Mahon McCann Podcast

Alicia Juarrero is President and co-founder of VectorAnalytica, Inc., and Visiting Research Scholar at the University of Miami. She is the author of Dynamics in Action (MIT Press) and recently, Context Changes Everything: How constraints create coherence (2023). Grounding her work in the problem of causation, Alicia challenges previously held beliefs that only forceful impacts are causes. Constraints, she claims, bring about effects as well, and they enable the emergence of coherence.

Get the book 👉 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0262545667/

Summary:

In this conversation, we discusses 'Context Changes Everything' and the dismissal of context in philosophy. She highlights the role of context in intentions, behavior, identities, and more. Juattero explains how the reductionist worldview and the focus on bottom-up causality have led to the neglect of top-down causality and the inability to understand coherent wholes. She explores the importance of understanding wholes as emergent properties and the need to rethink ontology and epistemology. The conversation also touches on topics like artificial intelligence, evolvability, and the limitations of the mechanistic metaphor for the mind.

Full podcast 👇

https://youtu.be/a14Q1-q-NP8

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction and Framing

03:05 The Dismissal of Context in Philosophy

08:47 The Neglect of Top-Down Causality

15:00 Rethinking Ontology and Epistemology

21:01 The Limitations of Artificial Intelligence

22:59 The Failure of the Mechanistic Metaphor for the Mind

35:05 Imagination and Coordination

41:42 Ethics and Constraints

49:06 The Interface between Principle and Practice

54:07 The Attentional Infrastructure

New podcast with Colin Deyoung & Adam Safron on their integration of Cybernetic Big five Personality theory and the Active Inference Framework to model persons for therapeutic purposes and possibly the creation of better AI.

Colin Deyoung is a personality psychologist, personality neuroscientist, the creator of the Cybernetic Big Five Personality theory and the associate professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota, and a former student of Jordan Peterson.

Adam Safron, Ph. D., is a Cognitive Scientist and psychologist who studies the nature of preferences and motivation from mechanistic, developmental, and evolutionary perspectives. Recently, he has proposed a model of embodied agency and free will and is working on a unified mechanistic account of psychedelics.

Check out their paper!!!

https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/653wp

Watch the full conversation 👇

https://youtu.be/ldrtI9CrlSU

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Cybernetics and the Free Energy Principle

11:07 The Big Five Theory in Personality Psychology

14:24 Integrating Cybernetics and the Free Energy Principle

21:08 The Motivation for Integrating Cybernetics and Personality Psychology

22:57 Personality Traits as Control Parameters in Cybernetic Systems

27:21 The Contextual Nature of Personality Traits

30:34 The Relationship Between Personality Traits and World Models

35:59 The Interplay Between Stability and Plasticity in Personality Traits

40:42 Relevance Realization and Personality Traits

43:07 The Role of Personality Traits in Solving the Frame Problem

47:13 Inactivism and Computationalism

51:20 The Role of Representation

54:41 Embodiment and Extended Cognition

59:02 Examining the Homunculus and Cartesian Theater

01:04:39 The Role of the Hippocampus

01:08:03 The Connection Between the Hippocampus and Narrative

01:12:37 Understanding Cortical Gradients

01:14:44 The Complex Relationship Between Embodiment, Self-Modeling, and Consciousness

Ben White graduated from the University of Edinburgh’s flagship Mind, Language, and Embodied Cognition MSc. He is a Leverhulme-funded PhD candidate at the University of Sussex under Andy Clarke's mentorship, where his research focuses on neuroscience and digital technology. Mark Miller is a philosopher of Cognition: Prediction, Well-Being, and Technology and a Research Fellow at Monash University's Centre for Consciousness and Contemplative Studies and lab manager at the Consciousness and Wisdom studies lab UoT.

In this podcast, we discuss active inference and its application to social media and technology. Ben and Mark explain how active inference provides a framework for understanding how our beliefs and expectations shape our reality. They discuss the potential dangers of social media, such as the manipulation of beliefs and the addiction to social validation. They emphasize the importance of developing attention skills, finding meaning in life, and changing ourselves and our microcultures to mitigate the negative effects of social media. Finally, the conversation explores the concept of ambient smart environments as a potential solution to the meaning crisis caused by technology addiction.

