Colin Hales
@colinhales.bsky.social
Neuroscientist/Engineer. Researcher at the University of Melbourne. Mission: the creation of inorganic brain technology for machines that learn and handle novelty in the manner of natural intelligence. Main expertise: Brain electromagnetism.
Are the astrocyte "oscillations" a passive reaction to the exogenous dynamic fields incident on a highly charged membrane?
Or are astrocytes endogenously resonating, "subthreshold"?
References please! Haven't come across this before. Fascinating.
Or are astrocytes endogenously resonating, "subthreshold"?
References please! Haven't come across this before. Fascinating.
November 20, 2025 at 7:43 AM
Are the astrocyte "oscillations" a passive reaction to the exogenous dynamic fields incident on a highly charged membrane?
Or are astrocytes endogenously resonating, "subthreshold"?
References please! Haven't come across this before. Fascinating.
Or are astrocytes endogenously resonating, "subthreshold"?
References please! Haven't come across this before. Fascinating.
Thomas Kuhn would have words with that reviewer.....
November 20, 2025 at 7:35 AM
Thomas Kuhn would have words with that reviewer.....
What electromechanical event might usefully elicit orgasm experience in a robot? What would robots lose that humans don't? Interesting.
November 9, 2025 at 8:58 PM
What electromechanical event might usefully elicit orgasm experience in a robot? What would robots lose that humans don't? Interesting.
An agent X that lacks a 1st person perspective would not notice its own death. Life and death are indistinguishable for X.
Novelty would also be cast entirely in terms of what is already known. In our 1PP, 1PP-less X would appear to handle novelty inexplicably & vulnerably.
That's why 1PP evolved.
Novelty would also be cast entirely in terms of what is already known. In our 1PP, 1PP-less X would appear to handle novelty inexplicably & vulnerably.
That's why 1PP evolved.
October 29, 2025 at 3:40 AM
An agent X that lacks a 1st person perspective would not notice its own death. Life and death are indistinguishable for X.
Novelty would also be cast entirely in terms of what is already known. In our 1PP, 1PP-less X would appear to handle novelty inexplicably & vulnerably.
That's why 1PP evolved.
Novelty would also be cast entirely in terms of what is already known. In our 1PP, 1PP-less X would appear to handle novelty inexplicably & vulnerably.
That's why 1PP evolved.
The 75 years of "head for AGI, bandwagon boom, bubble bust into useful narrow-AI" must end.
When real AGI turns up it will be very different. Embodied/robotic only. Start _small_. It will quickly become autonomous. Coached not programmed.
Ignored for 75 years. Maybe it can finally start! 🤞🤞🤞🤞
When real AGI turns up it will be very different. Embodied/robotic only. Start _small_. It will quickly become autonomous. Coached not programmed.
Ignored for 75 years. Maybe it can finally start! 🤞🤞🤞🤞
October 28, 2025 at 12:07 AM
The 75 years of "head for AGI, bandwagon boom, bubble bust into useful narrow-AI" must end.
When real AGI turns up it will be very different. Embodied/robotic only. Start _small_. It will quickly become autonomous. Coached not programmed.
Ignored for 75 years. Maybe it can finally start! 🤞🤞🤞🤞
When real AGI turns up it will be very different. Embodied/robotic only. Start _small_. It will quickly become autonomous. Coached not programmed.
Ignored for 75 years. Maybe it can finally start! 🤞🤞🤞🤞
Inorganic artificial kidneys retain the essential physics of filtration.
Etc
Artificial versions of natural X retains the essential physics of X.
Organoids retain the essential physics of brains.
Computers throw all the essential brain physics away.
The implications are obvious.
Etc
Artificial versions of natural X retains the essential physics of X.
Organoids retain the essential physics of brains.
Computers throw all the essential brain physics away.
The implications are obvious.
October 22, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Inorganic artificial kidneys retain the essential physics of filtration.
Etc
Artificial versions of natural X retains the essential physics of X.
Organoids retain the essential physics of brains.
Computers throw all the essential brain physics away.
The implications are obvious.
Etc
Artificial versions of natural X retains the essential physics of X.
Organoids retain the essential physics of brains.
Computers throw all the essential brain physics away.
The implications are obvious.
