Tag: philosophy

  • College: America’s 4 Year Queue

    College: America’s 4 Year Queue

    There’s been much discussion lately around various aspects of education and policy – from AP classes to book “banning” to school choice. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. The single most important part of any culture is what it teaches people: the skills we teach, the attributes we mold and reward in the young, and…

  • Words Fail Us – Language and Rationality

    Words Fail Us – Language and Rationality

    “Strange to wander in the mist, each is alone. No tree knows his neighbor. Each is alone.” Hesse Cognitive science can’t settle questions of right and wrong. But it can set the table for theories of rational decision-making and ethics. And the one thing we know for sure about how we think is that, at…

  • The Role of Reinforcement Learning in Transformative Decision-Making

    The Role of Reinforcement Learning in Transformative Decision-Making

    Cognitive science can’t settle questions of right and wrong. But it can set the table for theories of rational decision-making and ethics. And the one thing we know for sure about how we think is that, at the most fundamental level, our brains are connection systems that are changed by experience.This matters; transformational experiences and…

  • Problems in Cognition and the Work to be Rational (Post)

    Problems in Cognition and the Work to be Rational (Post)

    For a decision-maker, the nature of human cognition creates the challenges of transformational experience and the necessity for self-altering decisions. But the nature of connection systems also creates a series of important hurdles to both optimal decision-making in preference optimization and thoughtful decision-making around self-change. Since connection systems can do amazing things (like become unbeatable…

  • Samuel Adams Revolutionary

    Samuel Adams Revolutionary

    At a recent Berkeley concert featuring Daniel Hope and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Hope introduced Max Richter’s Four Seasons Recomposed (which formed the second half of the concert), recounting the story of the piece’s creation. Richter wrote it for Hope and when he first broached the idea, Hope says he rather flippantly asked Richter what…

  • Prediction & Cognition

    Prediction & Cognition

    Cognitive science can’t settle questions of right and wrong. But it can set the table for theories of rational decision-making and ethics. And the one thing we know for sure about how we think is that, at the most fundamental level, our brains are connection systems that are changed by experience. This, unlike theories of…