What, Why & How do we Know ?
Iain McGilchrist gave a keynote speech to the “AI (Artificial Intelligence) World Summit 2022” in the full plenary session on October 12th in Amsterdam. The Video is available here and the full transcript here for members of Channel McGilchrist. [Can’t embed the Vimeo here.] I thought it significant that Iain chose to redefine “AI” for … Continue reading “McGilchrist & Natural Information Processing”
One of my main agenda items is the demystification of consciousness, in order to make progress on more important and pressing issues for humanity. In fact, the meme “(Unlocking) The Mystery / Secrets of xxxx” is a pet hate – a click-bait meme to sell books, but not to enlighten or solve any problem. Consciousness … Continue reading “The Mystery of Physical / Materialism?”
In a break from writing, one or two pieces in need of reading and listening caught my attention. It’s all related. In an ISSS context there has been some debate between two schools, between many different aspects of systems definition, complex detail for systems of different types in different real-world applications versus abstraction of systems … Continue reading “Systems Connections”
Opening Gambit [Links being added] [Q (21 Aug)]: “I understand that you have a professional engineering background and a strong interest in systems theory … If you would like to discuss this very important topic one on one I would be interested.” [A (22 Aug)]: “Sure, I most recently I summarised my interest here (18 … Continue reading “Strained Conversation”
This Karl Friston interview is long and wandering (almost 4 hours!) and a bit distorted by the somewhat affected (?) naïve “Theory of Everything” – everything including the kitchen sink – agenda of interviewer Curt Jaimungal, but anyway … some very rough mental notes: Deflationary view – hooray. The very point. Using / understanding general … Continue reading “Long Friston Interview”
I’m like a cracked record with “Nothing New Under the Sun”. I was just using the wayback machine / web-archive to find a copy of Doug Hofstadter’s contribution to the 2006 Tucson Science of Consciousness event: “Strange Loops, Downward Causation, and Distributed Consciousness” (Mentioned here in 2006.) His “I am a Strange Loop” was published … Continue reading “Very Little New?”
[Draft Holding Post – links being added.] Cybernetics, like anything else, evolves, so I’m never talking about specific systems theory(ies). I’ve described my own journey every which way through systems engineering to systems thinking under the cybernetic umbrella. I have a nothing new under the sun attitude to any topic, whereby changing language may change … Continue reading “General Systems Theory(ies)?”
I’ve previously only mentioned Friston as the source of Friston’s Free Energy Principle as the backdrop to Mark Solms proper bio-psychological account of consciousness. I listened to this discussion – hap tip to the Active Inference folks – and already made a few footnotes to the two previous posts. It’s the first time I’ve listened … Continue reading “Karl Friston and Good Fences”
Watching this wonderful “Krebs Cycle” RI lecture by Nick Lane – last mentioned him here – and just wanted to note two things for now. One, there is an obvious topological parallel (*) between (System) Markov Blankets and (Mitochondria) Lipid Membranes at two quite different levels of abstraction – information processes and biochemical processes. And … Continue reading “Markov Blankets vs Lipid Membranes”
I’ve been mentioning Systems and Systems Thinking increasingly as I explicitly formalise the metaphysics underlying my world-view and my various writing projects, technical synthesis and creative fictional narrative. And I’m in “just write something” mode after 20+ years of intense reading and research trying to minimise distractions from what is now effectively my post-retirement day-job … Continue reading “International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS)”