ACX
We're Not Platonists, We've Just Learned The Bitter Lesson
Scott Alexander argues that intelligence is a useful, non-Platonic concept, and that this understanding supports the coherence of AI risk concerns.
18 min read 2,738 words
A thread through the archive
cognitive science
Essays tagged “cognitive science”. Follow an idea across the archive.
Essays on cognitive science
15 essaysACX
Skills Plateau Because Of Decay And Interference
Scott Alexander examines why skills plateau, proposing decay and interference hypotheses to explain the phenomenon across various fields.
12 min read 1,823 words
ACX
Somewhat Contra Marcus On AI Scaling
Scott Alexander argues against Gary Marcus's critique of AI scaling, discussing the potential for future AI capabilities and the nature of human intelligence.
29 min read 4,485 words
ACX
Highlights From The Comments On Motivated Reasoning And Reinforcement Learning
Scott Alexander explores expert and reader comments on his post about motivated reasoning and reinforcement learning, discussing brain function, threat detection, and the implementation of complex behaviors.
23 min read 3,475 words
ACX
Motivated Reasoning As Mis-applied Reinforcement Learning
Scott analyzes motivated reasoning as misapplied reinforcement learning, explaining how it might arise from the brain's mixture of reinforceable and non-reinforceable architectures.
5 min read 729 words
SSC
Autism And Intelligence: Much More Than You Wanted To Know
Scott Alexander examines the paradoxical relationship between autism and intelligence, discussing genetic and environmental factors, and proposing explanatory models for the observed lower IQ in autistic individuals despite genetic links to higher intelligence.
16 min read 2,442 words
SSC
Translating Predictive Coding Into Perceptual Control
Scott Alexander argues that Free Energy/Predictive Coding and Perceptual Control Theory are fundamentally the same, and proposes using PCT's more intuitive terminology to help understand FE/PC.
9 min read 1,386 words
SSC
Paradigms All The Way Down
Scott Alexander presents a 'Grand Unified Chart' showing how different domains of knowledge share a similar structure in interpreting the world, arguing this is due to basic brain algorithms and effective epistemology.
5 min read 650 words
SSC
Preregistration Of Hypotheses For The SSC Survey
Scott Alexander preregisters hypotheses for the 2018 SSC Survey, planning to explore relationships between perception, cognition, personality, and demographics.
11 min read 1,690 words
SSC
Book Review: Mastering The Core Teachings Of The Buddha
Scott Alexander reviews 'Mastering The Core Teachings Of The Buddha', a practical guide to Buddhist meditation that details the stages of insight and debunks common myths about enlightenment.
30 min read 4,534 words
SSC
Predictive Processing And Perceptual Control
Scott Alexander explores the similarities between Predictive Processing and Perceptual Control Theory, arguing that PCT anticipates many aspects of PP and deserves recognition for its insights.
7 min read 961 words
SSC
Book Review: Surfing Uncertainty
Scott Alexander reviews 'Surfing Uncertainty' by Andy Clark, exploring the predictive processing model of brain function and its wide-ranging explanatory power.
43 min read 6,598 words
SSC
Negative Creativity
Scott Alexander suggests humans have 'negative creativity' due to cognitive 'ruts', and explores ways to escape these ruts, arguing that AI might have an advantage in creative thinking.
7 min read 935 words
LW
Connectionism: Modeling the mind with neural networks
Scott explains connectionism as a neural network-based theory of mind that evolved from spreading activation models, showing how it resolves philosophical problems and mirrors brain function better than classical computing approaches.
15 min read 2,251 words
LW
Book Review: The Root of Thought
Scott reviews a book arguing that glial cells are crucial for cognition (not just neuron support), and uses this century-long scientific oversight as a cautionary tale about how entire communities can miss important phenomena.
11 min read 1,605 words