Scott McFarnell
@scottmcf.bsky.social
Assistant Headteacher. Interested in how neuroscience can support education.
#EduSky
#EduSky
Has anyone used ChatGPT-5.1 yet?
Any major differences/improvements?
Any major differences/improvements?
November 12, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Has anyone used ChatGPT-5.1 yet?
Any major differences/improvements?
Any major differences/improvements?
As part of this fascinating conversation, Roger Penrose implies he tried to get Douglas Hofstadter to claim some integers are conscious, and DH was open to this (hmm). I wonder how that argument would go if they met today. That would be a podcast I’d love to see, @curtjaimungal.bsky.social.
Sir Roger Penrose: “People say quantum gravity is the big mystery. The main mystery is the gravitisation of quantum mechanics.”
Do you agree?
Does the word order matter or is it negligible?
Do you agree?
Does the word order matter or is it negligible?
November 9, 2025 at 7:20 PM
As part of this fascinating conversation, Roger Penrose implies he tried to get Douglas Hofstadter to claim some integers are conscious, and DH was open to this (hmm). I wonder how that argument would go if they met today. That would be a podcast I’d love to see, @curtjaimungal.bsky.social.
“What is left over if I subtract the fact that my arm goes up from the fact that I raise my arm?”
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
November 9, 2025 at 3:51 PM
“What is left over if I subtract the fact that my arm goes up from the fact that I raise my arm?”
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
“No man is an island,
Entire of itself;
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main… Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.”
John Donne
Entire of itself;
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main… Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.”
John Donne
November 9, 2025 at 1:17 PM
“No man is an island,
Entire of itself;
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main… Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.”
John Donne
Entire of itself;
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main… Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.”
John Donne
Sir Roger Penrose: “People say quantum gravity is the big mystery. The main mystery is the gravitisation of quantum mechanics.”
Do you agree?
Does the word order matter or is it negligible?
Do you agree?
Does the word order matter or is it negligible?
November 9, 2025 at 11:22 AM
Sir Roger Penrose: “People say quantum gravity is the big mystery. The main mystery is the gravitisation of quantum mechanics.”
Do you agree?
Does the word order matter or is it negligible?
Do you agree?
Does the word order matter or is it negligible?
Reposted by Scott McFarnell
This is a point made by Doug Hofstadter in this 1981 dialogue: www.cse.unr.edu/~sushil/clas...
bert.stuy.edu
November 1, 2025 at 11:19 AM
This is a point made by Doug Hofstadter in this 1981 dialogue: www.cse.unr.edu/~sushil/clas...
In one of the best discussions on computational functionalism v biological naturalism (relating to consciousness), @anilseth.bsky.social considers various arguments, including the Brain of Theseus/neural replacement. Frustratingly, he says, “You can’t really do that” without explaining why.
November 1, 2025 at 7:48 AM
In one of the best discussions on computational functionalism v biological naturalism (relating to consciousness), @anilseth.bsky.social considers various arguments, including the Brain of Theseus/neural replacement. Frustratingly, he says, “You can’t really do that” without explaining why.
Reposted by Scott McFarnell
Day 1 of the #NaturalPhilosophy Symposium wrapped up with a panel discussion from the day's speakers: David Chalmers, Sandra Mitchell, Nima Arkani-Hamed, Kevin Zollman, Malcolm MacIver, and Nick Lane, moderated by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein @chanda.blacksky.app.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=i170...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=i170...
October 29, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Day 1 of the #NaturalPhilosophy Symposium wrapped up with a panel discussion from the day's speakers: David Chalmers, Sandra Mitchell, Nima Arkani-Hamed, Kevin Zollman, Malcolm MacIver, and Nick Lane, moderated by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein @chanda.blacksky.app.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=i170...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=i170...
Reposted by Scott McFarnell
DNA sequences are computer code! It was a pleasure to explore John Von Neumann's theory on life as a form of computation and the lessons we can learn from modern AI systems with Tim Scarfe on Machine Learning Street Talk: bit.ly/4nreMO7
Thank you for the thoughtful questions!
Thank you for the thoughtful questions!
