Jannis Friedrich
@jannisfriedrich.bsky.social
cognition, self-organization, philosophy of mind
Pinned
Our newest pre-print: how does predictive processing account for higher level cognition?
What can grounded cognition help?
And how does this fit into life mind continuity?
⬇️ Abstract
osf.io/preprints/os...
What can grounded cognition help?
And how does this fit into life mind continuity?
⬇️ Abstract
osf.io/preprints/os...
Reposted by Jannis Friedrich
The first major output of the @templetonworld.bsky.social @arc-intrepid.bsky.social adversarial collaboration testing IIT & predictive processing theories of consciousness is out now
arxiv.org/abs/2509.00555
arxiv.org/abs/2509.00555
Integrated information and predictive processing theories of consciousness: An adversarial collaborative review
As neuroscientific theories of consciousness continue to proliferate, the need to assess their similarities and differences -- as well as their predictive and explanatory power -- becomes ever more pr...
arxiv.org
September 3, 2025 at 7:00 AM
The first major output of the @templetonworld.bsky.social @arc-intrepid.bsky.social adversarial collaboration testing IIT & predictive processing theories of consciousness is out now
arxiv.org/abs/2509.00555
arxiv.org/abs/2509.00555
I successfully defended my PhD yesterday!
Big thank you to a great commission and especially my supervisors 🤝🏻👨🎓
Unbelievably happy I get to do this job
Big thank you to a great commission and especially my supervisors 🤝🏻👨🎓
Unbelievably happy I get to do this job
September 6, 2025 at 4:31 PM
I successfully defended my PhD yesterday!
Big thank you to a great commission and especially my supervisors 🤝🏻👨🎓
Unbelievably happy I get to do this job
Big thank you to a great commission and especially my supervisors 🤝🏻👨🎓
Unbelievably happy I get to do this job
Reposted by Jannis Friedrich
Only 2.5% of animal biomass is human.
Still, that fraction is reshaping the fate of the whole 🌍.
Still, that fraction is reshaping the fate of the whole 🌍.
August 19, 2025 at 8:43 AM
Only 2.5% of animal biomass is human.
Still, that fraction is reshaping the fate of the whole 🌍.
Still, that fraction is reshaping the fate of the whole 🌍.
Reposted by Jannis Friedrich
Paper in Nature 150 years ago. Beats reading any single-cell experiment…
July 17, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Paper in Nature 150 years ago. Beats reading any single-cell experiment…
Reposted by Jannis Friedrich
My latest post - A tale of a thousand models
It implies that robust intelligence does not require more accurate representations, but more diverse ways of being coupled to the world.
harishsnotebook.wordpress.com/2025/07/11/a...
It implies that robust intelligence does not require more accurate representations, but more diverse ways of being coupled to the world.
harishsnotebook.wordpress.com/2025/07/11/a...
A Tale of a Thousand Models:
In today’s post, I am further exploring the notion of models and mental models. We often speak of mental models as though they are neat packages of knowledge stored somewhere in the mind. These mod…
harishsnotebook.wordpress.com
July 12, 2025 at 3:31 PM
My latest post - A tale of a thousand models
It implies that robust intelligence does not require more accurate representations, but more diverse ways of being coupled to the world.
harishsnotebook.wordpress.com/2025/07/11/a...
It implies that robust intelligence does not require more accurate representations, but more diverse ways of being coupled to the world.
harishsnotebook.wordpress.com/2025/07/11/a...
Reposted by Jannis Friedrich
Thinking about writing a pop science book about the brain (“Your Brain on Everything”) where the big reveal is that all the brain names were randomized and I was actually talking about psychology the whole time.
July 13, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Thinking about writing a pop science book about the brain (“Your Brain on Everything”) where the big reveal is that all the brain names were randomized and I was actually talking about psychology the whole time.
Reposted by Jannis Friedrich
The "reproducibility crisis" in science constantly makes headlines. Repro efforts are often limited. What if you could assess reproducibility of an entire field?
That's what @brunolemaitre.bsky.social et al. have done. Fly immunity is highly replicable & offers lessons for #metascience
A 🧵 1/n
That's what @brunolemaitre.bsky.social et al. have done. Fly immunity is highly replicable & offers lessons for #metascience
A 🧵 1/n
July 10, 2025 at 8:23 AM
The "reproducibility crisis" in science constantly makes headlines. Repro efforts are often limited. What if you could assess reproducibility of an entire field?
