Steve Esser
LightNews LightNews
banner
steveesser.bsky.social
Steve Esser
@steveesser.bsky.social
360 followers 400 following 170 posts
Philosopher (Philsci, Metaphysics). Other interests: effective philanthropy, finance/economics, Philly sports. stephenesser.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
steveesser.bsky.social
The old man guild said I can now wear this hat.
Selfie of man in black coat with a flat cap.
November 22, 2025 at 8:57 PM
steveesser.bsky.social
Nice comment here.
March 10, 2025 at 4:35 PM
steveesser.bsky.social
I really appreciated @philipcball.bsky.social ‘s How Life Works. press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
Can I convey something of what I gleaned from a 500+ page book in one paragraph? Sure! (screenshot from Goodreads)
Text of screenshot: Ball, an excellent and prolific science writer, has written a big long book. It is his attempt to convey the complexity that biologists are uncovering and to argue for a pressing need for new concepts and metaphors to convey this complexity. For example, is DNA a "blueprint" or perhaps a "program" for an organism? No. It is one critical resource for development, but now that we know more of the details of how this occurs these old metaphors fail utterly. Should we describe cellular functions as "mechanisms" or perhaps "computations"? Only if we understand how limited a purchase these concepts have, since the deterministic through lines they imply are nowhere to be found. Biological phenomena feature complicated and noisy fields of interaction involving a huge number of players across a variety of scales. There is no non-biological system that makes for anything more that extremely weak and idealized analogue for how living things work. The most important upshot is that we must use concepts connected to agency and meaning to understand biology. We can do this in a way that does not bring back the bad old days of invoking elan vital or theological purpose. Biological entities have unique causal structures that bootstrap agential behaviors from scratch.
February 23, 2025 at 4:46 PM
steveesser.bsky.social
Alt-academic career?
A retail sign that advertises “PHD Jewelers.”
January 19, 2025 at 4:59 PM
steveesser.bsky.social
Here it is from today’s print edition of the Sunday book review section.
January 19, 2025 at 1:13 PM
steveesser.bsky.social
Delaware river was looking a little frosty yesterday.
January 18, 2025 at 3:04 PM
steveesser.bsky.social
Holidays were a period of sadness and reflection as we said goodbye to my Dad. I am very grateful for his long life (he was 92), which gave us the time to build a closer relationship.
Photo of me (age 1) and my Dad. He is holding me and looking at me while I face the camera. He is wearing a fairly colorful (green/gold) collared shirt, with background mostly blue sky. Time frame is mid-1960’s.
January 6, 2025 at 9:37 PM
steveesser.bsky.social
I read Roberta Millstein’s (@cepaea.bsky.social) great new book on Leopold, titled The Land is Our Community: Aldo Leopold’s Environmental Ethic for the New Millennium.

Screenshot is from my brief review on Goodreads.

press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
October 30, 2024 at 7:11 PM
steveesser.bsky.social
As I expected, Jonathan Birch’s book the Edge of Sentience is excellent. It is open access from OUP. Screenshot is from my brief review on Goodreads. #philsci #philsky

global.oup.com/academic/pro...
September 11, 2024 at 5:26 PM
steveesser.bsky.social
Here's the paper topic in meme form! (hat tip: "@memecrashes" on twitter)
This is a meme with 2 panels drawn from the Scooby-Doo cartoon. In the first panel Fred is about to unmask the villain (labeled "chemistry") by removing his hood. In the second panel it turns out the villain (now labeled "quantum mechanics") is invisible. This appears to imply that chemistry is not concretely identifiable with quantum physics after all.
June 22, 2024 at 3:25 PM
steveesser.bsky.social
Joel Embiid after new career high 60 pts!
January 23, 2024 at 2:18 AM
steveesser.bsky.social
Looks pretty but man it’s frigid!
Snowy field and trees in Bryn Mawr PA USA
January 20, 2024 at 2:54 PM
steveesser.bsky.social
Glad to be thought helpful here!
December 19, 2023 at 6:54 PM
steveesser.bsky.social
Still thinking (and trying to write) about natural agency in biology and implications for AI.
December 18, 2023 at 3:49 PM
steveesser.bsky.social
I like Ishmael’s weaving metaphor: free will’s course woven through the warp of necessity and the woof of chance.
December 11, 2023 at 9:03 PM
steveesser.bsky.social
Interested in the topic of doing philosophy with young people? Able to be in Philly Monday Nov. 13? Please come to this year’s GPPC Public Issues Forum hosted at Penn!
November 5, 2023 at 4:07 PM
steveesser.bsky.social
Clearly argued paper from Lisa Miracchi Titus on why current AI models (instances of what she calls “statistics-of-occurrence” models or ‘SOMs’) lack semantic understanding. #philsky #philsci #consciousness

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
October 11, 2023 at 3:26 PM
steveesser.bsky.social
I think autonomous embodiment and (naturalized) agency are likely necessary for consciousness, so I’m glad this paper looked at these features. But as they note: computational systems we currently use can only simulate them. Suspect this is a very hard hurdle.
#philsci #philsky
September 6, 2023 at 3:46 PM
steveesser.bsky.social
Enjoyed this paper about investigating cognition in simpler organisms.

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
August 22, 2023 at 3:01 PM