On November 26th and 27th, I will speak at a Workshop on Minimal Cognition at the University of Valencia. I will give a talk on "The role of uncertainty in debates about cognition" Follow the link for more details:

I will be speaking at TU Berlin's "Relating explanatory paradigms in cognitive neuroscience" this February:

My article "When Engrams Become Exograms: Organic Data Memory and Biological Memory Extension" is now available open access from Review of Philosophy and Psychology. This is part of a special issue on "Memory and Technology: 4E Perspectives"

In Hannover for my talk on conceptual conflict

Assessing cases of cell cognition continues to be a part of my work, and I will likely incorporate this one into talk I will give at a workshop in a month (details to come shortly). In the meantime, check out this article:

What does it mean that memory is epistemically blurry? Today at the Memory Palace, Uljana Feest discusses this important question and gives us a preview of her book "Operationism in Psychology. An Epistemology of Exploration". open.substack.com/pub/thememor...

On November 11th, I will be a speaker in TUM's Frontier in Philosophy Colloquium, talking more on Conceptual Conflict. Check out this link for details on attendance:

I am collecting articles that needle conventions about heredity (it ties to my work on memory). "Paternal exercise confers endurance capacity to offspring through sperm microRNAs," is an example, about which I have things to say. Any thoughts? www.cell.com/cell-metabol...

This October, I will be a speaker in the Colloquium Philosophie und Wissenschaftsreflexion at Leibniz University Hannover. I will talk on "Generative conceptual conflict in science" Follow the link for details:

This article serves as another reminder that debating how we define cognitive kind terms is pretty darn critical for gaining purchase on a lot of other debates in cog sci, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence:

Another piece by the Quanta author (below), who apparently was/is also a member of YACHT, on memory transfer and the worms. This is the science that I detail and analyze in my book project.

Recent article on memory in unconventional systems:

Couldn't make it to ISH this year; it should be good. If anyone wants info on interesting fashion brands coming out of Porto right now, let me know

This year's BSPS at the University of Glasgow was grand. I had a wonderful time with Jordan Theriault; @davidcolaco.bsky.social‬; ‪@phaueis.bsky.social‬; and Patrick McGivern at our symposium (serious Phil of sci pic). @martahalina.bsky.social‬ was missed by all. Up next - the ISH in Porto.

Had a great session on the relation between metabolism and cognition at BSPS Glasgow, organized by @davidcolaco.bsky.social . We presented joint work on using metabolism to constrain and generate cognitive models (1/2)

Brenda Milner still with us

Job Opening at the Chair of Philosophy and History of Science and Technology at TUM! Research Fellow for 3 years (renewable). Preferably philosopher w interest in plant, crop & agricultural research (& their history and social studies) All details: www.sts.sot.tum.de/en/sts/arbei... #philsci #sts

Tomorrow, we will have a symposium on "The Cognitive Importance of “Non-cognitive” Processes: Reconsidering the connection between metabolism and cognition" at the BSPS. Join us and talk about metabolism.

It's a good book. You should read it.

Postdoc opportunity w/ @rachelankeny.bsky.social & philosophy group at Wageningen University on topics such as philosophy of science & technology, philosophy of biology, agricultural & food ethics, human-animal relations for 2026-27. For full consideration, application draft by 30 August #philsci

@phaueis.bsky.social teaching some of my work in his course:

If you will be at GWP this Wednesday, come to my talk on the history and philosophy of neural networks. I will talk about a historical case of AI "hype" and correct pernicious inaccuracies about Frank Rosenblatt (perceptron) that are still repeated in popular press and academic works to this day.

🔥JOB: Come and work with us! The @ERC_Research MODEL TRANSFER team is expanding again: we look for a 2y postdoc with interest and skills in Digital Humanities, Digital/Computational philosophy of science; deadline: Apr 10. Contact me with any questions and share www.uni-hannover.de/en/jobs/id/7...

If you are planning on going to BSPS 2025, consider coming to the symposium that I am organizing on:"The Cognitive Importance of “Non-cognitive” Processes: Reconsidering the connection between metabolism and cognition” I will post more details as we get closer to the conference.

