A new academic year is close and philosophy of #AI courses tend to treat either the philosophy or the technology as magic. I wrote The Illusion Engine (Springer, 2025) so students get both; a decade of both ML engineering and #philosophy went into it. Contact me for sample copies 🥰 #cogsci

Do birds enjoy flying? Cool new research shows evidence of positive affect associated with flying in galahs (an Australian parrot species) doi.org/10.1163/1568...

There once was a Mary in gray who knew all that physics could say. But her greatest power: found a little red flower, which ruined a physicalist's day #philsky #philosophy (Had to translate my book to my mother tongue. I have 10 days till the deadline, spent 5 days on another limerick #priorities)

Took me ages, but am quite proud of the Introduction to AI for my #cogsci students. If you're in need of inspiration, there's also weekly readings: It's a bit weird having sources from 2026 rather than 1926, takes getting used to 😁 #philosophy #philsky #ai #science #academia

Betwixt these two nations there subsists an animosity so lively, and withal so agreeable to those who indulge it, that reason, being the slave of the passions, is imploy'd in the whole dispute as an advocate, and never once as a judge. --Hume on England vs. Argentina #philosophy #philsky #philtwit

Speaking of explicit≈consciousness, in another paper I haven't read yet, @epiphenomenal.bsky.social apparently does the experiment I often describe of training an LLM on strictly 3rd person language. She said at #aisb2026 #AISB it was the stupidest model ever. www.ingentaconnect.com/content/imp/...

Also works for papers. #ai #science #philosophy

Academic publishing systems: please enter your funding and competing interests into these dedicated fields. Also academic publishing systems, 48 hours later: We have returned your manuscript because this information is not in the manuscript and we have no idea how to get it. #science #academia

Asked Springer for a discount for AISB and they are late, but made it. It's this book or a Frankfurt airport sandwich dilemma right now, the cost is the same and they both might leave a weird taste in your mouth 😁 #science #ai #philosophy #philsjy #philtwit link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Anthropic: we found some interesting vectors that may correlate with something consciousness-adjacent, though they might also just be computational shortcuts. Public: THE SOUL HAS ENTERED LINEAR ALGEBRA #cogsci #consciousness #philosophy #philsky #ai

The Persuaders are back! There will be a new live episode today at 1.00pm EDT, 6.00pm BST. Join @petemandik.bsky.social and me here www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a8n... (NB If want to understand the episode it will help to read this first: petemandik.substack.com/p/can-speake...)

#philosophy #philsky #philtwit #science

Ok, now, my 39th birthday is coming up, but there's no need for insults even from predatory conferences.

I've spent months promising that July would be my quiet season. July has now arrived and would like a word. #science #philosophy

Found another perfect cat at the British Museum. This one is basically ready for avocado toast, Eurovision and punk at the same time.

I had a recent obsession with this movie and I'm not the only one. <3

I am in the British Museum and feel like home due to all the #cats. Also reading #hieroglyphics aloud, so sorry if I accidentally wake sth up.

www.ingentaconnect.com/content/imp/... Kristina Šekrst did the experiment I keep recommending of training LLM entirely on third person. Not only did it never say "I", it was "the worst model ever;" she thinks first person is very useful. N=1 but interesting conjecture. #genAI #Consciousness #AISB

*Fungal Memory and Minimal Cognition* is now in TopiCS (@cogscisociety.bsky.social). Out yesterday. So is Croatia from the World Cup. 😅 Received in 2024, accepted in 2026. Feels only fair, since the paper argues for cognition at fungal speed. cogsci.online/wp-content/u... #cogsci #philosophy

Ron Chrisley stealing the show at AISB again. @keithfrankish.com YOU ARE HERE, see! #philosophy #philsky #philtwit

Amazing panel at AISB. #philsky #philosophy #philtwit #consciousness

@conjh.bsky.social opening the weirdest but coolest AISB session! #philosophy #philsky #philtwit

Amazing Tom Mclelland at #AISB! #philsky #philosophy #philtwit

@johndorsch.bsky.social doing awesome things at AISB! #philsky #philosophy #philtwit

Kicking off day 2 at #AISB with @philipcball.bsky.social Obligatory "everyone misses Keith" tag @keithfrankish.com 🥰

AISB day 1: @anilseth.bsky.social doing standup as always 😁 Tagging @keithfrankish.com since he's jealous so I want to rub it in more. #philosophy #philsky #consciousness #cogsci

Arrived in Brighton for AISB. I have already nearly died twice by looking the wrong way while crossing the road, so I’m calling this a successful field experiment in embodied cognition.

