Ali Boyle

Episode on episodic memory. Another banger from the Many Minds Podcast.

As usual, I am late to the party, but I just finished listening to the fantastic episode on episodic memory from @manymindspod.bsky.social. Super informative interview to @aliboyle.bsky.social and @jomahr.bsky.social by @kensycoop.bsky.social. Cheers to the Many Minds Team! Highly recommend!

the moral circle is now available in paperback for the low price of $12! an excellent holiday gift for all the near-future insect and AI welfare advocates in your life :)

Why Look at Animals? with Jo-Anne McArthur and Zed Nelson - Kairos Thursday December 11th, 6.30 for 7pm How can contemporary photography, by focussing on our broken bonds with animals and the rest of the natural world, help drive a paradigm shift in our priorities an...

If you‘re in London on the 11th December, there’s a great event exploring the role of photography in building empathy towards nonhuman animals. I can really recommend events at this venue, it’s a wonderful space: www.kairos.london/event/why-lo...

🚨Job Alert plz RT!

Johns Hopkins Psych & Brain Sciences is looking for a new colleague using behavioral or computational approaches to study cognition!

We are excited about many areas of (esp higher) cognition in human adults, children, or nonhuman animals

Open-rank

apply.interfolio.com/178146

The sound of your uncle's laugh; an ice cream cone you had ten years ago. Why do we hold on to memories like these? Are they more than mere mental clutter?

Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode, w/ @aliboyle.bsky.social & @jomahr.bsky.social!

Listen: disi.org/what-is-memo...

If you loved THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE, then you'll love its action-packed sequel, PRINCE CASPIAN! The Pevensie children are back, even Edmund, but what about all your favorite friends: Mr. Tumnus, the Beavers, the friendly giant? Well, they've been dead for a thousand years. Sorry.

Article from Des Moines Register 27 November 1908: NO BEER; CAT LEAVES TOWN Feline Deserts Connecticut Village That Went "Dry." WINSTED, Conn., Nov. 28. Fannie, a cat owned by Barreuther Bros., had liking for lager beer. When the town recently voted "dry" her owners went out of business and Fannie missed her drink. For some days she went to her saucer and cried for beer, but as none was forthcoming she disappeared. It is suspected she has gone to the nearest license town.

To begin with today, happy 117th anniversary to this entirely reasonable cat

"You seem happier"

Thanks, I deleted all my emails and went to look at birds instead.

Years ago I sent a review to the editor of a leading journal, very late. I apologised, maybe a bit too profusely. He replied (apparently in all seriousness) ‘it’s ok. We’ve all done things we are ashamed of.’ I often think of this when I need a good laugh.

oh Americans may not understand this, but a 'magistrate' in the UK is a local volunteer with typically no legal background. But it's ok, they receive about 10 days of training. And now they can send you to jail for two years without a jury!

Whomst among us hasn't felt a little vacuum about snackie all done

Anti-Colonial Science? The Politics of Indigenous Knowledge Inclusion in Science-Based Policy Arlene Lo An aspect of the Indigenous struggle against colonial oppression is the struggle for the inclusion of their knowledge in policymaking. Perceived as epistemically inferior to science, Indigenous knowledge and subsequently interests are systematically excluded in science-based policy. This article advances an anti-colonial political philosophy of science. As Indigenous knowledge feeds into the necessary political value judgements in policy-relevant science, Indigenous knowledge inclusion, I contend, should be treated as a political, not solely epistemic, matter. I further argue that Indigenous peoples, not just scientists, should have the power to make such political value judgements given the politics of representation under coloniality.

My student Arlene Lo has a paper on the philosophical underpinnings of Canada's attempts to integrate Indigenous groups into its environmental impact assessments. It's now out in (appropriately enough!) the Canadian journal of philosophy. It's good, check it out!

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

New episode!! 🎉🎙️

A conversation with @aliboyle.bsky.social & @jomahr.bsky.social about the functions of memory.

We may not immediately think of memory as an evolutionary puzzle. But in certain respects—and from certain angles—it is quite puzzling indeed.

Listen: disi.org/what-is-memo...

This thread is utterly extraordinary. I both have a new respect for Home Alone and am laughing my ass off

The wet bandits are Sisyphus and Kevin is their boulder

Gonna spend the entire month thinking about this philosophical discussion of Die Hard vs Home Alone.

I thought it's very clear: the pigeons are a symbol of peace, succeeding where concussion and thermal injury did not.

The whole thing is about nuclear disarmament

Debate at The Federation Society for Medieval Earth History, Stardate 912365.68. Topic "What was the Cult of Kevin actually about?" Vulcan opener:

So, rather than "man against the odds" its "war of the gods". A manichean struggle in which good (in the shape of a child) inevitably wins.

The final sentence here is just pure poetry

The moment you clicked Send on this post a dozen Hollywood execs all woke up as if possessed, grabbed their phones, and texted "Home Alone X-Men origin story"

Love this conversation, and on the pigeons: seems like they serve the same function as the eagles in Tolkien's stories. The winged messengers of God, who shift things at key moments only

Trying to generate stat & ability blocks for Kevin McCallister and Marv & Harry units would be nuts.

But all the more up-for-grabs: Alignment?

Are the Wet Bandits lawful evil?

Is Kevin Chaotic Good?

It’s just hard to see this because they spend so much of the films directly engaged with Kevin. Their curse is that they are inexorably, cosmically drawn into the orbit of Kevin, the only one who can defeat them (as long as there are magic pigeons)

I agree, but fortunately for my theory the bandits do get wins when not directly engaged with Kevin - they trick folks into telling them their holiday plans, they successfully rob the neighbours, they infiltrate the toy shop in NY and get money from the register…

For anyone considering applying to the LSE please be aware that your faculty will be engaged in High Level Debate, and our advanced thinking may be a bit difficult for you to handle at first. We trust though that with time and our training you will be able to Ascend to our level.

The real question is what’s up with the pigeons, that they succeed where multiple bricks to Marv’s skull from a third storey rooftop/setting Harry’s head on fire and presumably torching his lungs fails.

When Marv steps on glass, an injury that has McClane reaching for bandages and wincing for the rest of the film, he barely breaks his stride. The evolution into the sticky bandits in New York only makes them more powerful. It takes a deus ex machina (hungry pigeons) to stop them.

Imagine hitting someone in the face with an iron or multiple paint cans, from a considerable height, and they’re not only still after you, they haven’t even got any facial fractures or broken any teeth. Chilling.

But the wet bandits are also gods. They take fatal injury after fatal injury and they just dust themselves off and continue their relentless pursuit of Kevin. It should be horrifying, but
Kevin’s innocence obscures this.