alt Hacker NewsHow teaching molecules to think is revealing what a 'mind' is
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Seems to me we’re ignoring history: 1. Prescott Lecky destroyed the validity of Pavlov’s experiments with his paper on Self Consistency. 2. Macys conference in 1960s converged on the idea of systems theory and cybernetics; cause and effect is for elementary school - self organization is for the adults. 3. Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela (Autopoesis) are rolling in their graves.
It’s not a new discovery if something better has already been in use for 50+ years.
Am I missing something here?
Blood Music by Greg Bear
Quite a special scifi novel that starts like this. Quite grounded at the beginning, but it then evolves into body horror and later becomes quite abstract.
So they've taken causality, emergence and consciousness and combined them into one simple to measure number? And now they're making philosophical statements about the implications.
You know what, fine, be that way if you must.
Molecules do not "think" though. It's not just the title - the whole article seems to have been written by AI.
> Selves are more technically defined by biologists and neuroscientists as “agents”
Someone shoot me please
Interesting stuff but it hurts so much that the writer has the common misconception of pavlov's dog doing a circus trick. Sure the dog also consciously understands the connection between bell and food. But the physiological reaction of the saliva flowing is not a conscious decision of the dog. Circus tricks with animals existed long before Pavlov. The key discovery is that there is a physiological reaction which cannot be suppressed anymore consciously. That's why PTSD is such a bitch to be treated: even with the stimulus gone, the physiological reaction remains.
That said, the article is still worth a read.