For politico-philosophical l stuff, I kind of like the idea of taking the name that people who half-understand a mindset apply from a distance to distinguish from all the other mind sets that they half-understand… in which case the best term I know is “cybernetictotalism”.
However, in this case the discussion isn’t a matter of general mindset but actually is a falsifiable scientific/engineering question from within the mindset: how substrate independent is the mind? My sense is that biologists willing to speculate publicly think the functionality of the mind is intimately tangled up with the packing arrangements of DNA and the precise position of receptors in membranes and so on. I suspect that its higher than that, but also I don’t think enough people understand the pragmatics of substrate independence for there to be formal politico-philosophic labels for people who cherish one level of abstraction versus another.
I remember and loved Jarod Lanier’s piece where he coined that term, and I considered myself a cybernetic totalist (and still do). It just doesn’t exactly role off the tongue.
At some point in college I found Principa Cybernetica, and I realized I had found my core philosophical belief set. I’m not sure what you call that worldview though, perhaps systemic evolutionary cyberneticism?
Patternist at least conveys that the fundamental concept is information patterns.
However, in this case the discussion isn’t a matter of general mindset but actually is a falsifiable scientific/engineering question from within the mindset: how substrate independent is the mind?
Yes!
My sense is that biologists willing to speculate publicly think the functionality of the mind is intimately tangled up with ..
They may, and they may or may not be correct, but in doing so they would be speculating outside of their domain of expertise.
The questions of which level of abstraction is relevant is also a scientific/engineering question, and computational neuroscience already has much to say on that, in terms of what it takes to create simulations and or functional equivalents of brain components.
For politico-philosophical l stuff, I kind of like the idea of taking the name that people who half-understand a mindset apply from a distance to distinguish from all the other mind sets that they half-understand… in which case the best term I know is “cybernetic totalism”.
However, in this case the discussion isn’t a matter of general mindset but actually is a falsifiable scientific/engineering question from within the mindset: how substrate independent is the mind? My sense is that biologists willing to speculate publicly think the functionality of the mind is intimately tangled up with the packing arrangements of DNA and the precise position of receptors in membranes and so on. I suspect that its higher than that, but also I don’t think enough people understand the pragmatics of substrate independence for there to be formal politico-philosophic labels for people who cherish one level of abstraction versus another.
I remember and loved Jarod Lanier’s piece where he coined that term, and I considered myself a cybernetic totalist (and still do). It just doesn’t exactly role off the tongue.
At some point in college I found Principa Cybernetica, and I realized I had found my core philosophical belief set. I’m not sure what you call that worldview though, perhaps systemic evolutionary cyberneticism?
Patternist at least conveys that the fundamental concept is information patterns.
Yes!
They may, and they may or may not be correct, but in doing so they would be speculating outside of their domain of expertise.
The questions of which level of abstraction is relevant is also a scientific/engineering question, and computational neuroscience already has much to say on that, in terms of what it takes to create simulations and or functional equivalents of brain components.