What, Why & How do we Know ?
Opening Gambit [Links being added] [Q (21 Aug)]: “I understand that you have a professional engineering background and a strong interest in systems theory … If you would like to discuss this very important topic one on one I would be interested.” [A (22 Aug)]: “Sure, I most recently I summarised my interest here (18 … Continue reading “Strained Conversation”
This Karl Friston interview is long and wandering (almost 4 hours!) and a bit distorted by the somewhat affected (?) naïve “Theory of Everything” – everything including the kitchen sink – agenda of interviewer Curt Jaimungal, but anyway … some very rough mental notes: Deflationary view – hooray. The very point. Using / understanding general … Continue reading “Long Friston Interview”
I’m like a cracked record with “Nothing New Under the Sun”. I was just using the wayback machine / web-archive to find a copy of Doug Hofstadter’s contribution to the 2006 Tucson Science of Consciousness event: “Strange Loops, Downward Causation, and Distributed Consciousness” (Mentioned here in 2006.) His “I am a Strange Loop” was published … Continue reading “Very Little New?”
[Draft Holding Post – links being added.] Cybernetics, like anything else, evolves, so I’m never talking about specific systems theory(ies). I’ve described my own journey every which way through systems engineering to systems thinking under the cybernetic umbrella. I have a nothing new under the sun attitude to any topic, whereby changing language may change … Continue reading “General Systems Theory(ies)?”
I’ve previously only mentioned Friston as the source of Friston’s Free Energy Principle as the backdrop to Mark Solms proper bio-psychological account of consciousness. I listened to this discussion – hap tip to the Active Inference folks – and already made a few footnotes to the two previous posts. It’s the first time I’ve listened … Continue reading “Karl Friston and Good Fences”
Watching this wonderful “Krebs Cycle” RI lecture by Nick Lane – last mentioned him here – and just wanted to note two things for now. One, there is an obvious topological parallel (*) between (System) Markov Blankets and (Mitochondria) Lipid Membranes at two quite different levels of abstraction – information processes and biochemical processes. And … Continue reading “Markov Blankets vs Lipid Membranes”
I’ve been mentioning Systems and Systems Thinking increasingly as I explicitly formalise the metaphysics underlying my world-view and my various writing projects, technical synthesis and creative fictional narrative. And I’m in “just write something” mode after 20+ years of intense reading and research trying to minimise distractions from what is now effectively my post-retirement day-job … Continue reading “International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS)”
Missed this conversation last night, so watching the recording today. Just VERY rough notes for conversation. What is the matter? Doesn’t actually answer – but talks around that we all seem to see the plight of western humanity. Then a long summary of TMWT (inc repeat of TMAHE HH content) Attention – a moral act … Continue reading “McGilchrist at Embercombe”