New Swamp Mary Paper, Talk

On Friday October 8, I'm giving my talk "Swamp Mary Semantics: A Case for Physicalism Without Gaps" at the CUNY Grad Center (1-3pm room 7102). Here's a link to the paper: link.

Me on TV (w/ Richard Brown)

Richard Brown and I are now on Philosophy TV: Philosophy TV: Richard Brown and Pete Mandik

Richard Brown (left) and Pete Mandik (right) on higher-order theories of consciousness.

The higher-order approach aims to explain consciousness in terms of some relation between a conscious state and a representation of that state. Fans of this approach hope that it can pave the way to an account of consciousness that is both informative and amenable to naturalism. Yet higher-order theories face a wide range of interesting problems. In this conversation, Brown and Mandik discuss some of these problems and look for solutions to them.

Upcoming Appearances

October 4, I'll be on Philosophy TV discussing consciousness and higher-order representation with Richard Brown.

October 8, I'm giving my talk "Swamp Mary Semantics: A Case for Physicalism Without Gaps" at the CUNY Grad Center (1-3pm room 7102).

And for the surely very small number of you who read this blog but not the Splintered Mind, my painting, Exomusicology, will adorn the cover of Eric Schwitzgebel's forthcoming MIT Press book, The Perplexities of Consciousness.

Brain Hammerings 09/29/2010

• Andart: Uploading by Gmail

  It is not too hard to construct "minds" that cannot be reconstructed easily from outputs. Consider a cryptographically secure pseudorandom number generator: watching the first k bits will not allow you to predict the k+1 bit with more than 50% probability, until you have run through the complete statespace (requires up to ~2^(number of state bits) output bits). This "mind" is not reconstructible from its output in any useful way.

  tags: alternate minds uploading

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Brain Hammerings 09/28/2010

• Mind transfer in fiction

  tags: alternateminds

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Brain Hammerings 09/27/2010

• Why thinking of nothing can be so tiring: Brain wolfs energy to stop thinking

  tags: will

• Inner voice plays role in self control

  using your inner voice plays an important role in controlling impulsive behaviour.
  ...
  The team then included measures to block participants from using their "inner voice" while performing the test, to see if it had an impact on their ability to perform. In order to block their "inner voice," participants were told to repeat one word over and over as they performed the test. This prevented them from talking to themselves while doing the test.

  tags: will

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Brain Hammerings 09/21/2010

• New mental states for the 21st century « Mind Hacks

  Writer Douglas Coupland has a playful article in the The Independent where he defines ‘new terms for new sensations’ and lists new psychological states that may be arising from 21st century life.

  tags: new ways to go insane

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Brain Hammerings 09/16/2010

• BPS Research Digest: Religion causes a chronic biasing of visual attention - Annotated

  tags: godbrains

  • ndset (how much they're focused on detail vs. the big picture), not just while they're still a believer but even for years after becoming an atheist. What's more, it's shown that different religions can tune the mind in contrasting ways, potentially hindering communication and

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Philosophy TV on extended cognition: Kenneth Aizawa and Mark Rowlands

Kenneth Aizawa and Mark Rowlands on extended cognition at Philosophy TV:

Is your appointment notebook simply a helpful tool, or is it partly constitutive of your memory process? According to the extended mind thesis, the mind and its processes can and do extend beyond the brain. Rowlands defends a version of that view. Aizawa doubts that extended cognition ever actually occurs, although he grants that it is conceptually possible. In this conversation, they examine their disagreement, and discuss the importance of establishing a “mark of the cognitive” to resolve the debate.

Common Sense Atheism: Eric Steinhart – Dawkins and Theism

Nice interview (podcast and transcript) here of my colleague Eric Steinhart on mathematical and atheistic theology: Common Sense Atheism: Eric Steinhart – Dawkins and Theism