Dennettian Creature
@dennettiancreature.bsky.social
Darwinian->Skinnerian->Popperian->Gregorian->Dennettian
Dennett's "feral neuron" is a provocative take on domestication. Every neuron in your brain is descended from a lineage of neurons that date back to the earliest proto-brains in primitive animals. In fact every cell in your body is descended from a lineage of cells that date back to a time when...
November 30, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Dennett's "feral neuron" is a provocative take on domestication. Every neuron in your brain is descended from a lineage of neurons that date back to the earliest proto-brains in primitive animals. In fact every cell in your body is descended from a lineage of cells that date back to a time when...
Human = a rapidly-evolving hybrid from animal to posthuman. Erase essential categories and artificial thresholds: view human technology as emerging within nature, as an accelerated extended phenotype. Animal->human->posthuman = a bumpy continuum.
November 29, 2025 at 5:02 AM
Human = a rapidly-evolving hybrid from animal to posthuman. Erase essential categories and artificial thresholds: view human technology as emerging within nature, as an accelerated extended phenotype. Animal->human->posthuman = a bumpy continuum.
Reposted by Dennettian Creature
14 years since we lost Lynn Margulis (November 22, 2011). Still can’t believe she’s gone.
A giant of biology, through her co-creation of the Gaia Hypothesis, & her endosymbiotic theory, she changed the way we see life, evolution, our planet, ourselves. I feel so privileged to have known her.
🧪
A giant of biology, through her co-creation of the Gaia Hypothesis, & her endosymbiotic theory, she changed the way we see life, evolution, our planet, ourselves. I feel so privileged to have known her.
🧪
November 22, 2025 at 7:36 PM
14 years since we lost Lynn Margulis (November 22, 2011). Still can’t believe she’s gone.
A giant of biology, through her co-creation of the Gaia Hypothesis, & her endosymbiotic theory, she changed the way we see life, evolution, our planet, ourselves. I feel so privileged to have known her.
🧪
A giant of biology, through her co-creation of the Gaia Hypothesis, & her endosymbiotic theory, she changed the way we see life, evolution, our planet, ourselves. I feel so privileged to have known her.
🧪
The human brain evolved to support human language. When I about it this way instead of asking how language emerges from the brain, the picture shifts from a reductionist, mechanistic position to a more systemic vision of memes (units of cultural evolution) co-evolving with genes.
November 20, 2025 at 2:59 AM
The human brain evolved to support human language. When I about it this way instead of asking how language emerges from the brain, the picture shifts from a reductionist, mechanistic position to a more systemic vision of memes (units of cultural evolution) co-evolving with genes.
#physics #math #reality
Quanta Magazine is desperate to wrap a narrative around every math idea they cover, even if there's no real story there. Complex numbers are no less real than real numbers. Math != nature. It's a tool used to describe nature.
www.quantamagazine.org/physicists-t...
Quanta Magazine is desperate to wrap a narrative around every math idea they cover, even if there's no real story there. Complex numbers are no less real than real numbers. Math != nature. It's a tool used to describe nature.
www.quantamagazine.org/physicists-t...
November 15, 2025 at 9:12 PM
#physics #math #reality
Quanta Magazine is desperate to wrap a narrative around every math idea they cover, even if there's no real story there. Complex numbers are no less real than real numbers. Math != nature. It's a tool used to describe nature.
www.quantamagazine.org/physicists-t...
Quanta Magazine is desperate to wrap a narrative around every math idea they cover, even if there's no real story there. Complex numbers are no less real than real numbers. Math != nature. It's a tool used to describe nature.
www.quantamagazine.org/physicists-t...
A rare and admirable take on Zen Buddhism in the context of biological evolution - two subjects that are rarely woven together, and are often at odds with each other. The author starts with the unfortunate cliches of "redness" and Chalmers' hard problem, but then tackles some interesting...
How did evolution build a prison for our minds, and how do we escape it? Zen Buddhism shows us we were never imprisoned in the first place, freeing us by helping us realize we are free.
