I’m writing up a post on consciousness, and I realized that this is worth linking separately. The gist of it is that we can think of a person as having feelings and intentions, and we can think of a person as a colleciton of atoms obeying the laws of physics, and both are valid ways of thinking. The person is the same thing out in reality either way—it’s just the model we’re using that changes, and, specifically, what kind of predictions our model is good at making.
You can really see where Dennett was influenced by Less Wrong. Especially in his work from the `70s.
Anyhow, I think this review is a real Dennett classic, up there with Eliminate The Middletoad. If you have a favorite in a similar vein, I’d love to hear about it.
Dan Dennett on Stances
Link post
Part of a series. Index is here.
I’m writing up a post on consciousness, and I realized that this is worth linking separately. The gist of it is that we can think of a person as having feelings and intentions, and we can think of a person as a colleciton of atoms obeying the laws of physics, and both are valid ways of thinking. The person is the same thing out in reality either way—it’s just the model we’re using that changes, and, specifically, what kind of predictions our model is good at making.
You can really see where Dennett was influenced by Less Wrong. Especially in his work from the `70s.
Anyhow, I think this review is a real Dennett classic, up there with Eliminate The Middletoad. If you have a favorite in a similar vein, I’d love to hear about it.