That's what @brunolemaitre.bsky.social et al. have done. Fly immunity is highly replicable & offers lessons for #metascience
A 🧵 1/n
That's what @brunolemaitre.bsky.social et al. have done. Fly immunity is highly replicable & offers lessons for #metascience
A 🧵 1/n
Reposted by Jannis Friedrich
Archerfish make lightning-fast decisions to catch prey, but their aim isn’t hardwired. They can adapt to new physics and generalise rules across contexts, all in under 100 ms.
buff.ly/hFpSKDb
buff.ly/hFpSKDb
July 5, 2025 at 10:44 PM
Archerfish make lightning-fast decisions to catch prey, but their aim isn’t hardwired. They can adapt to new physics and generalise rules across contexts, all in under 100 ms.
buff.ly/hFpSKDb
buff.ly/hFpSKDb
Reposted by Jannis Friedrich
I've been building a model of how intrusive thoughts can warp cognitive maps (world model) in PTSD & derail goal-directed behavior. It combines successor representation & prioritized replay. I started off with a grid world, then embeddings. Today in a story recall task, reading the text was moving:
July 2, 2025 at 6:48 PM
I've been building a model of how intrusive thoughts can warp cognitive maps (world model) in PTSD & derail goal-directed behavior. It combines successor representation & prioritized replay. I started off with a grid world, then embeddings. Today in a story recall task, reading the text was moving:
Reposted by Jannis Friedrich
Dishwashers are pretty good at washing dishes! I wonder how the human body implements water-spraying rotating arms.
June 23, 2025 at 7:22 AM
Dishwashers are pretty good at washing dishes! I wonder how the human body implements water-spraying rotating arms.
Reposted by Jannis Friedrich
New paper: "Large Language Models and Emergence: A Complex Systems Perspective" (D. Krakauer, J. Krakauer, M. Mitchell).
We look at claims of "emergent capabilities" & "emergent intelligence" in LLMs from the perspective of what emergence means in complexity science.
arxiv.org/pdf/2506.11135
We look at claims of "emergent capabilities" & "emergent intelligence" in LLMs from the perspective of what emergence means in complexity science.
arxiv.org/pdf/2506.11135
arxiv.org
June 16, 2025 at 1:15 PM
New paper: "Large Language Models and Emergence: A Complex Systems Perspective" (D. Krakauer, J. Krakauer, M. Mitchell).
We look at claims of "emergent capabilities" & "emergent intelligence" in LLMs from the perspective of what emergence means in complexity science.
arxiv.org/pdf/2506.11135
We look at claims of "emergent capabilities" & "emergent intelligence" in LLMs from the perspective of what emergence means in complexity science.
arxiv.org/pdf/2506.11135
Reposted by Jannis Friedrich
Amazon rainforest adjusts to long-term experimental drought ..."After elevated tree mortality during the first 15 years, ecosystem-level structural changes resulted in the remaining trees no longer experiencing drought stress." 🧪🌐🌾
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Amazon rainforest adjusts to long-term experimental drought - Nature Ecology & Evolution
Drought is a growing issue in tropical rainforests. Here, the authors revisit a long-term rainfall manipulation experiment in the Amazon to show that tree mortality was followed by community-level adj...
www.nature.com
June 2, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Amazon rainforest adjusts to long-term experimental drought ..."After elevated tree mortality during the first 15 years, ecosystem-level structural changes resulted in the remaining trees no longer experiencing drought stress." 🧪🌐🌾
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Jannis Friedrich
If you haven't been looking recently at the Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science (oecs.mit.edu), here's your reminder that we are a free, open access resource for learning about the science of mind.
Today we are launching our new Thematic Collections to organize our growing set of articles!
Today we are launching our new Thematic Collections to organize our growing set of articles!
May 30, 2025 at 12:18 AM
If you haven't been looking recently at the Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science (oecs.mit.edu), here's your reminder that we are a free, open access resource for learning about the science of mind.
Today we are launching our new Thematic Collections to organize our growing set of articles!
Today we are launching our new Thematic Collections to organize our growing set of articles!
