Yohan J John
@dryohanjohn.bsky.social
🧠 computational neuroscience | neurophenomenology 2.0? 🤖
Science Writer, Kempner Institute for the study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence at Harvard University
(views here are my own)
Science Writer, Kempner Institute for the study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence at Harvard University
(views here are my own)
"One organism might peer out from another organism, but not live there."
I'm in awe of VanDerMeer's ability to conjure the uncanny.
I'm in awe of VanDerMeer's ability to conjure the uncanny.
November 7, 2025 at 11:58 PM
"One organism might peer out from another organism, but not live there."
I'm in awe of VanDerMeer's ability to conjure the uncanny.
I'm in awe of VanDerMeer's ability to conjure the uncanny.
I used to generate spiral patterns using center-surround networks just for fun... Never really thought of a use for them.
November 4, 2025 at 8:32 PM
I used to generate spiral patterns using center-surround networks just for fun... Never really thought of a use for them.
October 24, 2025 at 4:10 PM
October 11, 2025 at 4:05 PM
"Oscar Wilde once defined fox hunting as the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable. Were he alive today he might describe the quest for artificial general intelligence as the unfathomable in pursuit of the indefinable."
October 8, 2025 at 9:58 PM
"Oscar Wilde once defined fox hunting as the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable. Were he alive today he might describe the quest for artificial general intelligence as the unfathomable in pursuit of the indefinable."
Good god that Taylor Swift album is atrocious.
Perhaps it will put the final nail in the coffin of nihilistic millennial poptimism.
Perhaps it will put the final nail in the coffin of nihilistic millennial poptimism.
October 5, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Good god that Taylor Swift album is atrocious.
Perhaps it will put the final nail in the coffin of nihilistic millennial poptimism.
Perhaps it will put the final nail in the coffin of nihilistic millennial poptimism.
"Signs are produced and circulated at a growing speed but the human terminal of the system (the embodied mind) is put under growing pressure, and finally it cracks."
This was written in 2009, so he had no idea that generative AI was just around the corner.
This was written in 2009, so he had no idea that generative AI was just around the corner.
September 7, 2025 at 8:33 PM
"Signs are produced and circulated at a growing speed but the human terminal of the system (the embodied mind) is put under growing pressure, and finally it cracks."
This was written in 2009, so he had no idea that generative AI was just around the corner.
This was written in 2009, so he had no idea that generative AI was just around the corner.
Love this contrast between cyberspace and 'cybertime'.
September 7, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Love this contrast between cyberspace and 'cybertime'.
August 20, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Haha. Just last night I added this footnote on "all models are wrong" to my latest substack essay.
yohanjohn.substack.com/p/neuroscien...
yohanjohn.substack.com/p/neuroscien...
July 31, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Haha. Just last night I added this footnote on "all models are wrong" to my latest substack essay.
yohanjohn.substack.com/p/neuroscien...
yohanjohn.substack.com/p/neuroscien...
July 27, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Today I learned that the manifold hypothesis might be traceable all the way back to Helmholtz.
From 'Operationalizing Kant Manifolds, Models, and Mathematics in Helmholtz's Theories of Perception'
doi.org/10.7551/mitp...
#psychology #neuroscience #philosophy
From 'Operationalizing Kant Manifolds, Models, and Mathematics in Helmholtz's Theories of Perception'
doi.org/10.7551/mitp...
#psychology #neuroscience #philosophy
July 24, 2025 at 9:36 PM
Today I learned that the manifold hypothesis might be traceable all the way back to Helmholtz.
From 'Operationalizing Kant Manifolds, Models, and Mathematics in Helmholtz's Theories of Perception'
doi.org/10.7551/mitp...
#psychology #neuroscience #philosophy
From 'Operationalizing Kant Manifolds, Models, and Mathematics in Helmholtz's Theories of Perception'
doi.org/10.7551/mitp...
#psychology #neuroscience #philosophy
I'm starting a series of essays that view neuroscience through the lens of Baudrillard's concept of hyperreality.
Here's the first part:
yohanjohn.substack.com/p/neuroscien...
#neuroscience
Here's the first part:
yohanjohn.substack.com/p/neuroscien...
#neuroscience
July 23, 2025 at 1:00 PM
I'm starting a series of essays that view neuroscience through the lens of Baudrillard's concept of hyperreality.