Read the "digital being" paper: https://academic-oup-com.dcu.idm.oclc.org/nc/article/2024/1/niae008/7631816#444593589

Read "ambient Smart Environments": https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11229-024-04679-9

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Mark and Ben's Collaboration

05:02 Active Inference as a Framework for Understanding Social Media

16:03 The Dangers of Manipulation and Addiction in Social Media

23:13 Reforming Social Media: Regulation and Business Model Changes

26:35 Mitigating the Negative Effects of Social Media: Attention Skills and Meaning

31:02 Changing Ourselves and Our Microcultures to Counteract Social Media

33:51 Ambient Smart Environments: A Solution to the Meaning Crisis

36:13 Cultivating Wisdom and Skills in the Modern World

41:46 Therapeutic Applications of Ambient Technology

49:29 Designing Technology for Human Flourishing

Key Takeaways:

* Active inference provides a framework for understanding how our beliefs and expectations shape our reality.

* Social media platforms can manipulate our beliefs and create addictive behaviors.

* Reforming social media platforms may require regulation and changes in business models.

* Developing attention skills and finding meaning in life can help mitigate the negative effects of social media.

* Changing ourselves and our microcultures is essential for reducing the impact of social media on our well-being. Ambient smart environments, owned by individuals, can be a solution to technology addiction and the meaning crisis.

* Cultivating wisdom and developing skills are essential for navigating uncertainty and volatility.

* Ambient technology can be used in therapeutic applications, such as dementia care and mental health.

* Technology should be designed to support and enhance human flourishing.

We are back with a final conversation in this AI series, bringing together John Verveake and Sam Tideman to discuss the limits of artificial intelligence.

For me, this conversation is a watershed moment in the AI debate. Based on John’s work (read the paper here ), there is a fundamental difference between the AI/computer science paradigm and human intelligence, which the current genre of artificial intelligence cannot cross! So we can stop worrying about the machines replacing us! But we need to start worrying about the delusions of those who think they’re making humanity 2.0…

This conversation delves into the profound difference between AI algorithms and relevance-realizing agents, sparking thought on the concept of relevance realization and its pivotal role in organismic agency, cognition, and consciousness. It underscores that organismic agency and cognition transcend computational nature and cannot be fully encapsulated by algorithmic approaches.

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction and Background

08:20 The Role of Relevance Realization in Organismic Agency and Cognition

14:16 The Limitations of Current AI Models in Comprehending Purpose

25:12 Exploring the Potential for Artificial Life and Relevance Realization in AI

33:31 AI: Neither Just a Tool nor a Full-Blown Agent

37:10 The Deflation of AI and the Search for Purpose

39:29 Caring for the True, Good, and Beautiful

44:54 The Difference in Caring

48:31 Starting at the Pinnacle of Cultural Ratcheting

53:31 The Limitations of Imitation

55:47 Relevance Realizing Machines

01:02:57 Theological Considerations

01:06:38 The Sin of Displacement

01:10:45 Philosophical and Theological Reflection

Sam Tideman is the host of Transfigured, a profound religious and philosophical thinker, and a Google data engineer.

Check out Sam's channel: https://www.youtube.com/@transfigured3673

In this podcast, we are talking about the limits of artificial intelligence, social media, evolution and the cult of trans-humanism.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction and Skepticism of AI's Capabilities

09:12 The Challenge of Quantifying Wisdom and Enlightenment in AI

33:23 The Limitations of AI and the Need for Human Intervention

52:44 The Risks of AI Cults and the Importance of a Religious Framework

PS want to support the Wisdom Dojo?

You can sign up for a one-time gift or a monthly donation, and all funds are used to cover the running costs of the pod 👇

www.mahonmccann.com/gift

D. C. Schindler is professor of metaphysics and anthropology at the John Paul II Institute, Washington, DC. He is the author of eleven books, including Freedom from Reality: The Diabolical Character of Modern Liberty (University of Notre Dame Press, 2017) (get his books here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/D-C-Schindler/e/B001JRTOAU)

The podcast discusses the ontology of stories, fact vs fiction, materialism, perception, naive realism, platonism, Christianity and more.

Chapters:

00:00 The Ontological and Epistemological Status of Stories

03:34 The Separation Between Fact and Fiction

07:27 The Reductionist View of Truth

10:25 The Role of Stories in Mapping Reality

13:07 The Limitations of the Scientific Model of Reality

15:21 The Journey of Knowing and Understanding

19:06 The Misuse of the Term 'Artificial Intelligence'

