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Stung Eye

The eye of the bee holder.

Brains, Consciousness, and Thinking Machines

A Tale of Two Hemispheres

I am enjoying Patrick Grim’s lectures on the Philosophy of Mind.

Grim starts the series with a historical look at the mind-body problem. He then introduces the major themes in the study of artificial intelligence, while exploring human intelligence, perception, behaviour and finally the hard problem of consciousness. Throughout this complex web of ideas Grim remains eloquent and engaging. Highly recommended.

For me, these theories of mind and human-ness are mingling nicely with Philip Pullman concepts of daemons and zombies in his Dark Materials novels. Also recommended. I finished the Subtle Knife yesterday.