Ep 145: Minds

Today CEO of the world's most valuable company, Nvidia, Jensen Huang, announced "AGI has arrived". https://x.com/JensenHuang/status/2096700264569090384?s=20 Some reflections on all that. 

This is in response to episode 489 of Sam Harris' "Making Sense" podcast - in a section only available via subscription. I have clipped the approximately 60 seconds worth of material I am narrowly responding to for fair use in this commentary. The case unpacked is, roughly, that ... Show More

A analysis in Popperian style of Candace Owens' "mode" of debate and discussion, approach to evidence and thinking and a comparison to the more mainstream evaluations of this debate. 

Language and Mind: What is rationality? What is consciousness? How do we manage to express our thoughts and experiences in language? 

How do we talk about complicated tasks done by your brain? 

Where does our thinking come from? And what are the generators of our thoughts? An episode that will bring enlightenment to the table and leave you with a greater knowledge of your brain. 

Brains bear thoughts like a peach tree bears peaches. Even for meditators it's almost impossible to stop the firehose of words and images and ideas. But what in the world is a thought, physically? How can you hear a voice in your head when there's no one speaking in the outside w ... Show More

Why is it so difficult to define intelligence? What does this have to do with being a fish in water trying to describe water? Might we humans possess one kind of intelligence in a constellation of many other types? And what does this have to do with empathy, AI, and our search fo ... Show More

From the brain’s point of view, what is the self? How do 30 trillion cells come to feel like a single entity? Does the "self" of a blind person include the tip of her walking stick? How flexible is our sense of self? And what does any of this have to do with psychedelics, trauma, ... Show More

You know that moment in the horror movie where the monster is coming closer, but the movie star doesn't see it? Why does that drive you crazy, and what does that teach us about brains? What is theory of mind, and why is it so important for everyone from poker players to conmen to ... Show More

<p>As we go through life, we’re constantly trying to figure out what other people are thinking and feeling. Psychologist <a href="https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/mcas/departments/psychology/people/faculty-directory/liane-young.html">Liane Young</a> says this ability to assess o ... Show More

What is intelligence? If we look hard, can we find it in unexpected places: not just in brains but in all kinds of structures? How should we recognize it? And what does any of this have to do with a bipedal dog born without front legs, or making small new organisms out of single ... Show More