Sara Imari Walker
@saraimari.bsky.social
Professor @ASU @sfiscience
Pinned
Sara Imari Walker
@saraimari.bsky.social
· May 26
I'm so happy to share that my debut book, LIFE AS NO ONE KNOWS IT, comes out August 6th, 2024 from @riverheadbooks! Read more about it here: bit.ly/3QN0Nop
Science is a cultural institution that allows our species to directly confront our epistemological limits. It’s easy to think the criticism & controversy in science is the eclipsing battle but the only battle that really matters is the one at the boundary of what we know
December 19, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Science is a cultural institution that allows our species to directly confront our epistemological limits. It’s easy to think the criticism & controversy in science is the eclipsing battle but the only battle that really matters is the one at the boundary of what we know
Spontaneous, infinite physics leaves life without definition or meaning. Finite, recursive physics makes life definable.
December 17, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Spontaneous, infinite physics leaves life without definition or meaning. Finite, recursive physics makes life definable.
Reposted by Sara Imari Walker
Food for thought in this piece by @saraimari.bsky.social on how AI will affect science. Warning: contains philosophy!
www.noemamag.com/the-death-of...
www.noemamag.com/the-death-of...
The Death Of The Scientist | NOEMA
Will AI kill science, or will it foster a scientific revolution? The answer depends on something no one knows: What is science?
www.noemamag.com
December 16, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Food for thought in this piece by @saraimari.bsky.social on how AI will affect science. Warning: contains philosophy!
www.noemamag.com/the-death-of...
www.noemamag.com/the-death-of...
Reposted by Sara Imari Walker
In a universe where everything exists, nothing is possible
December 15, 2025 at 11:17 PM
In a universe where everything exists, nothing is possible
In a universe where everything exists, nothing is possible
December 15, 2025 at 11:17 PM
In a universe where everything exists, nothing is possible
We have no idea what alien intelligences are like (or if they even exist at all). What little we know about what is “alien” or “intelligent” is put in stark relief if AI is truly the most exotic ‘intelligences’ we can imagine, when these are a mirror of the human niche
December 14, 2025 at 5:58 PM
We have no idea what alien intelligences are like (or if they even exist at all). What little we know about what is “alien” or “intelligent” is put in stark relief if AI is truly the most exotic ‘intelligences’ we can imagine, when these are a mirror of the human niche
"creativity" emerges in wake of deep distress felt when one's experience of reality is not our consensus - what remains is no other choice but to disrupt the consensus
December 13, 2025 at 6:12 PM
"creativity" emerges in wake of deep distress felt when one's experience of reality is not our consensus - what remains is no other choice but to disrupt the consensus
"The death of the scientist is the loss of the inner world that creates an idea, but this is also when the idea can become shared, and the inner world of the societal system of debate and controversy comes alive" www.noemamag.com/the-death-of...
The Death Of The Scientist | NOEMA
Will AI kill science, or will it foster a scientific revolution? The answer depends on something no one knows: What is science?
www.noemamag.com
December 11, 2025 at 6:54 PM
"The death of the scientist is the loss of the inner world that creates an idea, but this is also when the idea can become shared, and the inner world of the societal system of debate and controversy comes alive" www.noemamag.com/the-death-of...
Reposted by Sara Imari Walker
“If we misunderstand what science is, mistaking automation of method for the human project of collectively constructing, debating & refining the symbolic representations through which we make sense of reality, AI may foretell the death of science.”
— @saraimari.bsky.social
#science #ai
— @saraimari.bsky.social
#science #ai
The Death Of The Scientist | NOEMA
Will AI kill science, or will it foster a scientific revolution? The answer depends on something no one knows: What is science?
www.noemamag.com
December 11, 2025 at 6:03 PM
“If we misunderstand what science is, mistaking automation of method for the human project of collectively constructing, debating & refining the symbolic representations through which we make sense of reality, AI may foretell the death of science.”
— @saraimari.bsky.social
#science #ai
— @saraimari.bsky.social
#science #ai
Language remains the most profound technology we humans ever developed because its implication is that our mind is shared
December 6, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Language remains the most profound technology we humans ever developed because its implication is that our mind is shared
Reposted by Sara Imari Walker
Last week's dialogue with @saraimari.bsky.social is online.
November 24, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Last week's dialogue with @saraimari.bsky.social is online.
Reposted by Sara Imari Walker
On ontological anarchy in assembly theory … really enjoyed the deconstruction of both reductionism and emergence in this piece by Michael Ardoline. I will happily take ontological anarchy over reductionism or emergence any day www.pdcnet.org/pdc/bvdb.nsf...
Life Against Smallism: Iterability, Assembly Theory, and the Origin of Ideality - published on September 24, 2025
That the order of explanation tracks the relative scale of objects involved and that the smaller objects must explain the larger is a common, often unchallenged assumption in the metaphysics of scienc...
www.pdcnet.org
November 22, 2025 at 7:09 PM
On ontological anarchy in assembly theory … really enjoyed the deconstruction of both reductionism and emergence in this piece by Michael Ardoline. I will happily take ontological anarchy over reductionism or emergence any day www.pdcnet.org/pdc/bvdb.nsf...
Reposted by Sara Imari Walker
Thoughts on thought experiments … youtu.be/h52qWMncEUE?...
Sara Imari Walker: Astrobiology, Aliens, and the Origin of Life
YouTube video by Robinson Erhardt
youtu.be
November 23, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Thoughts on thought experiments … youtu.be/h52qWMncEUE?...
Thoughts on thought experiments … youtu.be/h52qWMncEUE?...
Sara Imari Walker: Astrobiology, Aliens, and the Origin of Life
YouTube video by Robinson Erhardt
youtu.be
November 23, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Thoughts on thought experiments … youtu.be/h52qWMncEUE?...
