I'm curious - maybe I'll poke around some too. Thanks!

...silicon-based hardware, as we know, and to great effect. These are models at best, but hardly good models of human software. I know there's a lot more involved in the conversation on computationalism, but there's a lot of noise in there. Anyway, that's one of my thoughts on the matter.

...of a vast ecosystem of other living things and environments. The history of the construction of the brain's hardware is the same history as the construction of the software that runs on it. Some very specific and narrow aspects of the software can be abstracted from human software and run on...

machine that can "run" the software of human cognition? Well, it certainly could not be done with a standard computer. It would have to be more brain-like. How brain-like? Very. So much that it would have to be an exact replica. The software and hardware both evolved over deep time in the context...

Regarding computational functionalism, it seems quite complicated because there are conflicting points of view and interpretations. I'm okay with comparing cognition and consciousness to software, but the problem is in understanding the nature of the hardware. What would it take to build a...

That's odd. Out of curiosity, what were the URL's you were using before?

Started reading it and am looking forward to the deep dive. (Could you guess I'm a tad biased?)

...very recently with Singularity-like speed. I think computational functionalism can be a useful tool. But the claim that it is the basis of consciousness is mistaken. Consciousness is becoming an embattled subject. I blame the invisible hand of dualism.

Your initial comment on computational functionalism is interesting. Which came first, computation or consciousness? There's a bit of chicken-and-egg there. I like to take the very long view and see these various categories as evolving over deep time, with some highly refined versions emerging...

Totally. The new AI era is throwing humans into a tough situation. Our minds are not prepared for it - in fact, are not evolved for it. The M in LLM stands for Model...to your point. But humans are preconditioned with an already sensitive theory of mind - these models are hair-triggers for that.

Wilfred Sold

...matter in the emergence of life, is ubiquitous, as indicated by the astonishing machinery of genetic replication and protein factories that have been churning away for billions of years before humans. Anyway, I basically agree about your response to what I might call naive computationalism.

...first - in this respect. I agree that computation - as in what humans were already doing before silicon computers - came after consciousness, because consciousness emerged and is evolutionarily-ancient. But in the broadest sense, computation, as seen as information taking the upper-hand over...

Agree in general. Although I've recently been learning more about "natural" computation, as in the information processing and signaling at all levels of biology (and possibly before life)...information as "a difference that makes a difference", and so I would not say that consciousness comes...

I was not aware of them (or the book Everything Must Go) until you pointed it out. Thanks! I found the full text on the Internet Archive and started to read a bit. Do you recommend the book?

biosphere within complex (especially social) species via evolution. It is purposeful and powerful. The illusion is in the belief that consciousness is primary and fundamental, and that it precedes physicality. Mind emerges from matter through a complex billions-year evolution of increasing agency.

...experiences, beliefs, desires. Illusionism doesn't discount the value and utility of consciousness, nor does it claim that consciousness "doesn't exist" as many claim. Of course consciousness exists. It's that it isn't a fundamental law of nature, as panpsychists believe. It emerges in the...

...into your precious Cartesian theater of qualia and feelings and memories and everything else. Illusionism doesn't mean that we are all being fooled. It means that our reality is a construct that evolved via natural selection, allowing us to engage in a common language of selves that have...

In my opinion, illusionism is an important philosophical position to think about. And the reason is that it is hard. It's really hard. It's hard because our subjectivity is precious. It's an exercise. The more you do it, the better you get at stepping outside of yourself. You can always step back...

Curious: are you doing etymological research on the use of the word "occult"? Or are you arguing for or against certain philosophies that are for or against occult traditions?

My take: unexamined folk beliefs, religions, and occult traditions, unless they are causing obvious harm, should be viewed without judgement, as a scientist studies and explains the behavior of an organism, whether it's an ant foraging or a human worshiping.

#philtwit I just started reading Dennett's Real Patterns in Science and Nature. And I learned a new word: "Naturalized Metaphysics".

mitpress.mit.edu/978026205203...

...in time. But that's just a perspective illusion. This is my Dennett-inspired take on the co-evolution of culture, language, and collective emotion.

...deeply intertwingled. At the dawn of human language, emotions were given names, collective emotions were born, and over time, language contributed to the brain's ability and tendency to generate those named emotions. Currently, memetic evolution is so fast that our genes appear to be frozen...

...of genes and memes both contribute to how our brains evolved. Our brains serve as social antennae. Humans are apes with brains infected by memes. Social emotions like shame are shared with dogs. We can't separate our animal nature from our cultural evolution and isolate them - they are...

#philtwit
Interesting article - fascinating topic. The article refers to "top-down" societal effects on individuals, forming a common emotional landscape. It mentions the anachronistic "evolutionism", but a more updated take on evolution is a better lens. The Baldwin effect, and the co-evolution...

This is a transformative time to be alive, I do not take it for granted that I exist now: my hope is that those of us alive now do as much as we can to enable ourselves and our descendants to further the creative potential of life, rebelling against a universe that is indifferent without us

Guillotines are known to provide distraction.

Agree. That is a very bad click-bait article with overblown conclusions, based on what looks like a reasonable study.

Can I be added? Thanks!