My new article "On Consistently Assessing Alleged Mnemonic Systems (or, why isn’t Immune Memory “really” Memory?)" is now out (open access): link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Can someone recommend a concise history of the discovery of RNA? I have one for mRNA, but I would like a single source that timelines tRNA, non-coding RNA, miRNA, etc.

The Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences (GSN) at LMU Munich invites applications for several PhD scholarships in Neurophilosophy. The application round for 2024/25 is now open and will close on 17 February 2025 (12:00 noon CET).

Consider submitting a paper to "Memory and Technology: 4E Perspectives" I am an invited contributor and will address whether biological data storage could allow us to store our memories in other organisms (becoming a techno-lich, if you will) Deadline is April 30th

Going back through my book chapter on sensational scientific claims. Here is a choice quote from McConnell (the cannibal memory person), published in Esquire:

I will be presenting my new work on the history and philosophy of AI, titled "Appraising AI Forerunners: The Legacy of Frank Rosenblatt," at GWP.2025. Reach out to me if you will attend.

My paper, " On consistently assessing alleged mnemonic systems (Or, why isn’t immune memory “really” memory?)," has been accepted for publication in The Review of Philosophy and Psychology. Here is the abstract:

For scholars who get popular press buzz that comes across to the scholar as a misrepresentation of their work, I petition that you start posting this image with no additional explanation:

Here is an interestingly titled popular press article for you for January:

In hindsight, was asking a bunch of memory scholars if they were familiar with the Bollywood version of Memento a thing: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghajini...

Guess what year this popular press article is from:

😎 SPAN2025 Keynotes, invited symposia speakers, and sponsored symposia just dropped! Take a look at who will be at SPAN2025 and then submit your abstract so you can be there too! More invited speakers will be announced soon. Visit our website for all the details: philandneuro.com

What are your weird positive experiences with flatmates A year ago, I had a german zoomer metalhead flatmate who loved slipknot. I feel an odd sort of paternalism about that relationship. We would play each other music: he was confused when I said I wasn't big on metal then played this:

May you find many interestingly titled popular press articles this holiday season www.psypost.org/study-finds-...

My new book, Slime Mould and Philosophy, is now available — and for the next month, you can download it for FREE here: doi.org/10.1017/9781... Thanks to everyone who made this book come to life and shared the rather intense journey with me. Enjoy!

If your work explores the connections between memory, emotion and forgiveness, and if it does so from a philosophical and/or psychological perspective, please consider submitting a manuscript to this special issue: link.springer.com/collections/... #philosophy #psychology #emotion #forgiveness

We will feature this article in the January session of the International Memory Reading Group:

#LeibnizPreis: Die DFG @dfgpublic.bsky.social hat die PreisträgerInnen für 2025 bekanntgegeben – darunter vier Leopoldina-Mitglieder: @volkerhaucke-lab.bsky.social, Hannes Leitgeb, @danielrueckert.bsky.social und Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla. Herzlichen Glückwunsch! www.leopoldina.org/presse-1/nac...

@jonathannajenson.bsky.social and I will discuss @thehessam.bsky.social's work in the next session of our International Memory Reading Group

This very helpful paper on molecular and synaptic models of memory by ‪@davidcolaco.bsky.social‬ has finally been published. Highly recommended.

A great feature about our research by @scinews.bsky.social. Had a bit of a philosophical debate with the editors: initially “memory” was in quotation marks, and the first sentence conditionalized it as “metaphorical”. But I stood my ground. There’s no sense in which “brain memory” is more “real”!

TL;DR: This is a request for historical pieces where the idea of a memory trace is implicated.

12 ✨paid✨ PhD positions in environmental humanities - co/organised by Uni Augsburg and LMU. I’m also an affiliate there - check out the call: rethinking-environment-idk.de

Our article "Where memory resides: Is there a rivalry between molecular and synaptic models of memory?" is now properly published and out (open access).

Drawing on the recent study of non-neuronal memory (see post below), I note a passage from one chapter of my book project, in which I discuss research on memory transfer via heart transplants (research that I suspect will be brought up again in light of this study):

Attempts at demonstrating memory in non-neuronal cells. "Our findings show that canonical features of memory do not necessarily depend on neural circuitry, but can be embedded in the dynamics of signaling cascades conserved across different cell types." (sent to me by @kathleencreel.bsky.social)