If you remember something wrong, is the label “memory” still accurate? Does the label of memory necessitate a 1:1 correspondence with the past? If not 1:1, how much correspondence with the past is necessary for us to still be comfortable using the label of memory? More importantly, if we can talk about a memory being…

Imagine a world where human beings weren’t susceptible to diseases, where we were all strong and smart, where we couldn’t feel pain and could be put in a state of ecstasy due to things which today produce only mild excitement. Imagine a world where human beings could fly of their own volition, where we have…

I’ve been thinking recently about relationship between politics and economic policies on the one hand, and what we know about human psychology and the causes of human behavior on the other. More specifically, I’ve been thinking about how the knowledge which we learn from research in the cognitive sciences is too often neglected, distorted, or…

Please note, what I am doing here is philosophy as informed by some very new research in the sciences. Memory deletion is NOT a reality. There is no clinic or hospital to go to have your memories erased. Please do not email me or comment with requests for help with trauma you have suffered. If…

Today I want to talk about memory, and what’s wrong with some of our standard conceptions of how memory works, and even fundamentally what memory is. If you open up a brain and look inside it you won’t see any memories. You don’t open up a neuron as if it was a storage container and memories come spilling out. What about a network of them makes this story any different? How the heck changes in the strength of connections between cells cause a memory to be stored and experienced later is not something cognitive science has been able to address yet.

This is a blog where many questions will be asked. Some will be answered. But to give you an idea of what you’re getting into, here are the basic ones that keep me up at night. What can a philosophical exploration of the research and ideas coming out of neuroscience, psychology, an evolutionary biology tell…