21:45 The Breakdown of the Bond Between Reality and Truth

23:28 The Influence of the Enlightenment

25:45 The Role of Nominalism in the Shift in Perception of God

27:07 The Journey Towards the Really Real

29:53 The Self-Defeating Nature of Denying All Truth

31:44 Starting with What People Care About

31:57 The Inescapability of the Good

33:03 The Significance of a Troubled Conscience

34:15 The Connection Between Universal and Particular Stories

35:12 The Role of Transcendent Goodness in Drama

37:07 The Presence of Goodness in Characters

38:29 The Dramatic Power of Forgiveness

39:21 The Revelation of Character in Decisions

40:34 The Role of Goodness in Decision-Making

41:25 Truth as Disclosure and Revelation

43:30 The Loss of Meaning and the Need for Stories

44:29 The Connection Between Stories and Tradition

45:45 The Disconnect from Tradition and the Search for Meaning

46:13 Christianity as the Ultimate Story

46:56 The Parallels Between Christianity and Plato's Philosophy

48:22 The Distrust and Loss of Meaning in a Secular Culture

50:30 The Difference Between Story and Entertainment

51:50 The Relevance and Universality of Meaningful Stories

52:31 The Connection to Tradition and the Bigger Order of Things

53:27 The Anti-Traditionalism of American Culture

55:20 The Truncated Sense of Tradition in Modern Culture

57:21 The Disconnect from Wisdom and Deep Stories

58:26 The Need for a Recovery of Tradition and Meaning

PS want to support the Wisdom Dojo?

You can sign up for a one-time gift or a monthly donation, and all funds are used to cover the running costs of the pod 👇

John is a professor of cognitive science and cognitive psychology at the University of Toronto and the creator of "Awakening from the Meaning Crisis." (check out his channel here and the PP and RR integration talk here ).

In this podcast, we are discussing

* predictive processing

* John’s integration of predictive processing and relevance realisation

* the nature and function of attention

* Attention’s relation to agency and meaning in life

* How can this new understanding of human beings be used to create aligned AI

Chapters:

00:00 The Quest for Inner Peace and Optimal Agency

00:23 Welcoming John Verveke: A Dialogue on Attention and AI

00:32 Unveiling the Intricacies of Attention

00:45 Predictive Processing and Relevance Realization: A Deep Dive

01:51 Exploring the Spotlight Metaphor of Attention

02:35 Beyond the Spotlight: A New Understanding of Attention

04:04 Attention as Cognitive Unison: A Revolutionary Perspective

05:21 The Interplay of Attention and Relevance Realization

06:35 Precision Weighting: Bridging Predictive Processing and Relevance Realization

07:30 From Cause Theories to Effect Theories of Attention

09:19 The Emergence of Agency and the Role of Relevance Realization

10:13 Predictive Processing: A Framework for Anticipation

10:40 The Meta Problems of Anticipation and Relevance Realization

14:46 Predictive Processing and the Sensory Motor Loop

18:39 The Bias-Variance Trade-off in Predictive Processing

20:34 Opponent Processing and Optimal Grip: A New Model of Attention

22:52 Enhancing Agency and the Potential for Self-Deception

25:26 Agency Emerges: Autopoietic Correction and Self-Organization

27:17 Meaning as Optimal Agency: The Confluence of Predictive Processing and Relevance Realization

29:12 The Autopoietic Nature of Mind and Body

29:55 Plato's Insights on Internal Coordination

30:33 The Quest for Optimal Agency and Inner Peace

31:12 Predictive Processing and Motivation

32:23 The Role of Persuasive Technologies

32:44 Anticipation in Spatial and Temporal Contexts

34:56 Optimal Agency and Collective Intelligence

36:00 The Platonic Proposal for Human Flourishing

37:55 AI as Agents vs. AI as Environment

42:32 The Potential of AI to Foster Human Enlightenment

43:45 Mentoring Machines for a Better Future

45:18 The Challenge of Social Media Reform

46:22 The Wicked Problem of Relevance Realization

51:25 Stealing the Culture: A Bottom-Up Approach

52:36 Historical Precedents for Cultural Transformation

53:35 The Advent of a New Sacredness

57:35 Redefining Success and Addressing Existential Questions

01:01:21 The Silicon Sages: A Vision for AI

01:01:37 Concluding Thoughts and Hopeful Outlook

PS want to support the Wisdom Dojo?

You can sign up for a one-time gift or a monthly donation, and all funds are used to cover the running costs of the pod 👇

www.mahonmccann.com/gift

Adam Safron, Ph. D., is a Cognitive Scientist and psychologist who studies the nature of preferences and motivation from mechanistic, developmental, and evolutionary perspectives. Recently, he has proposed a model of embodied agency and free will and is working on a unified mechanistic account of psychedelics.

This podcast discusses free will and embodied agency, the key role of attention and imagination, and the consequences of an individual's pursuit of meaning in life.

