Here is a post on John Wilkins’ Evolving Thoughts bog that picks up on Sahotra Sarkar’s review of Steve Fuller’s latest book in the Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. The conflict between Fuller and his critics is sure run and run with ever increasing bitterness. A minor point. Sarkar writes that: “He [Fuller] is widely credited…
There’s a nice article in Scientific American entitled “The Expert Mind: Studies of the mental processes of chess grandmasters have revealed clues to how people become experts in other fields as well.” What struck me was the excerpt below which seems to be grist for the connectionist mill in that the expert is not confronted…
I’ve had several requests to make this recent article available despite it still being freely available on the Forbes site (I know there have been some annoying pop-up advertisement windows.) Anyway, check out Roger’s co-authored article for EPISTEME on this topic: Epistemics for Forensics. Forensic evidence doesn’t always tell the truth. Forensic evidence is foolproof,…
Here is a BBC report from A.I. XI
As usual, Dan Little has posted some thoughtful reflections on the multifarious tributaries that feed into the complex that is social identity. It brings to mind a recent correspondence I had with someone who was adamant that I call them by their “new” name (legally changed by deed poll), someone who I happened to know under their birth…
Here’s a restrained and sensitive article from the Scotsman on Claude Wischik‘s work on Alzheimer’s disease. The tone of the article matches the low-key disposition and existential focus of Wischik. Speaking to an Alzheimic patient on a regular basis, I have often used synonyms for the metaphor of “tangles”: Wischik has spent 24 years studying the neurofibrillary ‘tangles’ that…
EPISTEME 5:2, featuring Roger Koppl, Robert Kurzban and Lawrence Kobilinsky’s paper that has attracted a great deal of press attention is now available online.
While I too am sceptical about the techno-ebullience associated with MRI scans what is interesting about the self-defeating claim in a cheekily entitled Economist article “Do economists need brains?” is this quote: neuroscience could not transform economics because what goes on inside the brain is irrelevant to the discipline. What matters are the decisions people take—in…
Simon Garnier has found and posted a super little swarm vignette on his website. This is as lucid an introduction to swarm intelligence as one is likely to get. Nice one Simon!
Anthony Grayling has convened a “symposium” on Reason in the latest issue of the New Scientist. Grayling’s position is very predictable but credit to him and the editors for bringing together a diverse group who for the most part seem to disagree with his conception. Neuroscientist Chris Frith, mathematician Roger Penrose and philosopher Mary Midgley are…
manwithoutqualities 