November 01, 2021

BI 118 Johannes Jäger: Beyond Networks

1 hour 36 minutes

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Johannes (Yogi) is a freelance philosopher, researcher & educator. We discuss many of the topics in his online course, Beyond Networks: The Evolution of Living Systems. The course is focused on the role of agency in evolution, but it covers a vast range of topics: process vs. substance metaphysics, causality, mechanistic dynamic explanation, teleology, the important role of development mediating genotypes, phenotypes, and evolution, what makes biological organisms unique, the history of evolutionary theory, scientific perspectivism, and a view toward the necessity of including agency in evolutionary theory. I highly recommend taking his course. We also discuss the role of agency in artificial intelligence, how neuroscience and evolutionary theory are undergoing parallel re-evaluations, and Yogi answers a guest question from Kevin Mitchell.

Yogi's website and blog: Untethered in the Platonic Realm.
Twitter: @yoginho.
His youtube course: Beyond Networks: The Evolution of Living Systems.
Kevin Mitchell's previous episode: BI 111 Kevin Mitchell and Erik Hoel: Agency, Emergence, Consciousness.

0:00 - Intro

4:10 - Yogi's background

11:00 - Beyond Networks - limits of dynamical systems models

16:53 - Kevin Mitchell question

20:12 - Process metaphysics

26:13 - Agency in evolution

40:37 - Agent-environment interaction, open-endedness

45:30 - AI and agency

55:40 - Life and intelligence

59:08 - Deep learning and neuroscience

1:03:21 - Mental autonomy

1:06:10 - William Wimsatt's biopsychological thicket

1:11:23 - Limtiations of mechanistic dynamic explanation

1:18:53 - Synthesis versus multi-perspectivism

1:30:31 - Specialization versus generalization

...more

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By Paul Middlebrooks

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