken over by technology” – I found very hard to listen to. Great conclusion from Timandra Harkness, despite some awfully confused content contributors. Good in parts, but where to … Continue reading ““There’s No Faith Without AI” – Please God, No!”