Here's the first part:
yohanjohn.substack.com/p/neuroscien...
#neuroscience
Here's the first part:
yohanjohn.substack.com/p/neuroscien...
#neuroscience
Picked up this book after hearing about it in a video essay.
Maybe this year will be the first time I attend a Ren Faire.
Maybe this year will be the first time I attend a Ren Faire.
July 19, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Picked up this book after hearing about it in a video essay.
Maybe this year will be the first time I attend a Ren Faire.
Maybe this year will be the first time I attend a Ren Faire.
July 12, 2025 at 7:36 PM
" Both are attempts at post hoc stabilisation of a wholly synthetic cognitive artefact."
💯
💯
June 26, 2025 at 11:54 AM
" Both are attempts at post hoc stabilisation of a wholly synthetic cognitive artefact."
💯
💯
June 24, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Recently came across this book (from 1962!), quite by fluke. It's where the term 'brown sahib' came from, apparently. I've only read a few pages, but it is savage! And cuts a bit close to home!
archive.org/details/dli....
archive.org/details/dli....
June 11, 2025 at 2:13 AM
Recently came across this book (from 1962!), quite by fluke. It's where the term 'brown sahib' came from, apparently. I've only read a few pages, but it is savage! And cuts a bit close to home!
archive.org/details/dli....
archive.org/details/dli....
Looking into Sterling & Eyer (1988), the paper that coined the term 'allostasis'.
They're not mincing words!
#neuroscience
They're not mincing words!
#neuroscience
May 30, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Looking into Sterling & Eyer (1988), the paper that coined the term 'allostasis'.
They're not mincing words!
#neuroscience
They're not mincing words!
#neuroscience
Just finished 'Martyr!' by Kaveh Akbar. A wonderfully life-affirming book about death. (Or possibly vice versa.)
May 24, 2025 at 4:27 AM
Just finished 'Martyr!' by Kaveh Akbar. A wonderfully life-affirming book about death. (Or possibly vice versa.)
This is a cool paper, both in terms of results and in terms of methodology. The distinction between 'fractured entangled' and 'unified factored' reps is handy.
'Questioning Representational Optimism in Deep Learning: The Fractured Entangled Representation Hypothesis'
arxiv.org/abs/2505.11581 #ML
'Questioning Representational Optimism in Deep Learning: The Fractured Entangled Representation Hypothesis'
arxiv.org/abs/2505.11581 #ML
May 22, 2025 at 2:15 PM
This is a cool paper, both in terms of results and in terms of methodology. The distinction between 'fractured entangled' and 'unified factored' reps is handy.
'Questioning Representational Optimism in Deep Learning: The Fractured Entangled Representation Hypothesis'
arxiv.org/abs/2505.11581 #ML
'Questioning Representational Optimism in Deep Learning: The Fractured Entangled Representation Hypothesis'
arxiv.org/abs/2505.11581 #ML
"... those who stayed shifted their attentions away from original research and toward hermeneutics: interpreting the scientific work of metahumans."
Ted Chiang wrote this in the year 2000 in a sci fi essay in Nature (!?). Reminds me of research on interpretability in ML. 😛
Ted Chiang wrote this in the year 2000 in a sci fi essay in Nature (!?). Reminds me of research on interpretability in ML. 😛
May 17, 2025 at 9:51 AM
"... those who stayed shifted their attentions away from original research and toward hermeneutics: interpreting the scientific work of metahumans."
Ted Chiang wrote this in the year 2000 in a sci fi essay in Nature (!?). Reminds me of research on interpretability in ML. 😛
Ted Chiang wrote this in the year 2000 in a sci fi essay in Nature (!?). Reminds me of research on interpretability in ML. 😛
I've always liked the Haber spiral diagrams since they convey something about global organization.
doi.org/10.1523/JNEU...
doi.org/10.1523/JNEU...
May 16, 2025 at 10:51 PM
I've always liked the Haber spiral diagrams since they convey something about global organization.
doi.org/10.1523/JNEU...
doi.org/10.1523/JNEU...
I'm reading 'Martyr!' by Kaveh Akbar. Really good so far.
May 14, 2025 at 2:23 PM
I'm reading 'Martyr!' by Kaveh Akbar. Really good so far.