Forms of life, forms of mind

8 responses to “Olfaction and cognition: a conversation with Ann-Sophie Barwich and Matt Rodriguez”

1. 

   Mr K Kitab

   December 13, 2024

   Hello sir,

   do you have access to the PDF of Bioelectromagnetic Medicine from 2004 edited by Rosch and Markov? Is worth reading or is it woo-woo?
   Best wishes.

   Reply
   1. 

      Mike Levin

      December 13, 2024

      Sorry, I don’t seem to have it.

      Reply
2. 

   Teja

   December 13, 2024

   Thank you so much, Mike! <3

   Reply
3. 

   Michel-Marie SOLITO de Solis

   December 13, 2024

   Great “audacity “. Infinite promises.

   Reply
4. 

   Benjamin L

   December 13, 2024

   A lot of this sounds like Lisa Feldman Barrett’s psychological constructionism, like the finding about how the smell of lemons means something different to Americans vs Italians is similar to how a facial “expression” means different things to different people (as opposed to expressing some given, fixed meaning that essentially forces itself upon your mind). Relatedly, aspects of a facial “expression” are always viewed in context with the whole face and the surrounding situation. You’re never observing a muscle twitch in isolation any more than you smell a single molecule. I’ve long been interested in the senses as a possible area for constructionism to contribute to, so I’m excited to learn about this research. The links are very helpful.

   I also like the discussion around 41:00 of Proustian memory being motor behavior rather than something “mental”. It’s very Thelen-esque. On some level, it feels like everything should be motor behavior because all phenomena are presumably just systems moving around and taking on new forms as its internal and external circumstances changes, a process which could be called development instead of motor behavior depending on the context.

   Regarding the discussion of category errors at the end, psychological constructionism treats categories as observer-dependent classifications, the instances of which are grouped together for some functional purpose. Here’s Barrett and Lida (emphasis in original):

   > An emotion category label, such as “fear,” when referring to all instances, in all situations, in all creatures whose brains are equipped to construct anger, is a *population of context-specific events* whose physical features will be *highly* variable, and whose functional features will also be variable, but perhaps less so. Each instance of the category is, itself, assembled in a brain that continually constructs situated conceptual categories to coordinate and guide action and construct the features of experience in a metabolically efficient manner. This variation arises because physical signals such as heart rate variability, skin conductance, serotonin release and uptake, smiles, frowns, scowls, vocalizations, etc. have no inherent, biologically prepared emotional meaning. Physical features are *made* meaningful as an instance of emotion as a brain predicts that, in a
   given situation, *these features are functionally similar to past instances of that emotion category*.

   Source: https://www.affective-science.org/pubs/2023/barrett-lida-routledge.pdf

   Reply
5. 

   Bill Potter

   December 13, 2024

   for this fieldshift, I find it very enlightening! Marvelous mind-bender!

   Under aerobic conditions, the pyruvate passes into the mitochondria where it is completely oxidized by O2 into CO2 and H2O and its chemical energy largely conserved as ATP. Pyruvate generated via aerobic glycolysis feeds into the TCA or Krebs cycle. In the absence of sufficient oxygen, the pyruvate is reduced by NADH via anaerobic glycolysis or fermentation to a wide range of products, routinely lactate in animals and ethanol in yeasts.

   Translated to philosophy
   Note: This a hypothesis from an AI, not scientific fact

   In the realm of enlightened contemplation, the essence of pure thought transcends into the ethereal plane where it is fully realized through communion with the universal spirit, its potential energy largely preserved as enlightenment. Insights generated via mindful reflection feed into the cycle of philosophical inquiry. In the absence of sufficient wisdom, the nascent idea is diminished by ignorance via unconscious reaction or base instinct to a wide spectrum of fallacies, commonly prejudice in the unexamined life and hedonism in the pleasure-seeking.

   Reply
6. 

   gstroke

   December 14, 2024

   I’ve read that trans-men under testosterone therapy have minute but well-developed prostate cells growing in their vaginal canal.

   https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32282346/

   Do you think it would be possible to induce this process artificially? It could potentially revolutionize the way transitions work.

   Reply
   1. 

      Mike Levin

      December 14, 2024

      fascinating. I’m not sure how exactly, but I bet it would be possible. There are possibly related phenomena: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrett's_esophagus

      Reply