Check out Adam's website 👇

https://www.adamsafron.com/

Google Scholar 👇

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=dZOoilgAAAAJ&hl=en

The Paper discussed on embodied agency 👇

https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/23/6/783

Chapters:

00:00 Struggling with the Question of Free Will

04:14 Starting from the Fundamental Mechanics

06:34 Understanding How Agency Works

09:46 Unifying Physicalism and Idealism

12:24 Bridging the Gap Between Religion and Science

17:48 Tracing the Mechanics of Action Selection

18:16 The Evolution of Inhibition and Mental Simulation

22:19 Conscientiousness and the Ability to Inhibit Distraction

25:32 Embodied Self Models and Conscientiousness

28:02 The Connection Between Conscientiousness and Conscience

31:14 The Development of Imaginative Capacity for Agency

35:02 The Connection Between Embodied Self Models and Meaning

39:03 The Pursuit of Developmental Meaning

42:43 The Disconnect Between Fitness in Reality and Digital

43:51 The Normative Constraint of Imaginative Capacity

45:28 The Destination of Agency: Enslavement to the Highest Good

46:38 Neoplatonic Philosophy and Predictive Processing

50:29 Distributed Cognition and Democracy

51:13 Unity of the Soul and the Polis

52:11 Practical Applications of Understanding Agency

54:08 Creating Benevolent Agents

55:22 Ethics and Principles in Technology

56:19 Mission and Conclusion

Rick Repetti is a philosophy professor, meditation teacher, and author of several publications on free will (find more of Rick's work below).

Rick’s website: https://www.rickrepetti.com/

Awaken to meaning: https://awakentomeaning.com/

American Philosophical Practitioners Association: https://appa.edu/

In this podcast, we are critiquing Sapolski’s “determined” steel manning his case with the philosophy of determinism and showing how human beings possess the “degrees of freedom worth having” and how wisdom and spiritual traditions offer tools to enhance our agency.

Check out the conversation 👇

https://youtu.be/AJGyeZkGFLo

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction and Sapolsky's Argument

04:19 Critique of Sapolsky's Argument

07:31 Legacy of Newtonian Causality

09:45 Determinism and Free Will

11:13 Indeterminism and Free Will

16:46 The Dialogical Self

19:40 Meditation and Self-Conditioning

26:28 Ultimate Moral Responsibility

32:37 Self-Forming Actions and Free Will

37:18 The Dialogical Self and Agency

42:02 Attention and Agency

48:00 Cultivating Agency through Meditation

51:05 Opponent Processing and Evolution

52:07 Attentional Flexibility and Imaginary Attention

53:01 Simulating Other Minds and Counterfactual Reasoning

54:07 Simulating the Future and Rational Deliberation

55:07 Taking Processes Offline and Online

56:32 Rational Agency and Thinking

57:03 Liver Enzymes and Rationality

57:29 Simulating Ideas and Writing

58:25 Inhibition and Simulation

59:33 Attentional Deficit and Meditative Practices

01:00:15 Organizing Behavior Across Time

01:01:14 Prudential Reasoning and Agency

01:02:11 Debating Sapolsky and Future Projects

01:03:37 Philosophical Practitioners Association and Book Club

01:05:43 Philosophy of Meditation Series and APA Courses

01:06:08 Weekly Meditations and Starter Ecology of Practices

Jelle Bruineberg is an assistant professor at the University of Copenhagen, Department of Media, Cognition and Communication.

Read his paper ‘Adversarial Inference: Predictive Minds in the Attention Economy’: 

https://academic.oup.com/nc/article/2023/1/niad019/7251284

In this podcast, we discuss the attention economy, the psychology and cognitive science of attention, predictive processing, AI and the future of the internet. 

Watch the full conversation 👇

https://youtu.be/W8BAXZVNph0

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction to the Attention Economy and Adversarial Inference

06:37  Limitations of the Broadbandian Conception of Attention

08:14 The Role of Action in Attention

11:51 The Relationship Between Attention and Executive Function

15:36 External and Internal Triggers in Attention

17:28 The Role of Self-Modeling in Attention and Agency

20:28 The Impact of Digital Environments on Attention and Concentration

25:06 Precariousness of Agency and Environmental Scaffolding

27:46 The Role of Positive Affect and Dopamine in Attention

31:59 Designing Environments to Support Attention and Agency

36:29 The Influence of AI on the Attention Economy and Agency

47:17 The Role of AI in Society

48:44 The Impact of Technology on Affordances

49:13 Regulating Digital Technologies

50:12 Building Agency-Enhancing Technologies

51:30 The Need for a New Philosophy

53:55 The Challenge of a Unified Theory of Attention

55:59 Attention as a Core Cognitive Process

56:45 Rebuilding the Internet

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