Uploaded October 2022 | Updated September 2026, 52 minutes ago
Patreon for full episodes and Discord community:
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Free Video Series: Open Questions in AI and Neuroscience:
braininspired.co/open
Apple podcasts: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/brain-inspired/id1428880766?mt=2
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/2UZj8c8Ap5oc2gh2rJxLLe
Music by: The New Year: thenewyear.net
Show notes: braininspired.co/podcast/150
Dan Nicholson is a philosopher at George Mason University. He incorporates the history of science and philosophy into modern analyses of our conceptions of processes related to life and organisms. He is also interested in re-orienting our conception of the universe as made fundamentally of things/substances, and replacing it with the idea the universe is made fundamentally of processes (process philosophy). In this episode, we both of those subjects, the why the "machine conception of the organism" is incorrect, how to apply these ideas to topics like neuroscience and artificial intelligence, and much more.
0:00 - Intro
2:49 - Philosophy and science
16:37 - Role of history
23:28 - What Is Life? And interaction with James Watson
38:37 - Arguments against the machine conception of organisms
49:08 - Organisms as streams (processes)
57:52 - Process philosophy
1:08:59 - Alfred North Whitehead
1:12:45 - Process and consciousness
1:22:16 - Artificial intelligence and process
1:31:47 - Language and symbols and processes
Patreon for full episodes and Discord community:
patreon.com/braininspired
Free Video Series: Open Questions in AI and Neuroscience:
braininspired.co/open
Apple podcasts: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/brain-inspired/id1428880766?mt=2
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/2UZj8c8Ap5oc2gh2rJxLLe
Music by: The New Year: thenewyear.net
Show notes: braininspired.co/podcast/150
Dan Nicholson is a philosopher at George Mason University. He incorporates the history of science and philosophy into modern analyses of our conceptions of processes related to life and organisms. He is also interested in re-orienting our conception of the universe as made fundamentally of things/substances, and replacing it with the idea the universe is made fundamentally of processes (process philosophy). In this episode, we both of those subjects, the why the "machine conception of the organism" is incorrect, how to apply these ideas to topics like neuroscience and artificial intelligence, and much more.
0:00 - Intro
2:49 - Philosophy and science
16:37 - Role of history
23:28 - What Is Life? And interaction with James Watson
38:37 - Arguments against the machine conception of organisms
49:08 - Organisms as streams (processes)
57:52 - Process philosophy
1:08:59 - Alfred North Whitehead
1:12:45 - Process and consciousness
1:22:16 - Artificial intelligence and process
1:31:47 - Language and symbols and processes
