Philip Goff

Me on John Cleese on a boat a year ago today. What do you think I'm saying to him?

Me on John Cleese on a boat a year ago today. What do you think I'm saying to him?

whoops, yes, sorry, Bohr

Definitely the latter IMHO. I'd recommend reading the book. Also check out interview with David Albert on Sean Carroll's podcast. Wheeler desperately tried to justify to the Great Leader Bohm that his PhD student Everett wasn't really saying anything that contravened the party line.

I'm sure he had admirable qualities in other respects. I guess my main source is Adam Becker's excellent book 'What is real?'

You attributed a motivation. I corrected that attribution of motivation. (I like that expression though).

This makes it sound like an expression of humility, when in fact founders of Copenhagen interpretation like Bohr were aggressive anti-realist ideologues who destroyed the careers of those who attempted to understand the reality underlying the equations.

congrats! look forward to reading

Depressing that Copenhagen is the most popular. It's not a theory. It's a refusal to come up with a theory.

A landscape of consciousness: Toward a taxonomy of explanations and implications Diverse explanations or theories of consciousness are arrayed on a roughly physicalist-to-nonphysicalist landscape of essences and mechanisms. Categor…

Neither is there any consensus among scientists on the fundamental nature of consciousness.
A landscape of consciousness: Toward a taxonomy of explanations and implications
sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

There is no consensus among scientists on the fundamental nature of physical reality.

YouTube video by The Rest Is Politics: Leading Gary's Economics: I Made Millions Betting You Would Stay Poor... Here's How We Fix That

I was curious to see how these influential centrists would interact with radical program of @garyseconomics.bsky.social They focused mostly on his personality, almost entirely avoiding discussion of whether he's right. Make of that what you will. www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD2s...

Definitely. It's a different kind of book to anything I've written before. Fewer arguments.

Autumn 2026

Finished complete draft of my book! Hardest thing I've ever done. Off due much needed week's holiday in Wales.

Finished complete draft of my book! Hardest thing I've ever done. Off due much needed week's holiday in Wales.

They can have a conversation though

Are the droids in Star Wars supposed to be conscious? They seem to be represented as such, but in that case, they're effectively sentient slaves.

Happy birthday to my very good philosophical frenemy @disagreeableme.bsky.social . You can wish him a happy birthday too by following him.

If your pay is not yours to keep, then neither is the tax | Aeon Essays The assumption that you own the contents of your pay-packet, although almost universal, is demonstrably confused

This kind of radical libertarianism sounds plausible until you bring in ownership of land and resources. Individuals acting voluntarily doesn't somehow magically conjure up natural rights to bits of the world.
aeon.co/essays/if-yo...

I have a new short paper out today, commenting on Walter Veit's (excellent) 2023 book on animal consciousness. Open access. doi.org/10.1177/1059...

Bad Idea 1: Get rid of markets & let the state plan the economy.
Bad Idea 2: Let markets do what the hell they want.
A Good Idea: Have markets but keep them in their place, with democratically elected governments deciding on tax & regulation free from market pressure.

YouTube video by LSE What if AI is already conscious? Sentience explained | LSE Research

Is there any more reason to think LLMs are conscious than to think the sun is conscious?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg8v...

YouTube video by LSE What if AI is already conscious? Sentience explained | LSE Research

Is there any more reason to think LLMs are conscious than to think the sun is conscious?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg8v...

We ended up mostly agreeing.

Today I'm having coffee with Kai-Yan Chan, who has this published argument against my view that the universe is conscious. He's in Durham for an astronomy conference. Anyone want to tell me why my argument isn't defeated after all? 🤣 philpapers.org/rec/CHAOPG

Do you use 'please' and 'thank you' when asking LLMs questions? I'm always torn with this, feeling bit silly if I do but a bit guilty if I don't.

Do you use 'please' and 'thank you' when asking LLMs questions? I'm always torn with this, feeling bit silly if I do but a bit guilty if I don't.

YouTube video by Sky News Doctors on the frontline: Victoria Rose and Tom Potokar take you inside the war in Gaza

The suffering of children in Gaza is unbearable. www.youtube.com/watch?v=bycL...

The philosopher Philip Goff found the work we edited and published “fantastic” (in his words). I invite you to read it.