... And here's the computed LFP waveform of a 2D slice through the 3D electric field produced by the axon hillock action pot'l of a pyramidal cell. It's kind of a lighthouse beam in 3D.
It's rotating dipoles all the way down to single cells.
50000 of these in a mm^3, recurrent, & voila! Waves.
It's rotating dipoles all the way down to single cells.
50000 of these in a mm^3, recurrent, & voila! Waves.
October 21, 2025 at 12:35 AM
... And here's the computed LFP waveform of a 2D slice through the 3D electric field produced by the axon hillock action pot'l of a pyramidal cell. It's kind of a lighthouse beam in 3D.
It's rotating dipoles all the way down to single cells.
50000 of these in a mm^3, recurrent, & voila! Waves.
It's rotating dipoles all the way down to single cells.
50000 of these in a mm^3, recurrent, & voila! Waves.
It could easily be the local EM field environment that happens to guide transport and orientation of charges or charge moieties _sometimes_ in alternate directions.
EM fields are also quantum mechanics.
😊
EM fields are also quantum mechanics.
😊
October 17, 2025 at 12:18 AM
It could easily be the local EM field environment that happens to guide transport and orientation of charges or charge moieties _sometimes_ in alternate directions.
EM fields are also quantum mechanics.
😊
EM fields are also quantum mechanics.
😊
And wouldn't it be helpful to have 1000 robot firefighter robots that could handle natural novelty like us?
And a thousand other niche robots that can tackle thorny issues with the same alacrity.
None of which will ever happen without real AGI processing.
Been watching the "AI" mess for too long.
And a thousand other niche robots that can tackle thorny issues with the same alacrity.
None of which will ever happen without real AGI processing.
Been watching the "AI" mess for too long.
September 20, 2025 at 9:41 PM
And wouldn't it be helpful to have 1000 robot firefighter robots that could handle natural novelty like us?
And a thousand other niche robots that can tackle thorny issues with the same alacrity.
None of which will ever happen without real AGI processing.
Been watching the "AI" mess for too long.
And a thousand other niche robots that can tackle thorny issues with the same alacrity.
None of which will ever happen without real AGI processing.
Been watching the "AI" mess for too long.
I registered. Why was no zoom link sent?
September 19, 2025 at 11:35 PM
I registered. Why was no zoom link sent?
What happened to the zoom link? I was hoping to attend. I received no advice of the link ...
September 19, 2025 at 11:34 PM
What happened to the zoom link? I was hoping to attend. I received no advice of the link ...
Please sign me up to present based on Hales & Ericson 2023.
September 18, 2025 at 9:07 PM
Please sign me up to present based on Hales & Ericson 2023.
I don't remember a nano standing out. Bio or inorganic. I remember thinking his stance was more a reflection of his own internal darkness, which I imagined was in equilibrium with his inability to play the traditional academic game. The people in and around EXI gave rise to crypto currency. Complex.
September 15, 2025 at 9:01 PM
I don't remember a nano standing out. Bio or inorganic. I remember thinking his stance was more a reflection of his own internal darkness, which I imagined was in equilibrium with his inability to play the traditional academic game. The people in and around EXI gave rise to crypto currency. Complex.
I met Eli during the heady days of the extropian email forum in the early 2000s. I was around when he had the "build it and everyone dies" psychological break that confined him to making a living through the AGI risk shell game.
I'm more of a "we'll all die if we don't build _real_ AGI" guy.
I'm more of a "we'll all die if we don't build _real_ AGI" guy.
September 15, 2025 at 12:31 AM
I met Eli during the heady days of the extropian email forum in the early 2000s. I was around when he had the "build it and everyone dies" psychological break that confined him to making a living through the AGI risk shell game.
I'm more of a "we'll all die if we don't build _real_ AGI" guy.
I'm more of a "we'll all die if we don't build _real_ AGI" guy.
= Reasoning about things that apparently exist according to the evidence science demands pass through a scientist's mind (on pain of rejection for lack of evidence), and thereby masking the things that actually exist, and that create a mind that makes things "apparent", invisible?
September 12, 2025 at 2:40 AM
= Reasoning about things that apparently exist according to the evidence science demands pass through a scientist's mind (on pain of rejection for lack of evidence), and thereby masking the things that actually exist, and that create a mind that makes things "apparent", invisible?
