BI 118 Johannes Jäger: Beyond Networks

Support the show to get full episodes, full archive, and join the Discord community. Johannes (Yogi) is a freelance philosopher, researcher & educator. We discuss many of the topics in his online course, Beyond Networks: The Evolution of Living Systems. The course is focused on the role of agency in evolution, but it covers a vast range of topics: process vs. substance metaphysics, causality, mechanistic dynamic explanation, teleology, the important role of development mediating genotypes, phenotypes, and evolution, what makes biological organisms unique, the history of evolutionary theory, scientific perspectivism, and a view toward the necessity of including agency in evolutionary theory. I highly recommend taking his course. We also discuss the role of agency in artificial intelligence, how neuroscience and evolutionary theory are undergoing parallel re-evaluations, and Yogi answers a guest question from Kevin Mitchell. Yogi's website and blog: Untethered in the Platonic Realm.Twitter: @yoginho.His youtube course: Beyond Networks: The Evolution of Living Systems.Kevin Mitchell's previous episode: BI 111 Kevin Mitchell and Erik Hoel: Agency, Emergence, Consciousness. 0:00 - Intro 4:10 - Yogi's background 11:00 - Beyond Networks - limits of dynamical systems models 16:53 - Kevin Mitchell question 20:12 - Process metaphysics 26:13 - Agency in evolution 40:37 - Agent-environment interaction, open-endedness 45:30 - AI and agency 55:40 - Life and intelligence 59:08 - Deep learning and neuroscience 1:03:21 - Mental autonomy 1:06:10 - William Wimsatt's biopsychological thicket 1:11:23 - Limtiations of mechanistic dynamic explanation 1:18:53 - Synthesis versus multi-perspectivism 1:30:31 - Specialization versus generalization

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Neuroscience and artificial intelligence work better together. Brain inspired is a celebration and exploration of the ideas driving our progress to understand intelligence. I interview experts about their work at the interface of neuroscience, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, philosophy, psychology, and more: the symbiosis of these overlapping fields, how they inform each other, where they differ, what the past brought us, and what the future brings. Topics include computational neuroscience, supervised machine learning, unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning, deep learning, convolutional and recurrent neural networks, decision-making science, AI agents, backpropagation, credit assignment, neuroengineering, neuromorphics, emergence, philosophy of mind, consciousness, general AI, spiking neural networks, data science, and a lot more. The podcast is not produced for a general audience. Instead, it aims to educate, challenge, inspire, and hopefully entertain those interested in learning more about neuroscience and AI.