Modelling others creates ourselves. This seems to be a theme in the work of @anilseth.bsky.social , @alisongopnik.bsky.social & many others. How far do you agree?

Do you think that our models of others lead to our models of ourselves?

I wondered how Ed Witten’s 11 dimensional M-theory (string theory) could be compatible with Juan Maldacena’s 2 dimensional Holographic Principle. It appears the extra dimensions emerge from the ‘flat’ boundary as this image attempts to convey.

The Universe’s Secret Maze? I asked ChatGPT to explain Nima Arkani-Hamed’s Amplituhedron, especially in relation to the Holographic Universe idea. This is what it generated. I quite like it. But how accurate is it?

𝗢𝗻 𝗯𝗶𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀: 𝗔 𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗯𝗶𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘂𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗺 Excellent paper discussing how considering biology is important to understand consciousness. Really enjoyed this one. doi.org/10.1016/j.ne... #neuroskyence

Where are thoughts in the brain? Are they in the brain?

1/2 🎉🎉🎉 New paper alert!! Read this to see why we don’t think P and A are two *types* of C, but two conditions for C. And why we think this can truly advance the field and solve controversies. Open access until Feb 5th: authors.elsevier.com/a/1mHug4sIRv...

Looking for recommendations from this lineup: what would you watch first and why? • To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) • The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) • King of New York (1990) • War (2019) • Doctor Sleep (2019) • Frankenstein (2025) • Crank (2006) • Thief (1981)

Quick A/B test: same prompt, same task. Illustrate the lyrics of a famous song. Google’s Gemini 3 Nano Banana Pro is on the left, ChatGPT Images on the right. Which image wins for you, and what song do you think it is?

Gil Gerard (23.01.1943 – 16.12.2025) Buck Rogers RIP

“The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August” by Claire North. Fantastic, philosophical novel - think Groundhog Day/Life After Life/Replay. This time, the protagonist can remember every previous life in perfect detail as he lives the same life over & over again. What would you do?

“If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present.” Ludwig Wittgenstein

Why isn’t a nation alive?

I tested Gemini 3 against GPT-5.2 by using exactly the same prompt to create an image explaining the Holographic Universe. Gemini on the left, GPT on the right.

Whenever there’s a new AI model I do the old analogue clock test. GPT-5.2 still not there yet…

‘Throwing more words and GPUs into the word-guessing program won't make it sentient. That's like saying, "Well, we keep breeding these horses to run faster and faster, so it's only a matter of time until one of our mares gives birth to a locomotive." @pluralistic.net.web.brid.gy

Impressive article from @pluralistic.net.web.brid.gy. Do we really want to be reverse centaurs? Not the fun centaurs, but reversed - with a computer head and a human body. The human body does the menial work the computer can’t do, while the computer head does the interesting stuff.

The difference between a human and a computer is that we ask questions and a computer answers them. What if a computer started asking us questions? Not: ‘Would you like more information on that?’ But what if it sent a message out of the blue asking a question it thought of?

“Strictly speaking, we do not make decisions, decisions make us.” José Saramago ‘All the Names’

Is consciousness what happens when we wake and goes away when we’re in deep sleep? If so, for panpsychists, if everything is conscious, does an electron go to sleep?

“Dopamine is not about the pursuit of happiness, it is about the happiness of pursuit.” Dr Robert Sapolsky (paraphrased by @hubermanlab.com)

Just finished ‘Blood Music’ by Greg Bear. Excellent book. Top-rate science fiction. Anyone else read it?

What would it be like to have ChatGPT implanted in your body, where it could suggest ideas and control your movements to improve your outcomes? That’s the idea behind ‘Upgrade’, a massively underrated & overlooked sci-fi/action film from 2018.

Black Hole Information “Paradox”: Sir Roger Penrose states that information going into a Black Hole is destroyed forever. But most physicists disagree. Hawking radiation escapes a Black Hole, random at first, but later becomes more coherent. I see it like a jigsaw puzzle.