October 24, 2025 at 4:12 PM
DNA sequences are computer code! It was a pleasure to explore John Von Neumann's theory on life as a form of computation and the lessons we can learn from modern AI systems with Tim Scarfe on Machine Learning Street Talk: bit.ly/4nreMO7
Thank you for the thoughtful questions!
Thank you for the thoughtful questions!
Reposted by Scott McFarnell
Reposted by Scott McFarnell
Videos from the Natural Philosophy Symposium are coming online at last! We start with the opening plenary by David Chalmers @davidchalmers.bsky.social: Can There Be a Mathematical Theory of Consciousness? Commentary by Ryan Smith.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zsve...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zsve...
David Chalmers, Can There Be a Mathematical Theory of Consciousness? | Natural Philosophy Symposium
YouTube video by Hopkins Natural Philosophy Forum
www.youtube.com
October 21, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Videos from the Natural Philosophy Symposium are coming online at last! We start with the opening plenary by David Chalmers @davidchalmers.bsky.social: Can There Be a Mathematical Theory of Consciousness? Commentary by Ryan Smith.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zsve...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zsve...
Scientists are levitating tiny glass/diamond spheres, cooling them to near stillness, then putting them in quantum superposition (two places at once). They drop them in freefall to test if gravity entangles those “ghost” versions.
Yes: gravity’s quantum. No: It’s something else.
Yes: gravity’s quantum. No: It’s something else.
October 21, 2025 at 6:09 AM
Scientists are levitating tiny glass/diamond spheres, cooling them to near stillness, then putting them in quantum superposition (two places at once). They drop them in freefall to test if gravity entangles those “ghost” versions.
Yes: gravity’s quantum. No: It’s something else.
Yes: gravity’s quantum. No: It’s something else.
I’m fascinated by the ideas of Donald Hoffman & Michael Graziano. They seem hard to reconcile: Hoffman pictures a single consciousness beyond spacetime, Graziano says consciousness is modelling where the brain’s attention is. In a metaphor, does G explain the window & H the viewer?
October 19, 2025 at 1:46 PM
I’m fascinated by the ideas of Donald Hoffman & Michael Graziano. They seem hard to reconcile: Hoffman pictures a single consciousness beyond spacetime, Graziano says consciousness is modelling where the brain’s attention is. In a metaphor, does G explain the window & H the viewer?
“We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles.
Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related, the eternal ONE.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related, the eternal ONE.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
October 19, 2025 at 1:35 PM
“We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles.
Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related, the eternal ONE.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related, the eternal ONE.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“This Life’s dim Windows of the Soul
Distorts the Heavens from Pole to Pole,
And leads you to Believe a Lie
When you see with, not thro, the Eye.”
William Blake
Distorts the Heavens from Pole to Pole,
And leads you to Believe a Lie
When you see with, not thro, the Eye.”
William Blake
October 19, 2025 at 12:55 PM
“This Life’s dim Windows of the Soul
Distorts the Heavens from Pole to Pole,
And leads you to Believe a Lie
When you see with, not thro, the Eye.”
William Blake
Distorts the Heavens from Pole to Pole,
And leads you to Believe a Lie
When you see with, not thro, the Eye.”
William Blake
How close are we to building a quantum gravity computer to study consciousness?
October 18, 2025 at 12:44 PM
How close are we to building a quantum gravity computer to study consciousness?
October 18, 2025 at 9:20 AM
“We’re not actually building animals, we’re building ghosts.”
@karpathy.bsky.social on LLMs.
Do you agree?
@karpathy.bsky.social on LLMs.
Do you agree?
October 18, 2025 at 8:22 AM
“We’re not actually building animals, we’re building ghosts.”
@karpathy.bsky.social on LLMs.
Do you agree?
@karpathy.bsky.social on LLMs.
Do you agree?
Do you think AI will solve the Riemann hypothesis? Why/why not? If yes, how soon might it be?
October 12, 2025 at 7:18 AM
Do you think AI will solve the Riemann hypothesis? Why/why not? If yes, how soon might it be?
Professor Takashi Ikegami is combining robots with LLMs to create embodied AI. Just as LLMs can create pictures out of pixels, the movement of the robots is sort of pixelated in a similar way, so the LLM can control 3D actions in the real world.
#Alter3
youtu.be/D4X4bGp_p2E?...