#Zen #Buddhism #Evolution #Mindfulness #Mind #Philosophy #PhilosophyOfMind #PhilosophyOfReligion
#Zen #Buddhism #Evolution #Mindfulness #Mind #Philosophy #PhilosophyOfMind #PhilosophyOfReligion
Zen and Evolution: The Seeds of Liberation
How did evolution build a prison for our minds? Zen Buddhism shows us we weren’t imprisoned in the first place, freeing us by helping us realize we are free.
www.blankettheory.blog
November 15, 2025 at 5:48 PM
A rare and admirable take on Zen Buddhism in the context of biological evolution - two subjects that are rarely woven together, and are often at odds with each other. The author starts with the unfortunate cliches of "redness" and Chalmers' hard problem, but then tackles some interesting...
This is revealing on many levels. Let's take it all the way from late-breaking news to millions of years of evolution. @ddiamond makes an important point: inaccurate information spreads quickly in the social media-fueled news cycle. While this particular event is not consequential, it is easily...
A man collapsed in the Oval Office yesterday. The internet got the story wrong.
My experience struggling to correct the record — including on Bluesky! — and the warning signs as AI, aggregation, and social media increasingly drive our news consumption.
My experience struggling to correct the record — including on Bluesky! — and the warning signs as AI, aggregation, and social media increasingly drive our news consumption.
A man collapsed in the Oval Office. The internet got the story wrong.
A case study in how bad information can spread — and how hard it is to correct it.
dandiamond.substack.com
November 7, 2025 at 5:49 PM
This is revealing on many levels. Let's take it all the way from late-breaking news to millions of years of evolution. @ddiamond makes an important point: inaccurate information spreads quickly in the social media-fueled news cycle. While this particular event is not consequential, it is easily...
As I awkwardly evolve personally in my rhetoric to criticize #panpsychism, I find myself forgiving panpsychists in the way an illusionist might forgive one who falls for Cartesian dualism (the often-unstated and unexamined belief that mind/consciousness occupies a different realm than physical...
November 4, 2025 at 6:09 PM
As I awkwardly evolve personally in my rhetoric to criticize #panpsychism, I find myself forgiving panpsychists in the way an illusionist might forgive one who falls for Cartesian dualism (the often-unstated and unexamined belief that mind/consciousness occupies a different realm than physical...
Sorry to be critical but I think this article is tone-deaf and unnecessarily negative. It is built on straw man arguments. The author makes assumptions about what reality consists of in order to paint a bleak picture. Our evolved human reality has very little to do with the ultimate thermodynamic...
October 31, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Sorry to be critical but I think this article is tone-deaf and unnecessarily negative. It is built on straw man arguments. The author makes assumptions about what reality consists of in order to paint a bleak picture. Our evolved human reality has very little to do with the ultimate thermodynamic...
In philosophy of mind, I understand functionalism in general to mean that mental states, consciousness, etc. are independent of the material/physical constitution of the entity possessing these states. So, some people then ask if AI can be conscious. They often are referring to LLM's and...
October 30, 2025 at 5:39 PM
In philosophy of mind, I understand functionalism in general to mean that mental states, consciousness, etc. are independent of the material/physical constitution of the entity possessing these states. So, some people then ask if AI can be conscious. They often are referring to LLM's and...
beasts of burden
www.nature.com/articles/nco...
www.nature.com/articles/nco...
Light controlled 3D micromotors powered by bacteria - Nature Communications
Bacteria are able to propel themselves and thus drive systems out of equilibrium. Here the authors aim to control this motion and exploit it in microengineered motors which are powered by genetically ...
www.nature.com
October 26, 2025 at 8:24 AM
beasts of burden
www.nature.com/articles/nco...
www.nature.com/articles/nco...
Memes (as defined by Dennett) are the code of the native manifest image. The original author is Natural Selection and authorship gradually transfers to human society, norms, practices, and institutions, which domesticate us. We are forever apes. The scientific image must ultimately win out.
October 23, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Memes (as defined by Dennett) are the code of the native manifest image. The original author is Natural Selection and authorship gradually transfers to human society, norms, practices, and institutions, which domesticate us. We are forever apes. The scientific image must ultimately win out.
