What do just about all brain-based theories of consciousness have in common? Representation, modeling the world outside the head, a reality model. And representation involves content. Hence the content hypothesis about consciousness: twc3.substack.com/p/the-conten...

This is it folks. A general strike is in order if this goes through. substack.com/home/post/p-...

A new book by @metzinger.bsky.social lays out an epistemically responsible and spiritually deep response to the looming climate crisis, one that pulls no punches in its critique of religion and capitalism. It's the unflinching, honest appraisal we need right now. www.amazon.com/-/de/dp/B0FZ...

The feeling of pain seems to play a causal role in pain behavior but when we analyze the functions associated with such behavior, we don't need to mention that feeling. What gives??? @matthiasmichel.bsky.social @earlkmiller.bsky.social @johanneskleiner.bsky.social substack.com/home/post/p-...

Re @wiringthebrain.bsky.social and Henry Potter's defense of libertarian free will, I argue that indeterminism and an open future can't make agents more responsible than they are under determinism. Otherwise I like their view of agency. philpapers.org/rec/CLATDO-31

The Good Determinist - Taking a cause-and-effect view of ourselves can lessen retributive blame premised on the illusion of libertarian agency, leading to more humane and practically effective responsibility practices, but without excusing wrong-doing. substack.com/home/post/p-...

@wiringthebrain.bsky.social Up your alley: this book by Nancey Murphy and Warren Brown - "Did My Neurons Make Me Do It? - is similar to your approach to downward causation and responsible agency but without any appeal to causal slack: naturalism.org/resources/bo...

It's fine to collaborate with AIs on a publication so long as you give them due credit. twc3.substack.com/p/ai-and-aut...

So when you have a thought in your native language, is it more like speaking it or hearing it?

Game over for due process, sorry folks! www.bostonglobe.com/2025/06/25/o...

Reality monitoring associated with phenomenal consciousness is clearly functional, but what function does phenomenality itself serve? If it's identical to functions, no causal power added, if not identical, no causal story on offer. Hmmm... @matthiasmichel.bsky.social @smfleming.bsky.social

The billionaires could be oligarchic but benevolent (e.g., Bill Gates), so the wholesale gutting of American science, culture, rule of law, social safety net, etc., etc. can only be construed as intentionally punitive, aimed at undermining our collective flourishing under democracy.

"Sapolsky, a Stanford University professor, is a hard determinist who rejects free will; Mitchell, an associate professor of genetics and neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin, is a compatibilist who embraces it." @wiringthebrain.bsky.social a compatibilist? link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Here "superagency" denotes the capacity for ultimate control over our behavior. We can’t step outside of ourselves to exert a level of control not already determined by who we are, but many, perhaps most folks think that we are such impossible superagents. twc3.substack.com/p/superagenc...

Not hyperbole, this is happening in my hood. How about in yours? If your local, state, and federal representatives aren't speaking out about this you must let them know that their silence makes them complicit. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/o...

Kristen Welker of NBC news, 3/29, reported on a phone interview she had with Trump on his desire to annex Greenland. Trump: "There's a good possibility it could be done without military force...but I don't take anything off the table." Who will resist this nonsense?

Vance: "We do not think military force is ever going to be necessary. We think we're going to be able to cut a deal, Donald Trump style..." Translation: plans for an invasion are being formulated if you don't like the deal. Denmark, Greenlanders: stand your ground! www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqn3...

The latest installment of The Good Determinist suggests we're pretty comfortable with supposing one thing causes another, put perhaps not quite all the way there... substack.com/home/post/p-...

Quick and dirty argument against phenomenal causation: If the feel of pain is identical to its NCC, the feel per se doesn't add to their causal power. If the feel *isn't* identical, there's no good story about how it adds causal power. The feel is real, but not a causal contributor. Questions?

Bye bye, Amazon. As a friend of mine wrote me: The Washington Post slogan was "Democracy dies in darkness." Turns out it also dies under the glare of chandeliers in oligarchs' mansions. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/b...

Critical action to stop the coup!

Walk it back, bro! What's hilarious is how Trump's insane policy declarations, delivered from behind his desk in the Oval Office, get the whole world in a tizzy when it's obvious they issue from a man who simply blurts out his id. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/02...

So it ends: “'If you are on the wrong side of the vote, you’re buying yourself a primary' and 'there’s a guy named Elon Musk who is going to finance it.' It’s not party over country. It’s a political career over everything else." www.bostonglobe.com/2025/02/04/o...

You Can't Wait for Determinism to Happen Part 2 of correcting misconceptions about determinism, in which we cover fatalism, rationality, excuses and accountability, novelty, reductionism, and authoritarianism. Be a good determinist! substack.com/home/post/p-...

Here are some reassurances about determinism, wrongly perceived as the antithesis of agency. First of two parts, second in progress... substack.com/home/post/p-...

