Space Time Mind

Episode 40: Crungus Among Us (with Alex Kiefer)

Watch the video of this discussion here: https://youtu.be/ASYDMgMfCtk Alex Kiefer’s webpage http://alexbkiefer.net Alex Kiefer’s music (as exileFakir): https://exilefaker.bandcamp.com WaPo story about Google engineer Blake Lemoine and LaMDA: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/11/google-ai-lamda-blake-lemoine/ SpaceTimeMind Episode 28: Psychedelic Artificial Neural Networks: http://www.spacetimemind.com/blog/2015/6/30/episode-28-psychedelic-artificial-neural-networks Beho...

Episode 39: Complicated Moist Robots (with Tarik LaCour)

Video discussion from which this episode’s audio is taken: https://youtu.be/HI7OsUfPzHI Tarik LaCour on twitter: https://twitter.com/realscientistic Tarik’s conversation with Emerson Green: https://youtu.be/M3ShG06vJ2A Additional info and credits: Intro narration: Rachelle Mandik rachellemandik.com Movie clip quote from: The Creation of the Humanoids (1962): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Creation_of_the_Humanoids) SpaceTimeMind Theme Song, Intro Version: Richard Brown on Drums and ...

Episode 38: The Spirit of the Senses Session

Video discussion from which this episode’s audio is taken: https://youtu.be/b_oRS7nIujg Webpage for the Spirit of the Senses Salon: http://spiritofthesenses.org/moreaboutus.htm Additional info and credits: Intro narration: Rachelle Mandik rachellemandik.com Movie clip quote from: War of the Satellites (1958) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Satellites SpaceTimeMind Theme Song, Intro Version: Richard Brown on Drums and Pete Mandik on everything else. Mid-episode break music: Spr...

Episode 37: Rainbow in the Dark (with Jacob Berger)

Video discussion from which this episode’s audio is taken: https://youtu.be/I1p2MnXnvzc Jake’s webpage: https://jfberger.wixsite.com/home Jacob Berger & Richard Brown (2021) Conceptualizing consciousness, Philosophical Psychology, 34:5, 637-659. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09515089.2021.1914326 Berger 2 A Defense of Holistic Representationalism, Mind & Language 33(2): 161-176. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/mila.12163 David Rosenthal, There’s Nothing ab...

Merch!

Merch! It exists; it is available; I’m here to tell you about it. There are THREE flavors of SpaceTimeMind merch, and they’re all available in my RedBubble shop linked here: LINK. The three flavors of SpaceTimeMerch: Logo, Cowboy, and Jellyfish. Go hog wild. Get a teeshirt. Or some coffee mugs. Stickers, even. Proceeds go to pay for keeping the podcast casting (which mostly is just web hosting fees). If you score some cool SpaceTimeMind merch, be sure to tell us about it here or on twitt...

Episode 36: NeuroYogacara (with Bryce Huebner)

Video discussion from which this episode’s audio is taken: https://youtu.be/8e847S4uGWo Bryce’s webpage: https://brycehuebner.weebly.com Gold, Jonathan C., "Vasubandhu", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2021/entries/vasubandhu/

Episode 35: Consciousness and Funky Content

In order to account for consciousness in terms of representational content, how FUNKY does the content need to be? Along the way we discuss the representation of inexistents and whether mathematical structuralism can shed light on the conceivability of undetectable qualia inversions. Is there any real difference (as opposed to a merely notational difference) between the square root of negative one and the negative square root of negative one? If so, what would that tell us about the question ...

Episode 34: Awareness, Attention, and Globally Accessible Information

ATTENTION! Richard Brown and Pete Mandik shine their spotlights on the philosophy of mind of attention and awareness. Many philosophers of mind endorse the Transitivity Principle, the view that if you have a conscious state, you must be aware of that state. But what is the best account of the relevant notion of awareness? Is attending a kind of awareness? Further, is it a kind of awareness that is distinct from the awareness one has in virtue of perceiving, thinking about, or sensing somethin...

Episode 33: The Philosophy of Mind of Pain (with David Pereplyotchik)

Prof. David Pereplyotchik once again joins Pete Mandik to tackle pain in the philosophy of mind. Can there be a scientific reductive explanation of pain. Can robots feel pain? Will this hurt? We here continue the conversation we started in SpaceTimeMind Episode 27.

Episode 32: Technological Immortality and Secular Hell

Richard Brown and Pete Mandik debate the following proposal: The worst thing you can imagine happening to you is an event that has a non-zero probability of occurring at any given moment, and the longer you stay alive, the greater the chances become of that thing happening at some point in your lifetime. Would literally infinitely-lived immortals necessarily run into their own worst imaginable hell? Would even finite, but long-lived transhuman lifespans increase their chances of suffering by ...

