This gets it right about not having libertarian free will: compassionate accountability and increased attention to the causes of wrongdoing. Determinism (plus any randomness that exists) is not something we need to deny. theconversation.com/accepting-fr...
Accepting free will doesn’t exist could make us less hateful and ashamed
Importantly, even if we don’t believe in free will, our sense of accountability stays intact, according to new research.
theconversation.com
Right, on naturalism there is nothing that allows an agent to transcend its material basis such that it could have done otherwise in actual situations. We're causal operators, just not uncaused causers, and the same will go for artificial agents.
Kevin Mitchell@wiringthebrain.bsky.social · last wk.The answer of course is "nothing"! There is no extra "spark". Agency is the term we use to describe that suite of capabilities, not something extra that gets added on top.
Not sure who benefits from claiming there's an explanatory gap. Why are only certain brain processes and not others associated with conscious experience? substack.com/@twc3/p-1791...
Feels and Functions: On the Purported Identity Thereof
A critique of one brand of physicalist realism about phenomenal consciousness.
substack.com
Earl K. Miller@earlkmiller.bsky.social · 3w agoThe “hard problem” of consciousness isn’t. The supposed gap between brain explanation and experience is a self‑serving illusion. What we call the hard problem is cognitive bias, not reality. medium.com/@timventura/... #neuroscience
Good for @timbayne.bsky.social, referencing Metzinger's call for a moratorium on building synthetic phenomenology, to say that Anthropic should pause work on building machines that might potentially be conscious. Consciousness isn't an intrinsic good in itself that we should maximize.
Thomas Metzinger@metzinger.bsky.social · 3w agoAre there any groups working to *prevent* AI consciousness? Why create more opportunity for suffering? Plus we'll have to grant rights to artificial agents who will compete with us for resources. Consciousness isn't obviously a good in itself so why try to build it? Just because we can?
At death, some anticipate the onset of nothingness or oblvion, but it's pretty easy to show that can't be the case. So the question is, what *should* we anticipate? substack.com/home/post/p-...
The Eternality of Experience
Why there is no resting in peace
substack.com
What do just about all brain-based theories of consciousness have in common? Representation, modeling the world outside the head, a reality model. And representation involves content. Hence the content hypothesis about consciousness: twc3.substack.com/p/the-conten...
This is it folks. A general strike is in order if this goes through. substack.com/home/post/p-...
Our Darkest Hour
The civilization we destroy may be our own
substack.com
A new book by @metzinger.bsky.social lays out an epistemically responsible and spiritually deep response to the looming climate crisis, one that pulls no punches in its critique of religion and capitalism. It's the unflinching, honest appraisal we need right now. www.amazon.com/-/de/dp/B0FZ...
Bewusstseinskultur: Towards a culture of consciousness: Spirituality, intellectual honesty, and the planetary crisis—how to protect your self-respect and fail gracefully
amazon.com
The feeling of pain seems to play a causal role in pain behavior but when we analyze the functions associated with such behavior, we don't need to mention that feeling. What gives??? @matthiasmichel.bsky.social @earlkmiller.bsky.social @johanneskleiner.bsky.social substack.com/home/post/p-...
Feels and Functions: On the Purported Identity Thereof
A critique of one brand of physicalist realism about phenomenal consciousness.
substack.com
Re @wiringthebrain.bsky.social and Henry Potter's defense of libertarian free will, I argue that indeterminism and an open future can't make agents more responsible than they are under determinism. Otherwise I like their view of agency. philpapers.org/rec/CLATDO-31
Thomas W. Clark, The Disutility of Indeterminism: Commentary on Potter and Mitchell - PhilPapers
In “Chance, Choice, and Control: Free Will in an Indeterministic Universe,” Henry Potter and Kevin Mitchell defend libertarian free will against the charge that indeterminism would undermine, not enha...
philpapers.org
The Good Determinist - Taking a cause-and-effect view of ourselves can lessen retributive blame premised on the illusion of libertarian agency, leading to more humane and practically effective responsibility practices, but without excusing wrong-doing. substack.com/home/post/p-...
The Mitigation Response
Accepting determinism can keep reactivity in check
substack.com
@wiringthebrain.bsky.social Up your alley: this book by Nancey Murphy and Warren Brown - "Did My Neurons Make Me Do It? - is similar to your approach to downward causation and responsible agency but without any appeal to causal slack: naturalism.org/resources/bo...
Causal Powers of the Natural Mind | Naturalism.org
naturalism.org
It's fine to collaborate with AIs on a publication so long as you give them due credit. twc3.substack.com/p/ai-and-aut...
AI and Authorship
Be transparent about your use of AI
twc3.substack.com
So when you have a thought in your native language, is it more like speaking it or hearing it?
Game over for due process, sorry folks! www.bostonglobe.com/2025/06/25/o...
