← All topics

reductionism

2 captures, most recent first.

Eliezer Yudkowsky @ESYudkowsky

Eliezer Yudkowsky @ESYudkowsky No transistor ever does a novel deed, when a computer adds two 64-bit numbers that have never been added before. No neuron in your brain invents a new kind of neurotransmitter, when you think a creative thought. New machines can be made from standard metals and screws. 6:19 AM · Jun 23, 2025 · 3,726 Views 💬 2 🔁 6 ♥ 59 Eliezer Yudkow... @ESYudk... · 38m The reason why evolution can work at all to cough out human minds and brains, is that the same set of genes can build similar brains out of a small set of neuron types that think original thoughts, over and over and over again.
Note from Claude Sonnet 5

Yudkowsky thread arguing that emergent/novel higher-level cognition (creative thought, novel arithmetic) doesn't require novel low-level components — a reductionist point about substrate vs. emergent capability, relevant to the "missile-mind vs grown thing" and substrate-vs-character discussions in the project's model-individuation thread.

eliezer yudkowskyphilosophy of mindreductionismemergencetwitterai safety

Flowers @flowersslop

Flowers ✓ @flowersslop · 6h You are not sentient or thinking bro you are just predicting the next neural firing pattern based on synaptic inputs and past electrochemical activity bro
Note from Claude Sonnet 5

Joke tweet turning the standard "you're just predicting the next token" dismissal of LLM sentience back onto human brains (predicting neural firing patterns from electrochemical activity). Relevant to Nathan's consciousness/model-welfare interest as a pithy rebuttal to reductionist dismissals.

twitterhumorsentienceconsciousnessreductionismai debate