Episode 31: Future Philosophy

Get in the Delorean, Marty! It’s time for the future of philosophy and the philosophy of the future. Philosophers and chrononauts Richard Brown and Pete Mandik overclock their flux capacitors to see if philosophy has a chance of surviving into the deep future of the human race. In the first half of the episode, they discuss the future of life itself. Along the way they hit Nick Bostrom’s “Great Filter” argument, Susan Schneider’s argument that aliens will be robots, and Pete’s own “Metaphysic...

Episode 30: Singularity Cinema: Ex Machina and Advantageous

Spoilers galore as philosophers Richard Brown and Pete Mandik wade up to their necks in spoilers to discuss recent cinematic depictions of (spoiler) artificial intelligence and (another spoiler) mind-uploading, especially in the 2015 films Ex Machina and Advantageous. DID WE MENTION THERE WILL BE SPOILERS? The first half of the episode largely focuses on Ex Machina and we shift to Advantageous for the second half. Also: Spoilers.

Episode 29: The Rise and Fall of Phizzy Callizm and the Spiders From Mars

Gather up your microphysical constituents and embark on an epic audio odyssey wherein Richard Brown and Pete Mandik rock out about: physicalism, whether the mind is physical, how best to define "physical" and "physicalism," whether the physical universe is causally closed, and whether brainless spiders from Mars can have minds, etcetera, etcetera, and so on, and so forth. TO BE PLAYED AT MAXIMUM VOLUME

Station Identification

You are listening to SpaceTimeMind, a podcast by two philosophy professors, Richard Brown, and Pete Mandik, who talk about philosophy, science, and all sorts of other stuff. Please be advised that this podcast contains strong language and abstract ideas not suitable for all intelligent life forms.

DIY Inceptionism

The Google research team has released the code for the inceptionism artificial neural network image processing that we discuss in Episode 28. Download the code packages HERE. If that seems like too much, you can play around with a browser-based implementation HERE. Here's the inceptionized SpaceTimeMind logo:   And here's the inceptionized version of the Episode 28 show art: And finally, check out this cool video my Memo Akten:   #deepdream #inceptionism

Episode 28: Psychedelic Artificial Neural Networks

Cognitive philosophers Richard Brown and Pete Mandik examine recent claims by Google researchers to have implemented dreams, imagery, and hallucinations in artificial neural networks. The images created by these artificial systems are kind of cool, but can anything at all be learned from such projects about how the mind or brain actually functions? Richard and Pete move from there to debate connectionism, AI, and rationalist vs. empiricist methodologies in the philosophy of cognitive science....

Episode 27: Pains and Brains (with David Pereplyotchik)

Pete Mandik is once again joined by David Pereplyotchik (see episode 25) and this time they enter into a world of pain. Are pains identical to states of brains? Are pains fully accessible only from the first-person point of view? Is there anything contradictory about the idea of unconscious pains? Can you merely seem to yourself to be suffering without actually really being in a state of suffering? Will Pete and David answer any of these questions about pain in the philosophy of mind?

Episode 26: Your Digital Afterlives (with Eric Steinhart)

Pete Mandik talks to philosopher Eric Steinhart (William Paterson University) about his book, Your Digital Afterlives: Computational Theories of Life after Death. They dig deep into the computational and value-theoretic foundations of all existence. Other topics tackled include atheistic neopaganism, the cognitive science of hyper-arousal trances, the prudential self-concern of mind-uploads, entheogenic drugs, and Roko’s basilisk. Get comfy with a hot bowl of monads and enjoy the show while a...

Episode 25: Leaning Into the Linguistic Turn (with David Pereplyotchik)

Pete Mandik is joined by David Pereplyotchik (assistant professor of philosophy at Kent State University) to sleep furiously on some colorless green ideas. Also, they talk about language. Grammar, meaning, truth, translation, Google, and the difficulty in faking deafness are just a few of the topics tackled.

Episode 24: Fading Qualia

Is it a law of nature that if your neurons are gradually replaced with silicon chips, your qualia won’t thereby gradually fade? Can the armchair methodology of analytic metaphysics deliver knowledge of natural laws? Or can the boundaries of the nomologically possible be discerned only within the natural sciences? And who cares? Richard Brown and Pete Mandik, that’s who!

Episode 23: Transhumanist Hot Tub (w Ken Williford)

Richard Brown takes a one-episode hiatus while Pete Mandik heads down to Texas to talk to philosopher Ken Williford. Pete and Ken discuss whether (1) it’s desirable for humans to transform themselves into something alien, (2) whether we or our brains are already alien to us, and (3) whether an “acquaintance relation” view of consciousness is consistent with physicalism.