Which side are you on? A) Gravity causes quantum collapse? B) The universe is a hologram?

Recent videos on the current battleground of physics 1. Penrose & Fuentes propose an experiment to prove gravity causes superposition collapse youtu.be/CfjnTJos_no?... 2. Daniel Harlow promotes a 3D holographic universe that emerges from a 2D quantum error correcting code youtu.be/XbL64sz8dQI?...

DeepMind ‘The Thinking Game’ free documentary on YouTube: 1. Was Demis reading ‘The Fabric of Reality’ by David Deutsch? 2. Live streaming of the Go match against Ke Jie abruptly cut as AlphaGo started winning. Dramatic. 3. Kept expecting a final twist where the researchers turn out to be AI 😉

Entertaining and wide-ranging panel discussion on consciousness at the @crick.ac.uk hosted by @profbriancox.bsky.social and featuring me, @anilseth.bsky.social @kathaschmack.bsky.social and @cosmicskeptic.bsky.social Check it out, let us know what you think! www.lnk.to/AQOSConsciou...

If 3D space is really a projection from a 2D cosmic boundary, then everything that creates us could be scattered across a distant surface and only appear as 3D. I asked AI to visualise that idea. Here is what it imagined.

Gemini 3 Nano Banana Pro. I asked for an analogue clock showing 5.40. I got 4.40. BUT - it was closer than the usual 10.10.

Does modern holography flip Plato’s cave? In physics today, do the boundary “shadows” carry the real information while the three dimensional world is the projection? Gemini 3 created this image to illustrate.

“Is all that we see or seem But a dream within a dream?” Edgar Allan Poe

Why isn’t NotebookLM part of Gemini? I don’t get it.

Gemini 3 still struggles with spelling in images.

Is Gemini 3.0 out in the UK? If so, is it only available to paying subscribers? Has anyone tried it? Does it live up to the hype?

Where’s the cut-off for consciousness? Worms? Flies? Ants?

Biology only… or any substrate? Is consciousness something only living organisms can have, or could a well built machine ever be truly aware?

If agency is about predictions, observations, discrepancies and relevant changes, as this slide from @drmichaellevin.bsky.social suggests, what is preventing AI from becoming an agent?

The greenish blob on the left is an Anthrobot artificially created from human tracheal cells and it is repairing a neural wound (black space). Amazing work from @drmichaellevin.bsky.social

Is all life a protest against entropy?

Implied by the hype: Gemini 3.0 now solves P vs NP, quantum gravity & fixes analogue clocks stuck on 10.10. By 3.1 it’ll take the bins out, negotiate world peace, and finally explain your smart TV settings.

“To my mind there must be, at the bottom of it all, not an equation, but an utterly simple idea. And to me that idea, when we finally discover it, will be so compelling, so inevitable, that we will say to one another: 'Oh, how beautiful. How could it have been otherwise?” Wheeler

Smaller processes build the mind. The mind then acts back on those parts & the environment with feelings & thoughts. But we never choose the feelings or thoughts that appear. We act, yet the source of what drives our action is not chosen by us. Agree or disagree?

To what extent is ChatGPT like Indecisive Dave from the Fast Show? I sometimes ask for book recommendations & when I question it, it says, “Yeah, you’re right - rubbish book.”

Has anyone used ChatGPT-5.1 yet? Any major differences/improvements?

As part of this fascinating conversation, Roger Penrose implies he tried to get Douglas Hofstadter to claim some integers are conscious, and DH was open to this (hmm). I wonder how that argument would go if they met today. That would be a podcast I’d love to see, @curtjaimungal.bsky.social.

“What is left over if I subtract the fact that my arm goes up from the fact that I raise my arm?” Ludwig Wittgenstein

“No man is an island, Entire of itself; Every man is a piece of the continent, A part of the main…

Any man's death diminishes me, Because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.” John Donne

Sir Roger Penrose: “People say quantum gravity is the big mystery. The main mystery is the gravitisation of quantum mechanics.” Do you agree? Does the word order matter or is it negligible?