It's a mantra for many scientists, not to mention many business managers, that if you can't measure it, it's not real. On the other hand, I've been told by a lot of people, mostly non-scientists, and occasionally humanistic scholars including philosophers, that not everything knowable is measurable. But what exactly is a measurement? My intuitive understanding … Continue reading Are there things that are knowable but not measurable?
Could a neuroscientist understand a microprocessor? Is that a relevant question?
A while back, Julia Galef on Rationally Speaking interviewed Eric Jonas, one of the authors of a study that attempted to use neuroscience techniques on a simple computer processor. The field of neuroscience has been collecting more and more data, and developing increasingly advanced technological tools in its race to understand how the brain works. … Continue reading Could a neuroscientist understand a microprocessor? Is that a relevant question?
Merry Christmas
Still alive. As I mentioned in the previous post back in October, the new job and family issues have been keeping me busy. Hopefully I'll get more time in the new year for blogging. A couple of people have suggested that I consider shorter posts more to generate discussion rather than waiting until I have … Continue reading Merry Christmas
Why I haven’t been posting lately
It's been a while since I've posted. It's probably fair to say that my posting frequency has plummeted to the lowest level since I started this blog in 2013. I feel obliged to offer an explanation. First, we've been undergoing an epic reorganization at work. In the early stages, this endeavor left me very unsettled … Continue reading Why I haven’t been posting lately
Breakthroughs in imagination
When thinking about human history, it's tempting to see some developments as inevitable. Some certainly were, but the sheer amount of time before some of them took place seem to make them remarkable. The human species, narrowly defined as Homo sapiens, is about 200,000 years old. Some argue that it's older, around 300,000 years, others … Continue reading Breakthroughs in imagination
The extraordinary low probability of intelligent life
Marc Defant gave a TEDx talk on the improbable events that had to happen in our planet's history for us to eventually evolve, along with the implications for other intelligent life in the galaxy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nCOhrYV7eg I find a lot to agree with in Defant's remarks, although there are a couple points I'd quibble with. The … Continue reading The extraordinary low probability of intelligent life
The layers of emotion creation
What are emotions? Where do they come from? Are they something innate or something we learn? The classic view is that they're precognitive impulses that happen to us. If so, this would imply that they have specific neural signatures. Early in her career, psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett attempted to isolate the neural basis of emotions … Continue reading The layers of emotion creation
Politics is about self interest
I've read a lot of history, including American history of the 18th and 19th centuries. It's interesting to read about the politics of these periods. From a distance across generations and centuries, you can see the distinction between the self interested stances people took and the rhetoric that was used to justify those stances. An … Continue reading Politics is about self interest
Adding imagination to AI
As we've discussed in recent posts on consciousness, I think imagination has a crucial role to play in animal consciousness. It's part of a hierarchy I currently use to keep the broad aspects of cognition straight in my mind. Reflexes, instinctive or conditioned responses to simuli Perception, which increases the scope of what the reflexes … Continue reading Adding imagination to AI
The difficulty of interstellar travel for humans
Futurism.com has an article reviewing the results of a survey they conducted with their readers asking when the first human might leave the solar system. The leading answer was after the year 2100, which make sense given our current level of progress just getting humans back out of low Earth orbit. But I think the … Continue reading The difficulty of interstellar travel for humans
SelfAwarePatterns 