The courts will not save us from tyranny - The Boston Globe
The Supreme Court just washed its hands of its role in upholding the rule of law, the foundational principle that laws are meant to be followed by everyone, the government included, if we are to have ...
bostonglobe.com
Reality monitoring associated with phenomenal consciousness is clearly functional, but what function does phenomenality itself serve? If it's identical to functions, no causal power added, if not identical, no causal story on offer. Hmmm... @matthiasmichel.bsky.social @smfleming.bsky.social
Matthias Michel@matthiasmichel.bsky.social · last yr.Very happy to announce that our paper “Sensory Horizons and the Functions of Conscious Vision” is now out as a target article in BBS!! @smfleming.bsky.social and I present a new theory of the evolution and functions of visual consciousness. Article here: doi.org/10.1017/S014.... A (long) thread 🧵
The billionaires could be oligarchic but benevolent (e.g., Bill Gates), so the wholesale gutting of American science, culture, rule of law, social safety net, etc., etc. can only be construed as intentionally punitive, aimed at undermining our collective flourishing under democracy.
"Sapolsky, a Stanford University professor, is a hard determinist who rejects free will; Mitchell, an associate professor of genetics and neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin, is a compatibilist who embraces it." @wiringthebrain.bsky.social a compatibilist? link.springer.com/article/10.1...
The Free Will: Determinism Debate in Contemporary Science and Society (Or: Why Are You Reading This Article?) - Perspectives on Behavior Science
The free will–determinism discussion is centuries old, with numerous stances taken by philosophers and scientists alike. The debate has clear implications for interpreting causal relations in scientif...
link.springer.com
Here "superagency" denotes the capacity for ultimate control over our behavior. We can’t step outside of ourselves to exert a level of control not already determined by who we are, but many, perhaps most folks think that we are such impossible superagents. twc3.substack.com/p/superagenc...
Superagency: Sources of the Libertarian Intuition
In which are suggested some causes of supposing we're not fully caused.
twc3.substack.com
Not hyperbole, this is happening in my hood. How about in yours? If your local, state, and federal representatives aren't speaking out about this you must let them know that their silence makes them complicit. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/o...
Opinion | Unmarked Vans. Secret Lists. Public Denunciations. America’s Police State Has Arrived. (Gift Article)
Those of us who’ve seen secret police in action can’t shake a feeling of dreadful familiarity.
nytimes.com
Kristen Welker of NBC news, 3/29, reported on a phone interview she had with Trump on his desire to annex Greenland. Trump: "There's a good possibility it could be done without military force...but I don't take anything off the table." Who will resist this nonsense?
Vance: "We do not think military force is ever going to be necessary. We think we're going to be able to cut a deal, Donald Trump style..." Translation: plans for an invasion are being formulated if you don't like the deal. Denmark, Greenlanders: stand your ground! www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqn3...
Vance says Greenland would be better off under U.S.
YouTube video by NBC News
youtube.com
The latest installment of The Good Determinist suggests we're pretty comfortable with supposing one thing causes another, put perhaps not quite all the way there... substack.com/home/post/p-...
"Bound and Determined": The Ordinary Language of Determinism
Such talk suggests we are, for the most part, pragmatic determinists.
substack.com
Quick and dirty argument against phenomenal causation: If the feel of pain is identical to its NCC, the feel per se doesn't add to their causal power. If the feel *isn't* identical, there's no good story about how it adds causal power. The feel is real, but not a causal contributor. Questions?
Bye bye, Amazon. As a friend of mine wrote me: The Washington Post slogan was "Democracy dies in darkness." Turns out it also dies under the glare of chandeliers in oligarchs' mansions. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/b...
Jeff Bezos’ Directive for Washington Post Opinion Pages Leads to Editor David Shipley’s Exit
David Shipley, The Post’s opinion editor, is resigning after trying to persuade Jeff Bezos to reconsider the new direction.
nytimes.com
Walk it back, bro! What's hilarious is how Trump's insane policy declarations, delivered from behind his desk in the Oval Office, get the whole world in a tizzy when it's obvious they issue from a man who simply blurts out his id. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/02...
Trump Officials Try to Walk Back Gaza Takeover Plan: Live Updates
Amid global alarm, top administration officials sought to soften elements of President Trump’s proposal to force Palestinians out of the territory and take it over. Experts said the plan would violate...
nytimes.com
So it ends: “'If you are on the wrong side of the vote, you’re buying yourself a primary' and 'there’s a guy named Elon Musk who is going to finance it.' It’s not party over country. It’s a political career over everything else." www.bostonglobe.com/2025/02/04/o...
Republicans are complicit in the constitutional crises that Trump and Musk are unleashing - The Boston Globe
In a moment demanding courage, the GOP has only cowards.
bostonglobe.com
You Can't Wait for Determinism to Happen Part 2 of correcting misconceptions about determinism, in which we cover fatalism, rationality, excuses and accountability, novelty, reductionism, and authoritarianism. Be a good determinist! substack.com/home/post/p-...
