Shauna Winram

Incredible work, as always, by my friend Liz Pienkos: "Understanding, schizophrenia, and the limits of phenomenology" journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…

here's my philosophical eulogy for @danieldennett, in a memorial session at @ASSC27tokyo. the first half is biography; the second half is more personal. i'm honored to have been his adversary. i'm privileged to have been his friend. youtube.com/watch?v=dQl8Xx…

this clip of me talking about AI consciousness seems to have gone wide. it's from a @worldscifest panel where @bgreene asked for "yes or no" opinions (not arguments!) on the issue. if i were to turn the opinion into an argument, it might go something like this: (1) biology can support consciousness. (2) biology and silicon aren't relevantly different in principle [such that one can support consciousness and the other not]. therefore: (3) silicon can support consciousness in principle. note that this simple argument isn't at all original -- some version of it can probably be found in putnam, turing, or earlier. note also that the (controversial!) claim that the brain is a machine (which comes down to what one means by "machine") plays no essential role in the argument. of course reasonable people can disagree about the premises! perhaps the key premise is (2) and it requires support. one way to support it is to go through various candidates for a relevant principled difference between biology and silicon and argue that none of them are plausible. another way is through the neuromorphic replacement argument that i discuss later in the same conversation. some see a tension between (1)/(3) and the hard problem. but there's not much tension: one can simultaneously allow that brains support consciousness and observe that there's an explanatory gap between the two that may take new principles to bridge. the same goes for AI systems. this isn't a change of mind: i've argued for the possibility of AI consciousness since the 1990s. my 1994 talk on the hard problem (youtube.com/watch?v=_lWp-6…) outlined an "organizational invariance" principle that tends to support AI consciousness. you can find versions of the two strategies above for arguing for premise 2 in chapters 6 and 7 of my 1996 book "the conscious mind". i'm not suggesting that current AI systems are conscious. but in a separate article on the possibility of consciousness in language models (bostonreview.net/articles/could…), i've made a related argument that within ten years or so, we may well have systems that are serious candidates for consciousness. the strategy in that article on LLM consciousness is analogous to the first strategy above in arguing for AI consciousness more generally. i go through the most plausible obstacles to consciousness in language models, and i argue that even if these obstacles exclude consciousness in current systems, they may well be overcome in a decade. of course none of this is certain. but i think AI consciousness is something we have to take seriously. [the full conversation with @bgreene and @anilkseth can be found at youtube.com/watch?v=06-iq-…]

Another paper out, this one on cognitive representation with @stephenfmann. In a nutshell, we think teleosemantics and predictive processing mesh together well... but we’re pluralists: structural representations are also needed. link.springer.com/article/10.100…

@jzdambrosio Good to hear :) Are you just visiting?

Come back to Chicago from Scotland. It’s 80 degrees, the sky is bright blue. Go for a run in Horner Park. See the kids playing little league. Drink a Daisy Cutter outside. Happy to be home.

@Philip_Goff take care and heal wellxxx.

A week since my accident, which resulted in crack to my skull and 2 brain bleeds. I'm healing well. My wonderful mum staying to help with kids, thus allowing me to do nothing but relax for first time I can remember. I've been working my way through all the Ghostbuster movies!

Very excited to have a Neuroview piece on infant consciousness in the @NeuroCellPress Neuron special issue on consciousness. Claudia Passos-Ferreira, Can we detect consciousness in newborn infants? Neuron authors.elsevier.com/a/1j5Yo_KOmxK7…

Ruben Laukkonen - "The power of insight: Psychedelics and the emergence of new beliefs" @RubenLaukkonen

Our commentary on Harding et al.’s intriguing updated predictive coding model of delusions just appeared. We discuss some points of convergence and difference with our own phenomenological perspective. @PaulPcf22 @RRitunnano @TheLancetPsych thelancet.com/journals/lanps…

Conference: 'Predictive Self-Modeling and the Phenomenology of Psychosis' (Hybrid) 2-3 May, Instituto de Sistemas Complejos Artilleria 270, Valparaíso, Chile Part of the RPP Project @wellcometrust Share widely! @CRosenPhD @uvalpochile @InvestigandoUV @SocialesUV @ComplejosISCV

new work by me & Louis Sass on the diagnostic concept of schizophrenia just appeared. We critically consider its enduring relevance from a phenomenological perspective and discuss recent updates in its conceptualization. Freely available through link 👇 authors.elsevier.com/c/1j0F23HQGmiI…

We're deeply saddened by professor Daniel Dennett's passing. We recently had the privilege of interviewing Dennett for our Legends series. It is with heavy hearts we share his video to further spread his wisdom and legacy 🖤

‘I’m 28. And I’m Scheduled to Die in May.’ Why? Depression, autism, and borderline personality disorder Her psychiatrist: “there’s nothing more we can do for you. It’s never gonna get any better.” THIS is why we need action NOW! thefp.com/p/im-28-and-im…

My book Mental Imagery: Philosophy, Psychology, Neuroscience (OUP, 2023) is now officially open access. You can download the PDF for free here: global.oup.com/academic/produ…

vimeo.com/793944673/d39b… Currently seeking participants in Australia who are over 18 and have experienced at least one psychotic episode and are not currently in hospital or experiencing significant distress or psychotic symptoms. Many thanks! anu.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1E…

Here's a new preprint by us (Barnaby Nelson, Louis Sass & myself) pointing out problems with the 'minimal self'-approach of self-disorders, & exploring an alternative 'transparency-account'. We also discuss research and clinical advantages of the latter. osf.io/preprints/psya…

@Philip_Goff @MLStreetTalk Terrific video Philip! :) congrats.

One of the most well-made videos I've had the pleasure to appear in. Thanks @MLStreetTalk! It's also hilarious! I just wish I'd ironed my jumper...

Ever wonder what principled distinction can be drawn between religious delusion and religious belief? We manage it well in practice, but it can be hard to achieve reflective clarity on it. ... Here's my, & Simon Clarke's, own new suggestion - Open Access: tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

CPCR Faculty David Yaden (@ExistWell) and bioethics scholar Katherine Cheung (@Katherine_Chg) wrote a commentary on Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes’ (@PeterSjostedtH) proposal on handling metaphysical beliefs in the context of psychedelic research. Check it out! frontiersin.org/articles/10.33…

New Post: Recently Published Book Spotlight: The Substance of Consciousness buff.ly/41DD4uY