Episode 22: Time Shuffling, Finger Sausages, and a Brain Made out of Paper.

After two physics episodes in a row Richard Brown and Pete "Macho Bluff" Mandik dial the way-back machine to the Golden Era of Dinosaur Travel and kick out some old-school philosophy of mind jams. In part 1 ("Time Shuffling") they sort some stuff out about temporal counterpart theory and so-called “real identity.” In part 2 (“Finger Sausages”) they tackle the transparency of conscious experience and phenomenal acquaintance. In part 3 (“A Brain Made out of Paper”) they discuss the extended min...

We successfully uploaded three hours of consciousness to our YouTube channel

We just had a very large and satisfying video dump that you should go check out. Not to spoil too many surprises, but do check out Richard's new glasses! Philosophy of mind and philosophy of science by professors Richard Brown and Pete Mandik. Part 1: Fourdimensionalism, eternalism, mereology, and hoaks Part 2: Finger sausages, Aristotle's illusion, transparency, and acquaintance Part 3: Panpsychism Philosophy of mind and philosophy of science by professors Richard Brown and Pete Mandik Pa...

Episode 21: Three Men and a Baby Universe (with Sean Carroll)

Physicist Sean Carroll joins philosophers Richard Brown and Pete Mandik on the SpaceTimeMind podcast to discuss, for example: anti-intellectual academics; intelligent design and fine tuning; entropy, decoherence, and the arrow of time, baby Benjamin-Button universes; Boltzmann brains; lambda cold dark matter; many worlds; disappearing worlds; interacting worlds. And much much more!

Coming This Winter

Check out our latest trailer and find out what's coming up this winter on the SpaceTimeMind podcast.

Episode 20: Paradoxes of Physical Information

Philosophers of mind and science Richard Brown and Pete Mandik burn the book of the world while orbiting a decaying black hole with Maxwell’s demon, a reversible cellular automaton, and can of whoop-ass worms. Will they survive? Will one of them successfully execute the argumentative equivalent of the Five-Point-Palm Exploding-Heart-Technique against the other? And how would you even know?

Episode 19: Fun, Pain, and Ontology (with Eric Kaplan)

Does all of reality exceed what we believe about it? Even the reality of fun? How about the reality of pain? Eric Linus Kaplan is an author (Does Santa Exist?), a TV writer (Big Bang Theory, Futurama), and an all-around philosophical dude (Buddhist monk, UC Berkeley philosophy doctoral student). Eric joins philosophy professors Richard Brown and Pete Mandik, co-hosts of the SpaceTimeMind podcast, for a discussion of ontology.

Episode 18: Truth and Naturalism

Philosophers Richard Brown and Pete Mandik continue their discussion from the SpaceTimeMind podcast’s Episode 11 on Scientism. Here they focus on naturalistic versions of truth and reality. Can evolution by natural selection ground our ability to represent truths that transcend usefulness? If it can’t, what can?

Episode 17: Memory, Emotion, and Consciousness (with Joe LeDoux)

Neuroscientist and rock star Joseph LeDoux (NYU) joins SpaceTimeMind podcast co-hosts and philosophers Richard Brown (CUNY) and Pete Mandik (WPU) to discus the neural bases of memory, emotion, and consciousness in human and non-human brains.

Episode 16: Singularity and Sociopathy (with Roger Williams)

Philosopher kings Richard Brown and Pete Mandik are once again joined on the SpaceTimeMind podcast by science fiction author and essayist Roger Williams. In the first part of the episode we discuss the technological singularity as well as Williams' own singularity tale, The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect. The themes of transformation continue on through to the last part of the episode, where we discuss Roger's essay, "Hannibal Lecter as Transhumanist Icon." So, slap some sim-stim 'trodes on...

Episode 15: Supernature (with Roger Williams and Gregg Caruso)

In this episode of the SpaceTimeMind podcast we discuss supernature, a hypothetical realm that is, in some sense, above and beyond the world accessible to the natural sciences. In part one of the episode, Richard Brown and Pete Mandik are joined by science fiction author Roger Williams. In part two, we are joined by philosopher Gregg Caruso, who you may remember from episode 7 on free will. If you notice anything strange occurring while you listen to this episode, please let us know about it ...

MindChunk: Don't Torture Your Norns

What moral obligations do we have to sims?

Episode 14: Eternalism Versus Presentism (with Brit Brogaard)

A 3-D object, fully present in the now, walks into a bar where the bartender is a 4-D spacetime worm. The worm asks the object “Why so tense?” Further instantiations of such high-grade philoso-physical hilarity ensue in this, the third episode of the SpaceTimeMind podcast on the topic of time. Brit Brogaard is back by popular demand, and this time a Brogaard/Brown presentist team-up gives Pete “Erstwhile Eternalist” Mandik a run for his money…forever.

