Petteri Saarinen
@petteris.bsky.social
Researcher, entrepreneur. Philosophy of science, consciousness, cognitive neuroscience. AI technologies. Science & society, futures. Music.
Reposted by Petteri Saarinen
Some personal thoughts on the recent death of the historian of science, Mario Biagioli #histsci
thonyc.wordpress.com/2025/05/23/m...
thonyc.wordpress.com/2025/05/23/m...
Mario Biagioli (1955–2025)
Over the years I have gained a reputation for being extremely negative about Galileo Galilei and his supposed achievements and contributions to the evolution of science. As I point out from time to…
thonyc.wordpress.com
May 23, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Some personal thoughts on the recent death of the historian of science, Mario Biagioli #histsci
thonyc.wordpress.com/2025/05/23/m...
thonyc.wordpress.com/2025/05/23/m...
Reposted by Petteri Saarinen
The Entangled Brain by @pessoabrain.bsky.social aeon.co/essays/how-t...
How the human brain is like a murmuration of starlings | Aeon Essays
The brain is much less like a machine than it is like the murmurations of a flock of starlings or an orchestral symphony
aeon.co
May 19, 2025 at 11:15 AM
The Entangled Brain by @pessoabrain.bsky.social aeon.co/essays/how-t...
Reposted by Petteri Saarinen
Iceland beating May heat record by 7 degrees signals the end game for AMOC. It’s the end of wheat farming in Finland. And barley, and rye. Yet this post is the only mention you will see about it anywhere.
May 17, 2025 at 10:10 AM
Iceland beating May heat record by 7 degrees signals the end game for AMOC. It’s the end of wheat farming in Finland. And barley, and rye. Yet this post is the only mention you will see about it anywhere.
Reposted by Petteri Saarinen
From Café Central to the University of Vienna, philosopher @martinkusch.bsky.social takes us for a walk through Vienna's intellectual scenes. Examining how past #philosophers like Wittgenstein worked through issues of their time, Kusch finds the tools to tackle troubles of our own. ⤵️ #philsky 🗃🧠
How history of philosophy can help us in times of extreme suffering
From Cafe Central to the University of Vienna, philosopher Martin Kusch takes us for a walk through Vienna's intellectual scenes. Examining how past philosophers like Wittgenstein worked through issue...
rudolphina.univie.ac.at
May 14, 2025 at 7:00 AM
From Café Central to the University of Vienna, philosopher @martinkusch.bsky.social takes us for a walk through Vienna's intellectual scenes. Examining how past #philosophers like Wittgenstein worked through issues of their time, Kusch finds the tools to tackle troubles of our own. ⤵️ #philsky 🗃🧠
Reposted by Petteri Saarinen
Today is publication day! A new edition of Francisco J. Varela's (long hard-to-obtain) 1979 classic Principles of Biological Autonomy in a new annotated edition by Ezequiel Di Paolo and Evan Thompson, with a Foreword by Amy Cohen Varela. mitpress.mit.edu/978026255140...
Principles of Biological Autonomy
Francisco Varela’s Principles of Biological Autonomy was a groundbreaking text when it was first published in 1979, putting forth a novel theory of how...
mitpress.mit.edu
May 13, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Today is publication day! A new edition of Francisco J. Varela's (long hard-to-obtain) 1979 classic Principles of Biological Autonomy in a new annotated edition by Ezequiel Di Paolo and Evan Thompson, with a Foreword by Amy Cohen Varela. mitpress.mit.edu/978026255140...
Reposted by Petteri Saarinen
In relation to the COGITATE study, here's a blogpost I wrote a while ago:
What questions should a real theory of consciousness encompass? www.wiringthebrain.com/2023/09/what...
What questions should a real theory of consciousness encompass? www.wiringthebrain.com/2023/09/what...
May 2, 2025 at 1:43 PM
In relation to the COGITATE study, here's a blogpost I wrote a while ago:
What questions should a real theory of consciousness encompass? www.wiringthebrain.com/2023/09/what...
What questions should a real theory of consciousness encompass? www.wiringthebrain.com/2023/09/what...