#Alter3
youtu.be/D4X4bGp_p2E?...
From Text to Motion: Grounding GPT-4 in a Humanoid Robot "Alter3"
YouTube video by takahide yoshida
youtu.be
October 11, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Professor Takashi Ikegami is combining robots with LLMs to create embodied AI. Just as LLMs can create pictures out of pixels, the movement of the robots is sort of pixelated in a similar way, so the LLM can control 3D actions in the real world.
#Alter3
youtu.be/D4X4bGp_p2E?...
#Alter3
youtu.be/D4X4bGp_p2E?...
“For most of us, there is only the unattended
Moment, the moment in and out of time,
The distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight,
The wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightning
Or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply
That it is not heard at all, but you are the music
While the music lasts.”
Moment, the moment in and out of time,
The distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight,
The wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightning
Or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply
That it is not heard at all, but you are the music
While the music lasts.”
September 13, 2025 at 9:24 AM
“For most of us, there is only the unattended
Moment, the moment in and out of time,
The distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight,
The wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightning
Or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply
That it is not heard at all, but you are the music
While the music lasts.”
Moment, the moment in and out of time,
The distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight,
The wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightning
Or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply
That it is not heard at all, but you are the music
While the music lasts.”
Fascinating conversation between @suzannegildert.bsky.social & Tevin Naidu.
Suzanne pictures minds as bubbles connected but separated. They pop or join a larger bubble but lose individuality as they are absorbed. Reminds me of Thales’ ‘everything is water’ or that minds are icebergs/waves.
Suzanne pictures minds as bubbles connected but separated. They pop or join a larger bubble but lose individuality as they are absorbed. Reminds me of Thales’ ‘everything is water’ or that minds are icebergs/waves.
July 27, 2025 at 8:10 AM
Fascinating conversation between @suzannegildert.bsky.social & Tevin Naidu.
Suzanne pictures minds as bubbles connected but separated. They pop or join a larger bubble but lose individuality as they are absorbed. Reminds me of Thales’ ‘everything is water’ or that minds are icebergs/waves.
Suzanne pictures minds as bubbles connected but separated. They pop or join a larger bubble but lose individuality as they are absorbed. Reminds me of Thales’ ‘everything is water’ or that minds are icebergs/waves.
“One of the best definitions I like of consciousness is: it’s the way information feels when we process it.”
Demis Hassabis
Demis Hassabis
July 25, 2025 at 12:43 PM
“One of the best definitions I like of consciousness is: it’s the way information feels when we process it.”
Demis Hassabis
Demis Hassabis
Reposted by Scott McFarnell
I like using Bohemian Rhapsody's screwball transitions to illustrate the need for a notion of identity as 'processual continuity', rather than 'preservation of invariants'.
So its cool to discover music modellers analysing this as the "Bohemian Rhapsody problem" eceweb.ucsd.edu/~gert/papers...
So its cool to discover music modellers analysing this as the "Bohemian Rhapsody problem" eceweb.ucsd.edu/~gert/papers...
July 6, 2025 at 8:57 AM
I like using Bohemian Rhapsody's screwball transitions to illustrate the need for a notion of identity as 'processual continuity', rather than 'preservation of invariants'.
So its cool to discover music modellers analysing this as the "Bohemian Rhapsody problem" eceweb.ucsd.edu/~gert/papers...
So its cool to discover music modellers analysing this as the "Bohemian Rhapsody problem" eceweb.ucsd.edu/~gert/papers...
“You won’t lose your job to a tractor, but to a horse who learns how to drive a tractor.”
This is such a funny (and insightful) take on the, “You won’t lose your job to AI, but to someone who uses AI.”
I wish I knew who to credit.
This is such a funny (and insightful) take on the, “You won’t lose your job to AI, but to someone who uses AI.”
I wish I knew who to credit.
July 5, 2025 at 9:04 PM
“You won’t lose your job to a tractor, but to a horse who learns how to drive a tractor.”
This is such a funny (and insightful) take on the, “You won’t lose your job to AI, but to someone who uses AI.”
I wish I knew who to credit.
This is such a funny (and insightful) take on the, “You won’t lose your job to AI, but to someone who uses AI.”
I wish I knew who to credit.