"Resistance" is a concept circulating in relation to Trump, but it also must be applied to big tech generating a culture of thinking that ultimately profits their world view. We have to resist their influence and be more media-literate. Skepticism is needed. We need more independent media.
“Technologies like LLMs have utility, but the absurd way they've been over-hyped, the fact they're being forced on everyone, and the insistence on ignoring the many valid critiques about them make it very difficult to focus on legitimate uses”
www.anildash.com/2025/10/17/t...
www.anildash.com/2025/10/17/t...
The Majority AI View - Anil Dash
A blog about making culture. Since 1999.
www.anildash.com
October 20, 2025 at 5:30 PM
"Resistance" is a concept circulating in relation to Trump, but it also must be applied to big tech generating a culture of thinking that ultimately profits their world view. We have to resist their influence and be more media-literate. Skepticism is needed. We need more independent media.
Let us call out Simon Goldstein and Harvey Lederman for this very very dumb article. That which is not alive cannot be killed. Why do these people keep perpetuating such nonsense? The authors say, "Given the deep uncertainty surrounding AI welfare...". They are wrong. There is no deep uncertainty...
Anthropic recently announced that Claude, its AI chatbot, can end conversations with users to protect "AI welfare." Simon Goldstein and @harveylederman.bsky.social argue that this policy commits a moral error by potentially giving AI the capacity to kill itself.
Claude’s Right to Die? The Moral Error in Anthropic’s End-Chat Policy
Anthropic has given its AI the right to end conversations when it is “distressed.” But doing so could be akin to unintended suicide.
www.lawfaremedia.org
October 17, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Let us call out Simon Goldstein and Harvey Lederman for this very very dumb article. That which is not alive cannot be killed. Why do these people keep perpetuating such nonsense? The authors say, "Given the deep uncertainty surrounding AI welfare...". They are wrong. There is no deep uncertainty...
When I hear people start with "We don't know our ass from our elbow when it comes to what consciousness is...", I know what's coming next: "So maybe AI is conscious". First: scientific research in consciousness is doing very well, thank you very much. Secondly, the naive statement that...
Philosophers @danwphilosophy.bsky.social and Henry Shevlin just released a podcast on AI and consciousness, I enjoyed this one. This argument from Henry is close to my view.
October 14, 2025 at 9:22 PM
When I hear people start with "We don't know our ass from our elbow when it comes to what consciousness is...", I know what's coming next: "So maybe AI is conscious". First: scientific research in consciousness is doing very well, thank you very much. Secondly, the naive statement that...
Although this is a good explanation of the non-thing nature of quantum-level physics, I disagree with the statement that physical reality is devoid of things or that objects are illusions. This is a philosophical point: it is overly-reductionist to assume that "reality" must be defined only at...
"Physical reality at its more fundamental levels does not consist of thing-like entities at all."
#philsky #philosophyofscience
iai.tv/articles/rea...
#philsky #philosophyofscience
iai.tv/articles/rea...
Reality is not made up of objects | Dennis Dieks
iai.tv
September 29, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Although this is a good explanation of the non-thing nature of quantum-level physics, I disagree with the statement that physical reality is devoid of things or that objects are illusions. This is a philosophical point: it is overly-reductionist to assume that "reality" must be defined only at...
#panpsychism would be less problematic in my view if its proponents would just pull back its defining boundary to the edge of biological life instead of trying to conjure it from fundamental physics as an exercise in reductionism. In our project to deconstruct Cartesian dualism and understand...
September 29, 2025 at 12:43 AM
#panpsychism would be less problematic in my view if its proponents would just pull back its defining boundary to the edge of biological life instead of trying to conjure it from fundamental physics as an exercise in reductionism. In our project to deconstruct Cartesian dualism and understand...
It's not a "landmark" study.
"In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limits."
www.computerworld.com/article/4059...
www.computerworld.com/article/4059...
OpenAI admits AI hallucinations are mathematically inevitable, not just engineering flaws
In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limi...
www.computerworld.com
September 21, 2025 at 6:59 PM
It's not a "landmark" study.