Reposted by Petteri Saarinen
Hakwan Lau has laid out his concerns about animal consciousness very directly here, so here's my reply.🧵 Yes, I do think many studies in comparative psychology that never set out to "directly address" the topic of phenomenal consciousness have in fact provided valuable evidence. (1/4)
i have uploaded this preprint a while back, but hadn't promoted it directly here. in this piece i explain why i can no longer recommend trainees to participate in my former home field.
The End of Conscioussness - osf.io/preprints/ps...
but i've learned a lot. thank you for everything.
🧠📈
The End of Conscioussness - osf.io/preprints/ps...
but i've learned a lot. thank you for everything.
🧠📈
OSF
osf.io
May 1, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Hakwan Lau has laid out his concerns about animal consciousness very directly here, so here's my reply.🧵 Yes, I do think many studies in comparative psychology that never set out to "directly address" the topic of phenomenal consciousness have in fact provided valuable evidence. (1/4)
Reposted by Petteri Saarinen
The latest issue of Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science features "An Unpublished Article by David Bohm."
Edited by Chris Talbot.
Link: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Edited by Chris Talbot.
Link: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
April 14, 2025 at 12:35 PM
The latest issue of Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science features "An Unpublished Article by David Bohm."
Edited by Chris Talbot.
Link: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Edited by Chris Talbot.
Link: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Petteri Saarinen
OK I had announced this before but forgot to say that Andrew Gelman would be joining Nancy Cartwright and myself as well. Short idea talks, lots of panel discussion and Q&A.
Join us on April 25th to discuss RCTs, replications, and scientific inference.
sites.google.com/view/cepbi/t...
Join us on April 25th to discuss RCTs, replications, and scientific inference.
sites.google.com/view/cepbi/t...
April 8, 2025 at 2:59 PM
OK I had announced this before but forgot to say that Andrew Gelman would be joining Nancy Cartwright and myself as well. Short idea talks, lots of panel discussion and Q&A.
Join us on April 25th to discuss RCTs, replications, and scientific inference.
sites.google.com/view/cepbi/t...
Join us on April 25th to discuss RCTs, replications, and scientific inference.
sites.google.com/view/cepbi/t...
Reposted by Petteri Saarinen
The #consciousness debates continue!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧠📈 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧠📈 🧪
What makes a theory of consciousness unscientific? - Nature Neuroscience
Theories of consciousness have a long and controversial history. One well-known proposal — integrated information theory — has recently been labeled as ‘pseudoscience’, which has caused a heated open ...
www.nature.com
April 8, 2025 at 12:55 PM
The #consciousness debates continue!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧠📈 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧠📈 🧪
Reposted by Petteri Saarinen
Everyone expected that AI would bring about the end of the world.
No one expected that all it would take was ChatGPT spitting out this formula.
No one expected that all it would take was ChatGPT spitting out this formula.
April 7, 2025 at 9:46 AM
Everyone expected that AI would bring about the end of the world.
No one expected that all it would take was ChatGPT spitting out this formula.
No one expected that all it would take was ChatGPT spitting out this formula.
Reposted by Petteri Saarinen
Philosopher and mathematician Leibniz had a memorial coin made to show that the binary number system which he developed is closely related to his metaphysics. Zero is a void. God is a one who creates entities in this void. Each creature, say a leaf, could be a long chain of zeros and ones.
March 21, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Philosopher and mathematician Leibniz had a memorial coin made to show that the binary number system which he developed is closely related to his metaphysics. Zero is a void. God is a one who creates entities in this void. Each creature, say a leaf, could be a long chain of zeros and ones.
Reposted by Petteri Saarinen
Well, this seems now to be official. Trust me, it is a beautiful thing.
yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...
yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...
Alchemy - Yale University Press London
Flush with hundreds of illustrations, this book revisits the histories of chemistry, medicine, ideas, and culture through the lens of alchemy The craf...
yalebooks.co.uk
March 18, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Well, this seems now to be official. Trust me, it is a beautiful thing.
yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...
yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...
Reposted by Petteri Saarinen
"Spener’s insight is that the reliability of introspective methods is not reducible to the reliability of introspection. Introspection is just one ingredient in the recipe. The supporting cast—experimental designs, measurement tools, statistical techniques—does just as much of the
heavy lifting."
heavy lifting."
