Ilya Farber
@nihilfit.bsky.social
Cognitive scientist @ A*STAR IHPC; erstwhile philosopher; infrequent poster, but damn, look at that signal/noise ratio!
“He was tripping deck in a driverless car circling a closed worksite, his alpha rhythms boosted by a can of cherry-flavored synthetic taurine and entrained to synthetic Japanese idol vocals”
December 9, 2025 at 7:40 AM
“He was tripping deck in a driverless car circling a closed worksite, his alpha rhythms boosted by a can of cherry-flavored synthetic taurine and entrained to synthetic Japanese idol vocals”
I think this is dead-on, and we’re seeing a more localized version of this in Singapore. Scams have been through the roof recently, and my sense is that it’s partly because the median SG retiree’s savings account looks like a huge prize from anywhere else in SE Asia.
December 9, 2025 at 7:31 AM
I think this is dead-on, and we’re seeing a more localized version of this in Singapore. Scams have been through the roof recently, and my sense is that it’s partly because the median SG retiree’s savings account looks like a huge prize from anywhere else in SE Asia.
Reposted by Ilya Farber
Did not expect a capybara explaining brexit to be so affecting
December 4, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Did not expect a capybara explaining brexit to be so affecting
Or to relate this back to your wording, “same internal structure” can be challenging to define across different underlying architectures.
December 4, 2025 at 7:03 AM
Or to relate this back to your wording, “same internal structure” can be challenging to define across different underlying architectures.
And any solution will be relative to a state space constrained by the system’s architecture and the dynamics it can support.
December 4, 2025 at 7:01 AM
And any solution will be relative to a state space constrained by the system’s architecture and the dynamics it can support.
LLMs being a case in point. They have fascinating parallels to the functional organization of human cortex - but they also lack crucial structures that you’d need for metacognitive awareness or sense-of-self.
December 4, 2025 at 6:58 AM
LLMs being a case in point. They have fascinating parallels to the functional organization of human cortex - but they also lack crucial structures that you’d need for metacognitive awareness or sense-of-self.
I’d push a bit on the work that the “problem of acting human” is doing there. Any real-world system will be capturing only some aspects of what humans do, and it’s clearly possible to do that for select domains w/o mirroring important deep structure of human cognition.
December 4, 2025 at 6:58 AM
I’d push a bit on the work that the “problem of acting human” is doing there. Any real-world system will be capturing only some aspects of what humans do, and it’s clearly possible to do that for select domains w/o mirroring important deep structure of human cognition.
All that said - I would agree that machine consciousness must in principle be possible, and that I expect we’ll get there eventually. But how we judge that should depend on a) our best theories of C and b) mechanistic and “anatomical” details about a system, not just its behavior or capabilities.
December 4, 2025 at 6:43 AM
All that said - I would agree that machine consciousness must in principle be possible, and that I expect we’ll get there eventually. But how we judge that should depend on a) our best theories of C and b) mechanistic and “anatomical” details about a system, not just its behavior or capabilities.
Source: I’m a Churchlandian eliminativist and just had a nice tea with Pat this afternoon 😃
December 4, 2025 at 6:39 AM
Source: I’m a Churchlandian eliminativist and just had a nice tea with Pat this afternoon 😃
Yeah, the idea was that (classical) functionalism is grounded in a theory of psychology that we now understand to be materially false, and so we shouldn’t be looking to explain consciousness in terms of the states and entities (eg belief) posited by that theory.
December 4, 2025 at 6:39 AM
Yeah, the idea was that (classical) functionalism is grounded in a theory of psychology that we now understand to be materially false, and so we shouldn’t be looking to explain consciousness in terms of the states and entities (eg belief) posited by that theory.
I’d say once you’ve filtered down to the useful/interesting theories of consciousness, it’s no longer really about disproof - it’s about which theories account for more evidence, shed more light on experience, are more consilient with other relevant theories and commitments.
December 4, 2025 at 6:30 AM
I’d say once you’ve filtered down to the useful/interesting theories of consciousness, it’s no longer really about disproof - it’s about which theories account for more evidence, shed more light on experience, are more consilient with other relevant theories and commitments.
You can probably extrapolate why it tends to be A- papers that draw that kind of heat.
November 30, 2025 at 12:27 PM
You can probably extrapolate why it tends to be A- papers that draw that kind of heat.
Pretty sure i gave an A- to the paper where I told the (very good) student that I would literally set his next paper on fire if it contained even one of his signature page-long unilluminating metaphors. (It worked! His next paper was great!)
November 30, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Pretty sure i gave an A- to the paper where I told the (very good) student that I would literally set his next paper on fire if it contained even one of his signature page-long unilluminating metaphors. (It worked! His next paper was great!)
Daaaamn. I’ve read a few of the standard fae-mists Dunsany collections but never saw this side of him. Is there a source you’d recommend?
November 16, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Daaaamn. I’ve read a few of the standard fae-mists Dunsany collections but never saw this side of him. Is there a source you’d recommend?
“The lovely South Asian man then barked at her to let me through, and his confident air of command carried the day.”
So, testosterone then? 😬
So, testosterone then? 😬
November 12, 2025 at 5:23 AM
“The lovely South Asian man then barked at her to let me through, and his confident air of command carried the day.”
So, testosterone then? 😬
So, testosterone then? 😬
I went veg as a kid in 1976. Animal cookies and Oreos had beef fat. Pie crusts and Saltines and tortillas and most potato or bean dishes had lard. Candies and desserts were 50/50 to have gelatin. Cafeteria pizza would have pepperoni bits or ground beef *under* the cheese!
November 10, 2025 at 1:56 PM
I went veg as a kid in 1976. Animal cookies and Oreos had beef fat. Pie crusts and Saltines and tortillas and most potato or bean dishes had lard. Candies and desserts were 50/50 to have gelatin. Cafeteria pizza would have pepperoni bits or ground beef *under* the cheese!
The one on the right is a great picture!
November 6, 2025 at 11:43 AM
The one on the right is a great picture!
(Also, car rentals in NZ are unbelievably cheap.)
November 3, 2025 at 9:57 PM
(Also, car rentals in NZ are unbelievably cheap.)
Driving in NZ is wonderful! I’ve done it twice (with family). The roads are good, the other drivers seem pretty calm, and the scenery between towns is just incredible.
November 3, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Driving in NZ is wonderful! I’ve done it twice (with family). The roads are good, the other drivers seem pretty calm, and the scenery between towns is just incredible.