Pain as a subjective experience will never be observed as making a causal contribution to behavior since experiences are private affairs. So we can't take the behavior of AIs or hermit crabs as necessarily indicating the presence of pain. www.scientificamerican.com/article/coul...

Physicalists in love: Him: "Your molecular structure is really something fine, a first rate example of functional design." - Mose Allison Her: "You can oxy-my-tocin any time!" (anonymous) www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbkB...

Just stating the obvious here... twc3.substack.com/p/why-you-sh...

I've commenced The Good Determinist on Substack to get feedback on pragmatic determinism. First installment: "Opening Gambit: Could You Have Done Otherwise?" Yes and no. open.substack.com/pub/twc3/p/t...

This app is no good for posting extended commentary since it gets chopped up, but on FB I agree with @philipgoff.bsky.social, not Andy Clark and @keithfrankish.bsky.social (see their nice Mind Chat), that PP ala Andy leaves something out about experience. www.facebook.com/naturalism/p...

Consciousness peeps: @metzinger.bsky.social says in Being No One p. 173 that phenomenal content is "an abstract property of the concrete representational state in your brain" but also says it's "invariably experienced as maximally *concrete*." So, is phenomenal content abstract or concrete???

Yeah the illusionists like @keithfrankish.bsky.social following Dennett also claim that resistance to physicalism is driven by a lamentable need to be a special, non-physical being. Attraction to phenomenal realism is a akin to a character flaw since science obviously can't accommodate qualities.

Wow this Friday 4pm US Eastern Judea Pearl will explain how we can design AI that assigns credit and blame! It'll be recorded. www.hsph.harvard.edu/event/the-sc...

@keithfrankish.bsky.social at 52:55: “We may find that even the word "consciousness" is just not doing anything at all for us.” If, per illusionism, we eliminate phenomenality, consciousness as a variable cluster of functions isn't a well-defined phenomenon. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVSe...

I've hit the big time (ha!) with the jazz tune "Swing Point Seven" now on major streaming platforms. My nom-de-stream is Tommy Tallis since there are too many damn Tom Clarks out there. More tunes to come. Btw, if anyone knows the provenance of the image on this promo package please be in touch.

Anyone interested in consciousness must try Being No One! "Therefore, even if wildly sympathizing with dynamicist cognitive science, one can stay a representationalist without turning into a hopelessly old-fashioned person." p. 116 @metzinger.bsky.social

Should we create conscious AI? Seems like we have enough conscious agents deserving of moral regard to deal with as it is. @keithfrankish.bsky.social will argue there's no in-principle bar to creating conscious AI so long as we get the functions right. But should we?? metacoglab.org/consciousnes...

Today's catch... ...of leaves. If you've not tried leaf catching you're in for a kinetic treat. Go downwind of trees shedding leaves and keep your eyes pealed for one that's been released. Track it carefully and see if you can grab it. Not easy! Got four today and touched four that escaped.

Afraid of dying? Here's NotebookLM's very decent audio summary of "Death, nothingness and subjectivity", which updates Epicurus' advisory about death. Churchill's simile of "black velvet" gets a mention... notebooklm.google.com/notebook/464... The paper is at naturalism.org/philosophy/d...

Do we need a new scientific worldview? In this two part review of The Blind Spot: Why Science Cannot Ignore Human Experience, I argue we don't, but the book is a great read on the nature of science, of consciousness, and how the latter might limit the former. naturalism.org/resources/bo...

Here's a little irrational exuberance for you jazz/rock fans out there. No AI was used or harmed in the composition and production of this up-tempo number. Enjoy! audio.com/twc3/audio/s...

Why aren't qualia like unicorns? For one thing, they exist and unicorns don't. That's what phenomenal realists would say at any rate, disagreeing with the illusionists. What say you? @keithfrankish.bsky.social @onemorebrown.bsky.social @gualtiero.bsky.social www.naturalism.org/philosophy/c...

Check out Robert Kuhn's encyclopedic survey of theories of consciousness. Happy to say my "content hypothesis" is included in the section on representationalist theories and "generic subjective continuity" in speculations on death. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

No AI was used or harmed in the composition and realization of this jazz funk tune in MuseScore 4.3.1, enjoy! audio.com/twc3/audio/t...

I've reviewed Thomas Metzinger's encyclopedic analysis of deep meditative states, The Elephant and the Blind: The Experience of Pure Consciousness. It's open access, so do check it out if you're at all interested in consciousness. naturalism.org/resources/bo...

A nice video on generic subjective continuity (GSC) that draws out its implications. Keep in mind that in the thought experiment the radically transformed Alex *dies* but experience continues. No woo involved! www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNGT... The original paper is at naturalism.org/philosophy/d...

Thomas Metzinger's new book on minimal phenomenal consciousness is open access, do not miss this! direct.mit.edu/books/oa-mon...

I've reviewed Robert Sapolsky's new book Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will. What's wrong with determinism? Not much if we get it right. naturalism.org/resources/bo...