This reminded me that I used this quote to start my review of Maja Spener's recent book "Introspection". You can find the review here: shorturl.at/nUnNe. The review should come out in MIND fairly soon.
March 18, 2025 at 10:39 AM
"Spener’s insight is that the reliability of introspective methods is not reducible to the reliability of introspection. Introspection is just one ingredient in the recipe. The supporting cast—experimental designs, measurement tools, statistical techniques—does just as much of the
heavy lifting."
heavy lifting."
Reposted by Petteri Saarinen
This reminded me that I used this quote to start my review of Maja Spener's recent book "Introspection". You can find the review here: shorturl.at/nUnNe. The review should come out in MIND fairly soon.
March 18, 2025 at 1:45 AM
This reminded me that I used this quote to start my review of Maja Spener's recent book "Introspection". You can find the review here: shorturl.at/nUnNe. The review should come out in MIND fairly soon.
Reposted by Petteri Saarinen
The updated version of the IIT-Concerned letter has now been published in NN, thanks to the herculean efforts of the corresponding authors (thank you!!!). Here's the link. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Still, the process was frustrating. When the letter was first posted in the archive (1/n)
Still, the process was frustrating. When the letter was first posted in the archive (1/n)
What makes a theory of consciousness unscientific? - Nature Neuroscience
Theories of consciousness have a long and controversial history. One well-known proposal — integrated information theory — has recently been labeled as ‘pseudoscience’, which has caused a heated open ...
www.nature.com
March 13, 2025 at 12:30 PM
The updated version of the IIT-Concerned letter has now been published in NN, thanks to the herculean efforts of the corresponding authors (thank you!!!). Here's the link. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Still, the process was frustrating. When the letter was first posted in the archive (1/n)
Still, the process was frustrating. When the letter was first posted in the archive (1/n)
Reposted by Petteri Saarinen
i used to have blog on consciousness. i just uploaded my final post there, in which i responded to Alex Gomez-Marin & Anil Seth's recent commentary on the scientific status of IIT.
inconsciousnesswetrust.blogspot.com/2025/03/fina...
so long, folks.
the world is going nuts. pls take care.
🧠📈
inconsciousnesswetrust.blogspot.com/2025/03/fina...
so long, folks.
the world is going nuts. pls take care.
🧠📈
finale: reply to Gomez-Marin & Seth about the scientific status of IIT
here i respond to a commentary written by Alex Gomez-Marin and Anil Seth, on a paper explaining why IIT is unscientific . the latter articl...
inconsciousnesswetrust.blogspot.com
March 12, 2025 at 10:36 AM
i used to have blog on consciousness. i just uploaded my final post there, in which i responded to Alex Gomez-Marin & Anil Seth's recent commentary on the scientific status of IIT.
inconsciousnesswetrust.blogspot.com/2025/03/fina...
so long, folks.
the world is going nuts. pls take care.
🧠📈
inconsciousnesswetrust.blogspot.com/2025/03/fina...
so long, folks.
the world is going nuts. pls take care.
🧠📈
Reposted by Petteri Saarinen
New version of "the letter" in Nature Neuroscience. Like many others in the field, I signed because I believe that IIT threatens to deligitimize the scientific study of consciousness: www.nature.com/articles/s41....
What makes a theory of consciousness unscientific? - Nature Neuroscience
Theories of consciousness have a long and controversial history. One well-known proposal — integrated information theory — has recently been labeled as ‘pseudoscience’, which has caused a heated open ...
www.nature.com
March 10, 2025 at 12:15 PM
New version of "the letter" in Nature Neuroscience. Like many others in the field, I signed because I believe that IIT threatens to deligitimize the scientific study of consciousness: www.nature.com/articles/s41....
Reposted by Petteri Saarinen
1/ "A science of consciousness beyond pseudo-science and pseudo-consciousness" is out now! it was a joy to coauthor this commentary with Àlex Gómez-Marin @behaviOrganisms for @NatureNeuro, in which we try find some positive lessons in the clash over IIT www.nature.com/articles/s41...
