What, Why & How do we Know ?
Preamble? How do I come to be writing this post right now? See the Background “Postamble” at the bottom if necessary 😉 Straight Down to Business: [START] The Assertion – In one Sentence – There are limits to science in the sense that some aspects of the world are beyond science. (Or alternative prior statements … Continue reading “The Limits to Science?”
Progress on Priorities A strangely productive week since my previous “Resolution” post – I’m obviously focussed on the right priorities at last. Namely getting my “technical content” better organised for review. Started using free versions of Academia.edu and Orcid.org – posting some of my key (older and/or half-drafted pages and pdf’s – mostly just testing … Continue reading “Attention as a Moral Act”
(Just a holding page for content starting Nov 2023 on establishing a properly skeptical freethought environment. Note a page, not a post, and no public link yet.) My (relevant) bio: Born 1956 / raised NE England – Cultural Christian (naïve atheist) from childhood. Humanist from age 22/23 (Humanist wedding aged 25 in 1981, etc.) 45+ … Continue reading “Freethought Project”
That damn meme again. “Dennett denies consciousness”. No he doesn’t. (I already part reviewed Dennett’s memoir recently and added links to a few other sympathetic reviews which all naturally included summaries of his important works. Apart from one footnote of my own on a reconciliation of his physicalist determinist compatibilism with informational subjective pan-proto-psychism (*), … Continue reading “The Illusion of Dennett’s Illusion – Again.”
#EMFAMBE Last couple of days – Sarah Freiesleben – “Shaping Human Centered Progress” – posted a recommendation on LinkedIn for the thinking of Iain McGilchrist (of whom I’m a big fan, as you know) and it drew a lot of flak in reaction to the old left-right-brained-people suggestion (though of course she never actually said that). … Continue reading “Snowden and McGilchrist”
I’ve considered the idea of Physics as Information Processing as central to my work for as long as I can remember [As early as Jan 2002 this post on “Quantum Computing” makes reference to information processing as fundamental.]. The last few years, my “Systems Thinking” – thinking of anything as a system, in terms of functional … Continue reading “Chris Fields – Physics as Information Processing”
No, he does not say that “Consciousness is an Illusion”. End of. In a sentence: Dennett’s position is that: Consciousness and conscious will are as real and evolved as anything else in the world. The powerful (useful, but misleading) ILLUSION is the Cartesian theatre / video screen with the homunculus viewer / user as things … Continue reading “Is Dennett an Illusionist?”
I’ve already documented my take that there really is no longer any mystery behind consciousness and our conscious (free) will – my simplest single reference being Mark Solms “Hidden Spring”. Surely, massively valuable in its own right to have solved that long-standing human riddle? And, more importantly, it takes away a massive source of confusion … Continue reading “Free Energy Principle Explains Consciousness”