Reposted by Jannis Friedrich
The biggest reason we don't actually have a "replication crisis" is that science is a process of advancing what's working, and not fixing what hasn't. Sometimes it's slow, and we backtrack a bit. But it's never stalled.
That said, the strain on scientific publishing is generating a lot of crap.
That said, the strain on scientific publishing is generating a lot of crap.
May 28, 2025 at 4:18 AM
The biggest reason we don't actually have a "replication crisis" is that science is a process of advancing what's working, and not fixing what hasn't. Sometimes it's slow, and we backtrack a bit. But it's never stalled.
That said, the strain on scientific publishing is generating a lot of crap.
That said, the strain on scientific publishing is generating a lot of crap.
Reposted by Jannis Friedrich
From Trump's new Gold Standard Science executive order, an error on the scale of the day 1 EO definition of sex.
Popper is rolling over in his grave.
Popper is rolling over in his grave.
May 24, 2025 at 8:38 PM
From Trump's new Gold Standard Science executive order, an error on the scale of the day 1 EO definition of sex.
Popper is rolling over in his grave.
Popper is rolling over in his grave.
Reposted by Jannis Friedrich
How can biological systems anticipate future events? In our new paper with @jordiplam.bsky.social, we show how a simple genetic circuit can predict future trends through a simple (and perhaps widespread) mechanism @drmichaellevin.bsky.social @koseskalab.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
April 28, 2025 at 10:42 PM
How can biological systems anticipate future events? In our new paper with @jordiplam.bsky.social, we show how a simple genetic circuit can predict future trends through a simple (and perhaps widespread) mechanism @drmichaellevin.bsky.social @koseskalab.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Jannis Friedrich
The fact that we’ve just collectively decided to ***ignore*** this is insane
Reflecting on temperatures averaged over the last 3 months - what's it like in your area?
🟥 warmer than average
🟦 colder than average
Dataset (NOAAGlobalTempv6) described in doi.org/10.1175/BAMS...
🟥 warmer than average
🟦 colder than average
Dataset (NOAAGlobalTempv6) described in doi.org/10.1175/BAMS...
May 23, 2025 at 1:09 PM
The fact that we’ve just collectively decided to ***ignore*** this is insane
Reposted by Jannis Friedrich
Happy to claim my place on the top of the hill in this diagram! Clearly I have the objectively most right opinion on "What is Life?" I don't make the rules - the data have spoken! 😊 cc @drmichaellevin.bsky.social
May 23, 2025 at 12:25 PM
Happy to claim my place on the top of the hill in this diagram! Clearly I have the objectively most right opinion on "What is Life?" I don't make the rules - the data have spoken! 😊 cc @drmichaellevin.bsky.social
Reposted by Jannis Friedrich
Huh. Looks like Plato was right.
A new paper shows all language models converge on the same "universal geometry" of meaning. Researchers can translate between ANY model's embeddings without seeing the original text.
Implications for philosophy and vector databases alike. arxiv.org/pdf/2505.12540
A new paper shows all language models converge on the same "universal geometry" of meaning. Researchers can translate between ANY model's embeddings without seeing the original text.
Implications for philosophy and vector databases alike. arxiv.org/pdf/2505.12540
May 23, 2025 at 2:44 AM
Huh. Looks like Plato was right.
A new paper shows all language models converge on the same "universal geometry" of meaning. Researchers can translate between ANY model's embeddings without seeing the original text.
Implications for philosophy and vector databases alike. arxiv.org/pdf/2505.12540
A new paper shows all language models converge on the same "universal geometry" of meaning. Researchers can translate between ANY model's embeddings without seeing the original text.
Implications for philosophy and vector databases alike. arxiv.org/pdf/2505.12540
Reposted by Jannis Friedrich
Just to double check: you asked experts to agree with quadruple barreled items incl. numerous elements as well as “may be” constructions?
“4) Among girls, social media use may be associated with body dissatisfaction, perfectionism, exposure to mental disorders & risk of sexual harassment”
“4) Among girls, social media use may be associated with body dissatisfaction, perfectionism, exposure to mental disorders & risk of sexual harassment”
May 18, 2025 at 5:42 AM
Just to double check: you asked experts to agree with quadruple barreled items incl. numerous elements as well as “may be” constructions?