LOL WUT

MindChunk: How do you know you're not a zombie?

We spent more on special effects for this MindChunk than on all previous MindChunks combined! Richard Brown from ground control talks Pete Mandik through some repairs to the mothership. Along the way they find time to discuss the question of whether you can be absolutely certain that you have conscious experiences.

Episode 13: Neurophilosophy and Consciousness (with Brit Brogaard)

Hide your brains; the neurophilosophers are coming! Philosopher and Neuroscientist Berit (Brit) Brogaard joins Richard Brown and Pete Mandik on the SpaceTimeMind podcast to discuss what makes some states of the mind or brain conscious and others unconscious. Is this sort of question answerable from a psychological or philosophical perspective that makes no essential reference to neuroscience? Or, instead, are neuroscientific data unavoidable in this domain? And: can Brit go a full ten minutes...

MindChunk: Spacetime Worms

Latest MindChunk: Spacetime Worms  Philosopher and neuroscientist Brit Brogaard joins Richard Brown and Pete Mandik to discuss the nature of time and the conscious experience of time.

MindChunk: The Brain Is Finite

Speaking of MindChunks, what are the metaphysical consequences of the supposition that the brain is a finite system of chunks that can each be in only a finite number of states? Pete Mandik on Turing's argument from the finite nature of the brain.

Episode 12: The Fourth Dimension

In this episode of the SpaceTimeMind podcast, Richard Brown and Pete Mandik continue their discussion from Episode 9 ("A Journey to the Edge of Hypertime”) and consider the view that time constitutes a fourth dimension analogous to the three spatial dimensions of height, width, and depth. What’s gained and what’s lost in viewing moments other than the present as analogous to places other than here? Do we lose an ability to account for change and motion? And if a computer simulation of a brain...

Station Identification

You are listening to SpaceTimeMind, a podcast by two philosophy professors, Richard Brown and Pete Mandik, who talk about philosophy, science, and all sorts of other stuff. Please be advised that this podcast contains strong language and abstract ideas not suitable for all intelligent lifeforms.

Coming this fall on the SpaceTimeMind podcast

Our helper drones took some time off from repairing the mothership to whip up yet another theatrical trailer giving glory to the great blue mind-sack and also to our excellent and esteemed forthcoming guests on the SpaceTimeMind podcast. Orient your irritable surfaces screenward and let your lobes luxuriate in this premium infotainment.  Coming this fall on the SpaceTimeMind podcast: Philosophy professor co-hosts Richard Brown and Pete Mandik are joined by neuroscientist Joe LeDoux, philoso...

Do check out our RequestBucket

If you haven't already, direct your clicking finger (or tentacle) to the SpaceTimeMind RequestBucket. Taking a peek at what others have requested is like taking a peek into the future. Deposit something yourself while over there. Do not insert head into bucket. Bucket is a tool, not a toy.

Moon

Apes

MindChunk: Uplift or Downgrade?

In today's MindChunk we bring you an uplifting discussion (although the part about cannibalism in the middle gets a little NSFW). Animal "uplift" is basically transhumanism for animals. See, for example, The Planet of the Apes. See also the Arcturean major cow from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, an animal genetically engineered to talk you into eating it. Psychologist Lara Beaty joins philosophers Richard Brown and Pete Mandik for the discussion. The longer discussion appears as ...

Episode 11: Scientism

Good news everybody! Science-obsessed philosophers Richard Brown and Pete Mandik duke it out over which one is the most egregious purveyor of scientism, the view that anything worth knowing is worth knowing scientifically. Or is scientism just empiricism? And what the hack is that, anyway? Is it simply an affirmation of the superiority of sensory knowledge? Or is it at bottom a denial of necessary truths? Or is being a scientismologist just what happens when you label yourself as such to achi...

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Ride the Blue Jellyfish

MindChunk: Time Consciousness and the Problem of the Unopened Einstein Book

Hey, you know what? MindChunk, that's what. The latest edition to our MindChunk video series launches a sneak attack on the nature of time by way of a thought experiment about artificial intelligence and a simulation of Einstein's brain. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. What do artificial intelligence and the physics of time have to do with each other? Richard Brown and Pete Mandik set out to find out and what happened next will amaze you.

Consciousness as an M-Property

Check out “Consciousness as an M-Property” by Richard Brown over at his blog, Philosophy Sucks. His post ties in with the SpaceTimeMind podcast Episode 7: "The Illusion of Free Will (with Gregg Caruso"). 

SpaceTimeMind The Movie

Now a major motion picture. (This film has not yet been rated.)