science
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“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. Interestingly, I can take two conscious agents and have them interact, and the mathematical structure of that interaction also satisfies the definition of a conscious…
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Correcting the Eurocentric History of Mathematics: A Series of Diagrams
In his book The Crest of the Peacock, George Ghevarghese Joseph documents how the popular picture of the mystical, irrational Orient and the logical, rational Occident breaks down when you actually look at the history of the spread of mathematical ideas. He starts with the tired old “Greeks Did Everything First” narrative, and then gradually builds…
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What do we mean by “Nature”? And what do we mean by “Human Nature”?
Here’s the intro to my latest 3QD essay: I’ve always had a problem with the word ‘nature’. It seems to serve as a label for multiple, mutually inconsistent notions. This in itself is not a reason to dislike a word — we seem to have little problem with most words that have multiple meanings. (Surely…