“4) Among girls, social media use may be associated with body dissatisfaction, perfectionism, exposure to mental disorders & risk of sexual harassment”
“4) Among girls, social media use may be associated with body dissatisfaction, perfectionism, exposure to mental disorders & risk of sexual harassment”
Reposted by Jannis Friedrich
Mind-wandering is associated with late modulation of the heartbeat-evoked potential; mind-blanking is associated with greater decoupling of heart-brain phase coupling.
New findings from our radically-revised study of spontaneous cognitive & physiological dynamics
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
New findings from our radically-revised study of spontaneous cognitive & physiological dynamics
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
When your heart isn't in it anymore: Cardiac correlates of task disengagement
Neuroscience is beginning to uncover the role of interoceptive feedback in perception, learning, and decision-making; however, the relation between spontaneous visceral and cognitive dynamics has rece...
www.biorxiv.org
May 19, 2025 at 1:24 AM
Mind-wandering is associated with late modulation of the heartbeat-evoked potential; mind-blanking is associated with greater decoupling of heart-brain phase coupling.
New findings from our radically-revised study of spontaneous cognitive & physiological dynamics
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
New findings from our radically-revised study of spontaneous cognitive & physiological dynamics
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Jannis Friedrich
What is computation? ("The Brain, in Theory", chapter 4)
![A computation is essentially an effective method in a formal domain (as opposed to a domain of interactions with the world), generally in the domain of numbers, which can be applied by a human with just pen and paper – we will see in chapter 8 the significance of this detail. Clearly, a recipe is not a computation. […] A computation operates on data (not pasta). It has an input and output, and it implements a particular mapping from input to output by a sequence of steps that belong to a finite set of elementary operations on symbols. The latter restriction is crucial for the notion of computation. Otherwise, the concept of computability would be totally meaningless. For example, Alan Turing demonstrated that there is no program that can take another program as input and calculate whether that program eventually stops: the halting problem is not computable. Obviously, this theorem would be false if we were allowed to choose any kind of instruction (choose as an instruction the mapping that assigns a stopping / non-stopping label to programs). Therefore, a process can only be meaningfully called “computation” when it is composed of a finite set of elementary instructions. Otherwise, the process is just a mapping between different kinds of data, not a computation.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2y4dbcsyspbhpthm7n4o6kcx/bafkreihued5ljn7szh3dqtib6ormvnbfmu27worazroefdm2c6pqvkaduu@jpeg)
May 15, 2025 at 9:14 AM
What is computation? ("The Brain, in Theory", chapter 4)
Our new paper on embodied theories of mental representation.
A simple and solid framework of simple mechanisms that can be integrated across fields and disciplines !
A simple and solid framework of simple mechanisms that can be integrated across fields and disciplines !
New content: Friedrich, J., Fischer, M. H., & Raab, M. (2025). Issues in Grounded Cognition and How to Solve Them – the Minimalist Account. Journal of Cognition, 8(1): 31, pp. 1–29. DOI: doi.org/10.5334/joc.... #psychscisky
Issues in Grounded Cognition and How to Solve Them – the Minimalist Account | Journal of Cognition
doi.org
May 15, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Our new paper on embodied theories of mental representation.
A simple and solid framework of simple mechanisms that can be integrated across fields and disciplines !
A simple and solid framework of simple mechanisms that can be integrated across fields and disciplines !
Reposted by Jannis Friedrich
• Presents the Correspondence Network Framework (multi-channel structural similarity)
• Recasts RSA as detecting correspondence networks
• Explains why neural spaces form taxonomic clusters
• Counters anti-representationalist critiques & gives new heuristics for experiments 2/2
• Recasts RSA as detecting correspondence networks
• Explains why neural spaces form taxonomic clusters
• Counters anti-representationalist critiques & gives new heuristics for experiments 2/2
May 14, 2025 at 3:37 PM
• Presents the Correspondence Network Framework (multi-channel structural similarity)
• Recasts RSA as detecting correspondence networks
• Explains why neural spaces form taxonomic clusters
• Counters anti-representationalist critiques & gives new heuristics for experiments 2/2
• Recasts RSA as detecting correspondence networks
• Explains why neural spaces form taxonomic clusters
• Counters anti-representationalist critiques & gives new heuristics for experiments 2/2