Is the mind a machine?
My latest 3QD essay explores the “mind as machine” metaphor, and metaphors in general. Putting the "cog" in "cognitive": on the "mind as machine" metaphor Here’s an excerpt: People who…
“Conscious realism”: a new way to think about reality (or the lack thereof?)
Interesting interview in the Atlantic with cognitive scientist Donald D. Hoffman: The Case Against Reality "I call it conscious realism: Objective reality is just conscious agents, just points of view.…
Perception is a creative act: On the connection between creativity and pattern recognition
An answer I wrote to the Quora question Does the human brain work solely by pattern recognition?: Great question! Broadly speaking, the brain does two things: it processes 'inputs' from…
The holy grail of computational neuroscience: Invariance
There are quite a few problems that computational neuroscientists need to solve in order to achieve a true theoretical understanding of biological intelligence. But I'd like to talk about one…
From Cell Membranes to Computational Aesthetics: On the Importance of Boundaries in Life and Art
My next 3QD column is out. I speculate about the role of boundaries in life and aesthetic experience. (Dopamine cells make a cameo appearance too.) This image is a taster:…