This week, I revisit the classic inverting goggles experiments. How does the brain adapt when the world gets flipped upside-down? Does it rebuild an representation — or simply adjust its predictions? 🧪
What are we really doing when we say we’re seeing?
suzitravis.substack.com/p/is-seeing-...
We talk about meaning all the time. It feels obvious that meaning is something we have. Probably in the brain. Somewhere. But it’s not clear what “means” really means in this context. What is meaning? And where does it really come from? 🧪
suzitravis.substack.com/p/looking-fo...
Your position is a common one!
Yes, I suspect most enactivists would hold a view similar to this.
The usual story is: the brain takes in information, represents it, and uses that representation to take action. But what if we’ve got it backwards?
This week, I wrote a gentle intro to enactivism -- What if minds aren’t things we have but things we do? 🧪
suzitravis.substack.com/p/does-the-m...
You can think about a dog. Or a snake. Or why freedom of speech matters. Your brain can think about all sorts of things. Even things that aren’t there — or things that aren't even things. But how? How can brain activity be about anything? 🧪 #consciousness
suzitravis.substack.com/p/what-gives...
You see a dog. Something happens in your brain. We say your brain “represents” the dog.
But is that really what’s happening?
We know your brain isn’t creating literal pictures — so what is it doing? 🧪 #neuroscience #consciousness #philosophyofmind
suzitravis.substack.com/p/representa...
I'm new to this too, so I'm not sure how helpful I will be. But I'm happy to try to answer questions you have.
Oh! Thanks. Yes, that's me reading. I did try an AI voice. But it never sounded right, so I bought a good quality microphone and started reading them myself.
I wish I was talented in that way. But no. They are originally created using MidJourney, and then I do some editing in Photoshop.
LLMs can describe what it feels like to pet a dog — without eyes, ears, or hands. Some say they don’t understand because they lack grounding in the world. But not everyone’s convinced.
Do LLMs have a grounding problem? Or are we asking the wrong question? 🧪
suzitravis.substack.com/p/the-ground...
🤣
In 1972, NASA pinned a message to a spaceship, hoping one day an alien life form might find it and understand it. The plaque was full of symbols. Those symbols mean something to us. But could an alien understand them too?
What gives a symbol its meaning? 🧪
suzitravis.substack.com/p/how-to-tal...
This week, I wrote an essay on Searle’s Chinese Room. This thought experiment might be the most famous thought experiment of the 20th century. But is it any good? And can it tell us whether LLMs could ever really understand? 🧪 #consciousness #ai #philosophy
suzitravis.substack.com/p/searles-ch...
Brains predict. LLMs predict. But does that mean they’re doing the same thing?
We used to think intelligence was all about reasoning. Then we said it was biological. Now we’re told maybe it’s about... prediction? 🧪 #ai #consciousness
suzitravis.substack.com/p/if-it-pred...
Could a neural network ever grow like a brain? Would it matter?
What happens when we stop trying to build artificial brains — and we start trying to grow them? It's worth asking, because the line between what's built and what grows is starting to blur. 🧪
suzitravis.substack.com/p/how-to-bui...
It’s a tempting idea, isn’t it?: consciousness is just what happens when things get complicated enough. Like it’s an automatic bonus that comes with a powerful brain — or a powerful AI. But the science tells a messier story. 🧪 #consciousness
suzitravis.substack.com/p/does-consc...
Complexity is difficult to define — which is odd, really, because it seems pretty easy to recognise -- we know complexity when we see it, right!? So, why is it so hard to define? This week, I explore why complexity is so complex. 🧪
suzitravis.substack.com/p/why-is-com...
Thank you so much!
What if consciousness can only exist in a universe where entropy increases? Entropy explains why eggs break and time moves forward — but could it also explain memory, life, and consciousness? 🧪
suzitravis.substack.com/p/could-entr...
This week, I explore Maxwell’s Demon, a famous thought experiment that puzzled physicists for more than a century. Solving it changed how we understanding what information really is. 🧪 #consciousness
suzitravis.substack.com/p/maxwells-d...
Today, if you tune into a podcast on the mind, you won’t hear much about what the mind is made of. Instead, the focus is on what it does. How did we get here?
This week, I explore how we went from the mind as soul to the mind as information processing. 🧪
suzitravis.substack.com/p/history-of...
Was inspired to reflect on my own thoughts on the topic after reading the attached.
If physics explains everything, why do we need biology to understand life and psychology to understand human behaviour? What's left if physics covers everything? And what does this have to do with the possibility of artificial minds? 🧪 #consciousness
suzitravis.substack.com/p/consciousn...
There is no now.
When you catch a ball, are you seeing it in real time or guessing where it will be? The brain is too slow to react instantly, so it relies on predictions to stay ahead. If this is true, it raises some strange questions: When exactly are we? 🧪 #consciousness
suzitravis.substack.com/p/when-does-...
Information feels both abstract and tangible. We can't hold information in our hands, but we store it on hard drives. Every time we create or alter information—even just saving a file—it requires energy. This raises the question: is information physical?
suzitravis.substack.com/p/is-informa...
This reminds me of Feynman's famous quote: "I cannot define the real problem; therefore, I suspect there's no real problem, but I'm not sure there's no real problem." Sometimes acknowledging the limits of our understanding is itself an important form of understanding.
What’s the right level of focus when studying something as complex as the brain? Should we zoom out to things like behaviour or dive deep into the molecular and cellular? What can we safely ignore in our quest to understand? And what might we lose if we do? 🧪
suzitravis.substack.com/p/the-proble...
Fantastic news that Andy Clark is the inaugural winner of the #DennettPrize, in honour of Daniel Dennett. Congrats Andy 🍾🍾🍾 super-well deserved @sussexuni.bsky.social hardproblem.it/projects/the...