A fantastic new addition to my Elements in Philosophy of Mind series: The Senses by Ann-Sophie Barwich (@smellosopher.bsky.social) offers a new and refreshing take on an old philosophical topic, grounded firmly in modern neuroscience. And it's open access. Enjoy! www.cambridge.org/core/element...

We made a baby. Out soon, 20% discount available (DM me). we're still poor but happy. #science #astronomy #astrobiology #philosophy www.cambridge.org/core/books/a...

#Šibenik, 16th century: while building a palace, someone still found time to carve a water bowl for #dogs and #cats. Amor di cani, literally set in stone.

#Croatia ain't bad sometimes.

I see Kafka also had to do major revisions for Reviewer 2. #philosophy #science

At this pace, it will be read by archaeologists. #philosophy #philsky #philtwit #cogsci #science

Not even mad if they spent my tax money on this. #croatia

It's that time of the year again. youtu.be/LfduUFF_i1A

Bluesky has launched group chats (Horror! Horror!l, because apparently one philosopher misunderstanding another was not scalable enough. #philosophy

Ever since LLMs arrived, the number of independent research papers I get to review has skyrocketed. Mostly independent of institutions, methodology, and the existing literature. #science #philosophy

"Yes, I love old movies, how can you tell?" #philosophy #philsky #philtwit

We need this at conference venues. #philosophy #philtwit #philsky

I still haven't reached the stage of philosophical maturity where I can casually open a PDF during a lecture and not put it in full screen. Being comfortable letting the audience see your 6 tabs and one cursed file named FINAL_final_v2.pdf is the next level. #philosophy #philtwit #philsky

AISB 2026 update: I have TWO talks AND one panel, which is great because I was worried I might accidentally experience the host city. #aisb #philsjy #philtwit #philosophy #consci

I have been inside for so long writing two overdue papers for days, that I had a freakin Mary moment when I finally went outside. #philsky #philtwit #philosophy

Found newspapers in my dad’s shed from the 1969 Moon landing. I wonder if one day someone will find my old tweets and say, "Ah yes, this was humanity’s brave era of fighting strangers about consciousness online." #astronomy #philtwit #science #space

People said fungal memory was weird, so I have decided to become more respectable and study deer antler memory. #philtwit #philsky #philosophy

My paper "Fungal Memory and Minimal Cognition" is available as a preprint, TBP in Topics in Cognitive Science. Since it's an invitation-only issue, I am choosing to believe the fungi summoned me personally 😎 philpapers.org/rec/EKRFMA #cogsci #consci #cognition #fungi #philtwit #philsky #philosophy

"But Wikipedia is not a reliable source of information", said my mother after learning I am cited in about twenty Wikipedia articles. So yeah, how is your day? #philsky #philtwit #philosophy

"from an author whose engineering and philosophical backgrounds put her in a position to see what others have not seen" Okay, WE NEED TO TURN THIS INTO A 6TH SENSE MOVIE 😁 theconsciousness.ai/posts/sekrst... #philtwit #philsky #consciousness #cogsci

Thanks to @jeyantvo.bsky.social for talking with me about the ethics of using AI to communicate with animals, research I did with @marriah.bsky.social and published in Topoi link.springer.com/article/10.1... Fun conversation!

Announcing my new book THE GREAT ATOM DEBATE. Journey back in time and witness an epic struggle between two scientific geniuses over the very nature of reality. History of physics at its most riveting! Now available for preorder: greatatomdebate.com #Science #ScienceBook #Physics #PhysicsBook