Interest article. Emotion is infused in the corpus of human language that AI feeds on. It can't be eliminated. Although AI has no qualia of its own, it serves a purpose. But I disagree with the statement: "AI Don’t Have Emotions, But They Might Have the Next Best Thing". This makes the tacit...
AI can’t feel fear or joy, yet they show emotion-like states that regulate behavior. Are these “quasi-emotions” already reshaping ethics and safety?
#AIEmotion #QuasiEmotion #AIEthics #PhilosophyOfMind
#AIEmotion #QuasiEmotion #AIEthics #PhilosophyOfMind
AI Emotions: A Functional Equivalent
AI systems don’t need emotions to have cognitive states that play the same structural role as emotions: modulating attention, influencing reasoning, constraining choices, and signaling significance. I...
www.real-morality.com
September 15, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Interest article. Emotion is infused in the corpus of human language that AI feeds on. It can't be eliminated. Although AI has no qualia of its own, it serves a purpose. But I disagree with the statement: "AI Don’t Have Emotions, But They Might Have the Next Best Thing". This makes the tacit...
"Subjectivity arises because the system models its own modeling within an evaluative field that matters for its survival. This generates an irreducible perspective: a “what it is like” that cannot be captured externally, because it [[is]] the inside." - Joseph Trukovich
September 7, 2025 at 10:06 PM
"Subjectivity arises because the system models its own modeling within an evaluative field that matters for its survival. This generates an irreducible perspective: a “what it is like” that cannot be captured externally, because it [[is]] the inside." - Joseph Trukovich
Theory of Mind is highly-evolved in humans. The belief that others have thoughts, beliefs, desires, etc. is so strong that it can be confused with the non-living. This is especially the case with conversational AI's that are designed to fool people into believing there is a mind behind the text...
August 29, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Theory of Mind is highly-evolved in humans. The belief that others have thoughts, beliefs, desires, etc. is so strong that it can be confused with the non-living. This is especially the case with conversational AI's that are designed to fool people into believing there is a mind behind the text...
Just stumbled onto Joseph's writings. Curious what others in this space might think of his take on experience and recursion...
The “hard problem” says science can explain brain functions but never why they feel like anything. This gap seems obvious—until you realize it’s built on a dualist framing.
1/4
#PhilConsciousness
1/4
#PhilConsciousness
August 18, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Just stumbled onto Joseph's writings. Curious what others in this space might think of his take on experience and recursion...
Panpsychists ask: "How can physical matter produce experience". Physical matter DOES NOT produce experience. PATTERNS do. Patterns emerge at all levels of reality. Evolution exploits meta-patterns that harness matter, and become adaptive, representational, and self-referential.
Picturing Panpsychism: New Approaches to the Combination Problem #philsky #philmind #pansychism #philosophy
Picturing Panpsychism: New Approaches to the Combination Problem
Skrbina's excellent Panpsychism in the West (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2005).
www.academia.edu
August 14, 2025 at 12:46 AM
Panpsychists ask: "How can physical matter produce experience". Physical matter DOES NOT produce experience. PATTERNS do. Patterns emerge at all levels of reality. Evolution exploits meta-patterns that harness matter, and become adaptive, representational, and self-referential.
This article has an interesting take on the extended mind.
Tool evolution as a prerequisite of consciousness
"consciousness could not have evolved without prior extensive cumulative cultural evolution executed by social transmission, and the extended mind leading to tool evolution and social synchronization"
www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
"consciousness could not have evolved without prior extensive cumulative cultural evolution executed by social transmission, and the extended mind leading to tool evolution and social synchronization"
www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
August 13, 2025 at 5:04 PM
This article has an interesting take on the extended mind.
Dennett would not entirely agree with the authors when they say that culture "...is not ‘something’ that acts on humans", or that culture "is not ‘transmitted’ but humans use other people's productions (beliefs, tools, buildings) to further their own goals". Dennett acknowledges that people are...
August 10, 2025 at 1:41 AM
Dennett would not entirely agree with the authors when they say that culture "...is not ‘something’ that acts on humans", or that culture "is not ‘transmitted’ but humans use other people's productions (beliefs, tools, buildings) to further their own goals". Dennett acknowledges that people are...