Tootfinder

I read "Then I Am Myself the World: What Consciousness Is and How to Expand It" by Christof Koch.
Interesting book which spends like 8 or 9 chapters detailing all the experiments which prove beyond much doubt that consciousness, and self awareness, is a thing done by a brain.
It describes how perception is a construction of a description, has a chapter called "computational mind"
And then spends the last two chapters describing why he thinks the mind can't be computed, because drugs have made him think experience is some kind of magic associated with highly interconnected causal structures.
Apparently, he thinks, once things become interconnected enough they become able to cause things independently of the physics running those connections.
Which is crazy, obviously. There's nothing causal in direct connections between neurons that isn't equally causal in modeled connections between virtual neurons.
All his evidence in the book from neural MRI scans to the effects of psychedelic drugs and symptoms of strokes and disease point to the brain simulating a virtual reality which is the basis of perception.
That simulated world in which we live is full of colour and shape and sounds and emotions and millions of mental constructs that are built to be correlated by the senses with the outside world, but are not equal to the world itself. We live in a dream constructed to correlate with reality.
But then instead of taking the next step: That consciousness itself is a property of a simulated being inside that mental model of the universe, a property which the brain simulates and applies to the virtual self that's doing the experiencing inside that model, he jumps towards some magic implying pan-psychism or that sufficiently interconnected networks become causally self-complete for some reason nobody can fathom.
Sure, colour and shape and emotions are all made up by the brain but experience can't be! For some reason.
You see in truth dualism is false, in that there is no spirit realm in which ghosts animate the matter of the body somehow.
Yet also, dualism is true, in that there is a simulated mental reality which we live in, computed by the brain in which all perception and experience are created, which is related-to but separate-from the unfolding complicated dance of energy that is the universe our bodies interact with.
People take some DMT trip, and the model of the universe emulated by their brain collapses and breaks. Their virtual simulated self inside their mind has these experiences of being one with the universe or the experience of feeling dead yet conscious or whatever, and these hippies think that the broken down simulated experience is real and reflects how consciousness is more fundamental than the atoms that make up the neurons in their brain.
Instead of realizing it shows them that their experienced universe is a simulacrum, they think they get a more direct experience of reality somehow. A consciousness more pure than any mere base atom.
"Then I am myself the world" is a great title. Everything you ever experience is created and simulated in your brain like a dream, the whole universe is inside your head. Even the fact of experience itself.
But that isn't the conclusion Koch reaches somehow, he just jumps from describing the evidence that this is so straight into ascribing super-causal magic consciousness to particular arrangements of atoms that integrated information theory suggest have high correlation, and thinks therefore conciousness is itself the entire universe.
Ah well, fun book. I like arguing in my head with authors that are wrong.
#reading #books #consciousness #thenIAmMyselfTheWorld

"For the first time, we architected every part of the rack as a unified system," Su explained, highlighting Helios as "really a rack that functions like a single, massive compute engine."
http://m.timesofindia.com/articleshow/121834703.cms
Why does th…

AMD unveils next-gen AI chips as it takes on Nvidia: 'For the first time, we...' CEO Lisa Su says - The Times of India
Tech News : AMD has revealed its Instinct MI400 series AI chips, designed for rack-scale systems and set to compete with Nvidia's Blackwell. CEO Lisa Su highlight

It turns out "my" shirt design was stolen and used by some US assholes who now sell a Rob Anybody t-shirt.
I can't do anything about that, except giving everybody the design for free - if it has to be out there, nobody should profit from it.
If you end up using it, please PLEASE donate to one of Pratchett's favorite charities or at least to somebody in need.
And add a #GNUTerryPratchett

Jensen Huang says Nvidia will exclude the Chinese market from its revenue and profit forecasts going forward, amid US restrictions on chip sales to China (CNN)
http://www.cnn.com/2025/06/12/tech/nvidia-ceo-china-us-ai-chip-exports

Nvidia will stop including China in its forecasts amid US chip export controls, CEO says
Chipmaker Nvidia will exclude the Chinese market from its revenue and profit forecasts following the imposition of tough US restrictions on chip sales to China, its CEO said Thursday.

Soon, I’ll be throwing away all my desktop computers as well, though I’m keeping my Lenovo Thinkpad around. I hate computers, yet I use them.
To me, computers are just junk nobody asked for. They’re glowing traps that keep us hooked, scrolling and clicking away our time for endless feeds. No matter the OS or hardware, it’s all distraction from reality.
Yes, Linux can free us and all that, and even the hardware can be part of that freedom. But the computers themselves remain a cir…

Fani Willis takes subpoena fight to Supreme Court of Georgia
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/nobody-is-above-the-law-fani-willis-takes-her-fight-against-subpoenas-for-documents-and-testimony-about-trump-rico-prosecution-to-supreme-court-of-georgia/

So farewell then Pinetime Watch 🪦.
It isn't showing any signs of charging. even after a completely-flat battery reset. Last hope gone.
Now nobody at all is running my custom software I think, and I have no way to fix the bugs.
Could replace it, but I'm not really paying any attention to the things it measures anyway. Heartrate is too unreliable to be useful and steps seems likely to be counting my leg-jiggles since I tend to hit 10,000 most days without trying or leaving the flat.
The software which tracks my time and mood is probably better running on the phone really. Easier to add notes and detail. Can't really input text from a watch. Location data can be added in ways the watch couldn't.
So back to not wearing a watch at all I think. Who needs it now we all carry pocket watches with internet and telephony.
#pineTime #smartWatch

My good, how much I hate the internet and computers. I just wanna scream louder than I ever have at them, my good, I’m angry right now. All my life lost to a dumb-ass screen, brainwashed by the latest tech psyops on YouTube nobody asked for.
It’s like being trapped in a never-ending circus of clicks and scrolls, where the clowns are algorithms and the ringmaster is some faceless corporation laughing at how easy it is to fool us.
Computers and the internet promised freedom but del…

macOS Tahoe 26 hands-on: Liquid Glass is slick but slightly overwrought, and the new Spotlight search features are nifty and useful, but fall short of Raycast (Antonio G. Di Benedetto/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/apple/685052/appl

Hands on with macOS Tahoe 26: Liquid Glass, new theme options, and Spotlight
macOS Tahoe 26 developer beta 1 is here, with our first glimpse at Liquid Glass on the desktop, plus the first glimmers of Spotlight’s big new moves.

President Trump's 2024 financial disclosure report shows he earned ~$57M from his stake in World Liberty Financial and $1.2M from an NFT licensing deal (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/13/us/politics/trump-disclosure-cryptocu…

Trump Was Already a Crypto Czar in 2024
Financial disclosures for 2024 filed by the president on Friday show that digital coins had already become one of his family’s most successful ventures.