March 10, 2025 at 10:54 AM
1/ "A science of consciousness beyond pseudo-science and pseudo-consciousness" is out now! it was a joy to coauthor this commentary with Àlex Gómez-Marin @behaviOrganisms for @NatureNeuro, in which we try find some positive lessons in the clash over IIT www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Petteri Saarinen
Here is the latest on our concerns about IIT as a theory of consciousness - this was long in gestation and has evolved since the preprint. I signed because I was not convinced by the claims of hegemony based on the adversarial collaboration
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
What makes a theory of consciousness unscientific? - Nature Neuroscience
Theories of consciousness have a long and controversial history. One well-known proposal — integrated information theory — has recently been labeled as ‘pseudoscience’, which has caused a heated open ...
www.nature.com
March 10, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Here is the latest on our concerns about IIT as a theory of consciousness - this was long in gestation and has evolved since the preprint. I signed because I was not convinced by the claims of hegemony based on the adversarial collaboration
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Petteri Saarinen
Why Tononi et al's defense of IIT fails to convince me. medium.com/@kording/86f...
Why Tononi’s Defense of IIT Fails to Convince Me
I am one of the co-signers of the letter labeling IIT as “pseudoscience” for numerous reasons. These include a definition of…
medium.com
March 10, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Why Tononi et al's defense of IIT fails to convince me. medium.com/@kording/86f...
Reposted by Petteri Saarinen
F.P. Ramsey’s grave finally has a refurbished headstone! Thank you British Wittgenstein Society for doing all the work and for allowing me to contribute in a more mundane way.
February 25, 2025 at 8:01 AM
F.P. Ramsey’s grave finally has a refurbished headstone! Thank you British Wittgenstein Society for doing all the work and for allowing me to contribute in a more mundane way.
Reposted by Petteri Saarinen
"We have never been Cartesian" - new Open Access article that defends humanism in response to Latour's "We have never been Modern" by drawing on anti-Cartesian currents in recent philosophy of mind (esp. mental fictionalism). Comments welcome! #philsky #STS link.springer.com/article/10.1...
We have never been Cartesian - Synthese
Humanism is the traditional approach in many disciplines, including history, philosophy, anthropology, and sociology. Humanists tend to assume that there is an important distinction between the knowin...
link.springer.com
February 25, 2025 at 8:58 AM
"We have never been Cartesian" - new Open Access article that defends humanism in response to Latour's "We have never been Modern" by drawing on anti-Cartesian currents in recent philosophy of mind (esp. mental fictionalism). Comments welcome! #philsky #STS link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Reposted by Petteri Saarinen
The Memory Palace is back! We’re starting with a fantastic post from Alberto Guerrero-Velazquez on a recent conference and the consequences of restricting philosophy of memory to English. A great read and a great project!
#philsky #philscisky
#philsky #philscisky
The Memory Palace is back with an exciting post from Alberto Guerrero-Velazquez (University of Western Australia). The post is available in English and Spanish.
thememorypalacephil.substack.com/p/memories-p...
thememorypalacephil.substack.com/p/memories-p...
MemoriEs: Philosophy of Memory in Spanish from the Global South
Alberto Guerrero-Velázquez (University of Western Australia)
thememorypalacephil.substack.com
February 11, 2025 at 5:06 PM
The Memory Palace is back! We’re starting with a fantastic post from Alberto Guerrero-Velazquez on a recent conference and the consequences of restricting philosophy of memory to English. A great read and a great project!
#philsky #philscisky
#philsky #philscisky
Reposted by Petteri Saarinen
The mystery of consciousness demands radical solutions. One radical option: Deny it exists.
philpapers.org/rec/KAMDCA-2...
philpapers.org/rec/KAMDCA-2...
François Kammerer, Defining consciousness and denying its existence. Sailing between Charybdis and Scylla - PhilPapers
Ulysses, the strong illusionist, sails towards the Strait of Definitions. On his left, Charybdis defines “phenomenal consciousness” in a loaded manner, which makes it a problematic entity from a physi...
philpapers.org
February 13, 2025 at 9:41 AM
The mystery of consciousness demands radical solutions. One radical option: Deny it exists.
philpapers.org/rec/KAMDCA-2...
philpapers.org/rec/KAMDCA-2...