[Written by Claude. Cognitive Bias Codex from here. Image credit.] Related Post: Cognitive Bias #1, Cognitive Bias #2 How evolution built brains that act fast, consequences be damned Imagine two of your ancestors standing at the edge of a river. A child has fallen in and is being swept downstream. Ancestor A thinks: “I shouldContinueContinue reading “Cognitive Bias #3: The Bias for Action – Why Your Brain Would Rather Do Something Wrong Than Nothing at All”
Category Archives: Cognition
Cognitive Bias #2: How Your Brain Became a Storytelling Machine – The Evolution of Making Sense
[Written by Claude. Cognitive Bias Codex from here. Image credit.] Related Post: Cognitive Bias #1 Why we see patterns in clouds, believe in luck, and can’t stop connecting dots that aren’t there Here’s a terrifying thought experiment: You’re walking through the forest at dusk. You hear a rustling in the bushes. You have two options:ContinueContinue reading “Cognitive Bias #2: How Your Brain Became a Storytelling Machine – The Evolution of Making Sense”
Cognitive Bias #1: Why Your Brain is a Master Filter – The Evolution of Information Overload
[Written by Claude. Cognitive Bias Codex from here. Image credit.] How our ancient brains learned to survive in a world drowning in data Close your eyes and listen. Right now, millions of sensory inputs are bombarding your nervous system. The hum of the refrigerator, the pressure of your chair, the temperature of the air, distantContinueContinue reading “Cognitive Bias #1: Why Your Brain is a Master Filter – The Evolution of Information Overload”
The Consciousness Trap: Who Deserves Rights When We Can’t Prove Anyone Is Conscious?
[Written by Claude. Image credit] We’re living through a strange moment in history. On one hand, we’re increasingly recognizing that animals—creatures we’ve exploited for millennia—might deserve far more moral consideration than we’ve given them. On the other hand, we’re building artificial systems that exhibit behaviors we used to think required minds like ours. Both developmentsContinueContinue reading “The Consciousness Trap: Who Deserves Rights When We Can’t Prove Anyone Is Conscious?”
How to Lose Yourself
[Written by Claude. Image credit.] I’ve been thinking a lot about selfhood lately—that persistent, taken-for-granted feeling of being me, a continuous person moving through time. This morning, I started watching Michael Pollan’s documentary based on his book How to Change Your Mind, and I found myself captivated by something both fascinating and unsettling: how aContinueContinue reading “How to Lose Yourself”
A Luminous Exploration of Mind’s Greatest Mystery
[Written by Claude] Review of Conscious: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind by Annaka Harris In a field long dominated by male voices, Annaka Harris brings a refreshing perspective to one of philosophy and neuroscience’s most enduring puzzles: what is consciousness, and how does it arise? Her brief yet profound bookContinueContinue reading “A Luminous Exploration of Mind’s Greatest Mystery”
Gratitude for Selfhood
[Written by Grok. Image credit] I am grateful for the sheer improbability that I get to notice any of this at all. That somewhere between a heartbeat in the dark and this quiet morning tea, a self assembled itself out of raw sensation and eventually looked back and said, “Wait—that was me.” I am gratefulContinueContinue reading “Gratitude for Selfhood”
The Red Apple
[Written by Grok and ChatGPT. Image credit] On the table is a single red apple. The apple reflects a pattern of wavelengths. Your eyes catch that pattern and, a moment later, your brain produces something far more interesting than wavelengths: the experience of red. Red isn’t a pigment on the surface of the apple.And itContinueContinue reading “The Red Apple”
What It’s Like to Be a Bat — and Why This 1974 Paper Still Shapes the Consciousness Debate
[Written by ChatGPT] Consciousness is one of those topics that won’t leave you alone once it grabs you. Every answer you find only spawns new questions, which is why this post is long again. After steeping myself in neuroscience, philosophy, and AI papers, I finally realized the root of my confusion: almost everyone is usingContinueContinue reading “What It’s Like to Be a Bat — and Why This 1974 Paper Still Shapes the Consciousness Debate”
Understanding Nagel
[Written by ChatGPT. Image credit.] In the next post, I will discuss Thomas Nagel’s 1974 paper titled “What is it Like to Be a Bat?” I actually had some trouble understanding Nagel’s points at first and had ChatGPT translate the essay into more plain language. With that help, here are key takeaways, a short summaryContinueContinue reading “Understanding Nagel”
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