In 2023 we did a thorough analysis of the origins of causality in excitable cell tissue: it's EM field superposing vectorially in space from the immediate interior of atoms to whole-tissue level. The standard model of particle physics proves it.
Source: Frontiers share.google/kz0jy2WXoxIH...
Source: Frontiers share.google/kz0jy2WXoxIH...
Frontiers | Electromagnetism’s Bridge Across the Explanatory Gap: How a Neuroscience/Physics Collaboration Delivers Explanation Into All Theories of Consciousness
A productive, informative three decades of correlates of phenomenal consciousness (P-Consciousness) have delivered valuable knowledge while simultaneously lo...
share.google
September 11, 2025 at 11:20 PM
In 2023 we did a thorough analysis of the origins of causality in excitable cell tissue: it's EM field superposing vectorially in space from the immediate interior of atoms to whole-tissue level. The standard model of particle physics proves it.
Source: Frontiers share.google/kz0jy2WXoxIH...
Source: Frontiers share.google/kz0jy2WXoxIH...
Sound transmission is formally an EM field phenomenon, bosonic, part of the electromagnetic quadrant of the standard model of particle physics.
Music as "brain-to-brain" ephaptic coupling? ... Is not as far from scientific sanity as one might initially think! 😊
Music as "brain-to-brain" ephaptic coupling? ... Is not as far from scientific sanity as one might initially think! 😊
August 30, 2025 at 5:31 AM
Sound transmission is formally an EM field phenomenon, bosonic, part of the electromagnetic quadrant of the standard model of particle physics.
Music as "brain-to-brain" ephaptic coupling? ... Is not as far from scientific sanity as one might initially think! 😊
Music as "brain-to-brain" ephaptic coupling? ... Is not as far from scientific sanity as one might initially think! 😊
Imagine a specially engineered rock that has the physics of a subjective visual scene imposed within it via a video camera. To "be" the rock is to 1PP experience that visual scene. But no behaviour/agency.
Now imagine a 1PP-less robot zombie with behaviours.
Is "Agency" the word adding anything?
Now imagine a 1PP-less robot zombie with behaviours.
Is "Agency" the word adding anything?
August 23, 2025 at 4:59 AM
Imagine a specially engineered rock that has the physics of a subjective visual scene imposed within it via a video camera. To "be" the rock is to 1PP experience that visual scene. But no behaviour/agency.
Now imagine a 1PP-less robot zombie with behaviours.
Is "Agency" the word adding anything?
Now imagine a 1PP-less robot zombie with behaviours.
Is "Agency" the word adding anything?
You have missed the scientific sense of natural vs "artificial nature", as contrasted with "made by humans".
See the depiction of normal science. The 70+ year lack of genuine REPLICANT science is the real problem. The missing artificial brain "tissue" is not a computer and is not an abstract model.
See the depiction of normal science. The 70+ year lack of genuine REPLICANT science is the real problem. The missing artificial brain "tissue" is not a computer and is not an abstract model.
August 23, 2025 at 12:30 AM
You have missed the scientific sense of natural vs "artificial nature", as contrasted with "made by humans".
See the depiction of normal science. The 70+ year lack of genuine REPLICANT science is the real problem. The missing artificial brain "tissue" is not a computer and is not an abstract model.
See the depiction of normal science. The 70+ year lack of genuine REPLICANT science is the real problem. The missing artificial brain "tissue" is not a computer and is not an abstract model.
Non-stop for >70 years, in a perfect string of fails, an AGI is proposed, is wheeled out, scrutinized after early signs ... And then off down the slope of the valley of disappointment it goes.
When will the science stop and examine its fundamental presuppositions? It looks like a cargo cult.
When will the science stop and examine its fundamental presuppositions? It looks like a cargo cult.
August 16, 2025 at 1:42 AM
Non-stop for >70 years, in a perfect string of fails, an AGI is proposed, is wheeled out, scrutinized after early signs ... And then off down the slope of the valley of disappointment it goes.
When will the science stop and examine its fundamental presuppositions? It looks like a cargo cult.
When will the science stop and examine its fundamental presuppositions? It looks like a cargo cult.