On ontological anarchy in assembly theory … really enjoyed the deconstruction of both reductionism and emergence in this piece by Michael Ardoline. I will happily take ontological anarchy over reductionism or emergence any day www.pdcnet.org/pdc/bvdb.nsf...
Life Against Smallism: Iterability, Assembly Theory, and the Origin of Ideality - published on September 24, 2025
That the order of explanation tracks the relative scale of objects involved and that the smaller objects must explain the larger is a common, often unchallenged assumption in the metaphysics of scienc...
www.pdcnet.org
November 22, 2025 at 7:09 PM
On ontological anarchy in assembly theory … really enjoyed the deconstruction of both reductionism and emergence in this piece by Michael Ardoline. I will happily take ontological anarchy over reductionism or emergence any day www.pdcnet.org/pdc/bvdb.nsf...
Reposted by Sara Imari Walker
This year's issue includes:
- Essays from @blaiseaguera.bsky.social, @kalladomcdowell.bsky.social, Benjamin Bratton, and @saraimari.bsky.social consider how to define and differentiate intelligence, computation, and identity in the face of synthetic minds.
- Essays from @blaiseaguera.bsky.social, @kalladomcdowell.bsky.social, Benjamin Bratton, and @saraimari.bsky.social consider how to define and differentiate intelligence, computation, and identity in the face of synthetic minds.
November 19, 2025 at 7:07 PM
This year's issue includes:
- Essays from @blaiseaguera.bsky.social, @kalladomcdowell.bsky.social, Benjamin Bratton, and @saraimari.bsky.social consider how to define and differentiate intelligence, computation, and identity in the face of synthetic minds.
- Essays from @blaiseaguera.bsky.social, @kalladomcdowell.bsky.social, Benjamin Bratton, and @saraimari.bsky.social consider how to define and differentiate intelligence, computation, and identity in the face of synthetic minds.
Reposted by Sara Imari Walker
"Information and the Emergence of Complexity"
I'm looking forward to an IAIS dialogue with @saraimari.bsky.social, moderated by Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic.
Wednesday, November 19th, 2025 17:30 (CET) | 11:30 AM (EST)
meet.google.com/gqm-frcd-apg...
More info: sites.google.com/view/iais-in...
I'm looking forward to an IAIS dialogue with @saraimari.bsky.social, moderated by Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic.
Wednesday, November 19th, 2025 17:30 (CET) | 11:30 AM (EST)
meet.google.com/gqm-frcd-apg...
More info: sites.google.com/view/iais-in...
Meet
Real-time meetings by Google. Using your browser, share your video, desktop, and presentations with teammates and customers.
meet.google.com
November 14, 2025 at 6:17 PM
"Information and the Emergence of Complexity"
I'm looking forward to an IAIS dialogue with @saraimari.bsky.social, moderated by Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic.
Wednesday, November 19th, 2025 17:30 (CET) | 11:30 AM (EST)
meet.google.com/gqm-frcd-apg...
More info: sites.google.com/view/iais-in...
I'm looking forward to an IAIS dialogue with @saraimari.bsky.social, moderated by Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic.
Wednesday, November 19th, 2025 17:30 (CET) | 11:30 AM (EST)
meet.google.com/gqm-frcd-apg...
More info: sites.google.com/view/iais-in...
As a species we see reality through mental models, the deepest rooted is the socially constructed one we feel like we live inside which we call our own “mind”. Seeing ourselves outside of the models we currently live inside will be one of the greatest challenges for science in the coming centuries
November 7, 2025 at 9:19 PM
As a species we see reality through mental models, the deepest rooted is the socially constructed one we feel like we live inside which we call our own “mind”. Seeing ourselves outside of the models we currently live inside will be one of the greatest challenges for science in the coming centuries
If you are too confident in your representational maps of reality you will miss seeing reality
November 6, 2025 at 6:52 PM
If you are too confident in your representational maps of reality you will miss seeing reality
What we communicate are models of the world, not the world.
October 31, 2025 at 4:04 PM
What we communicate are models of the world, not the world.
The platonic world does not exist “out there”, it’s a projection inside your mind when you must construct internal representations that are devoid of the history and causal contingency in the objects of your experience
October 30, 2025 at 2:50 PM
The platonic world does not exist “out there”, it’s a projection inside your mind when you must construct internal representations that are devoid of the history and causal contingency in the objects of your experience
Mathematics without ontological commitment is not a theory of reality, it’s an interpretation, which is how we landed on the current landscape of descriptions in quantum mechanics, none of which are satisfactory
October 30, 2025 at 3:10 AM
Mathematics without ontological commitment is not a theory of reality, it’s an interpretation, which is how we landed on the current landscape of descriptions in quantum mechanics, none of which are satisfactory
Contrary to science fiction an infinite number of copies of you do not exist, you only exist here and now, and the closest things to copies of you are the other humans inhabiting this same rock at this same time.
October 16, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Contrary to science fiction an infinite number of copies of you do not exist, you only exist here and now, and the closest things to copies of you are the other humans inhabiting this same rock at this same time.
Asking about alien lineages of life requires deconstructing four billion years of evolution and attempting to look into a space of possibilities we’ve never seen in our entire history
October 16, 2025 at 3:36 AM
Asking about alien lineages of life requires deconstructing four billion years of evolution and attempting to look into a space of possibilities we’ve never seen in our entire history
Reposted by Sara Imari Walker
“You only exist here. And you exist here because four billion years was necessary to construct you on this planet.”
- @saraimari.bsky.social
- @saraimari.bsky.social
October 8, 2025 at 9:43 PM
“You only exist here. And you exist here because four billion years was necessary to construct you on this planet.”
- @saraimari.bsky.social
- @saraimari.bsky.social