Nicholas J. Matiasz

Scientific Program Director at the Center for Contemplative Research, @Center_CCR. Ph.D. in medical informatics @UCLA.

[Nicholas J. Matiasz @NicholasMatiasz]

New episode of the Fathom the Mind podcast: I spoke with philosopher of science Prof. Michel Bitbol about phenomenology, the “hard problem” of consciousness, and why revisiting common assumptions may be exactly what scientists need to make progress.

https://t.co/dndK6Y6Fhc

[Thariq @trq212]

https://t.co/45C3gKydTK

[Nicholas J. Matiasz @NicholasMatiasz]

“…the most basic tools for a science of mind and for natural science—our science of matter—are the same: we use our mind to investigate both matter and mind.”

—Prof. Piet Hut

https://t.co/diwko9ksw6

[Nicholas J. Matiasz @NicholasMatiasz]

What is the objective world? Prof. Piet Hut on the history of material science.

https://t.co/65oVPOSaVy

[Nicholas J. Matiasz @NicholasMatiasz]

On the first episode of Fathom the Mind, a new podcast produced by @Center_CCR, Prof. Piet Hut discusses his new research program to bridge matter and mind.

https://t.co/qC5OawTXlX

#consciousness #podcast

[Alcino J Silva @alcinojsilva]

Fascinating podcast (Fathom the Mind; https://t.co/eOx0m8j2XU) with the incomparable @NicholasMatiasz and Professor Piet Hut on the fascinating topic of bridging the gap between matter and mind! Don’t miss it!

[Nicholas J. Matiasz @NicholasMatiasz]

@charleswangb @walterkirn Would you please share this reference?

[Nicholas J. Matiasz @NicholasMatiasz]

@OshanJarow This is a great question. Do you know of any literature on this topic?

[Nicholas J. Matiasz @NicholasMatiasz]

LLMs that merge spans of text are not doing the same reasoning that scientists do when they merge causal-structure constraints to identify their implications.

[Dwarkesh Patel @dwarkesh_sp]

I still haven't heard a good answer to this question, on or off the podcast.

AI researchers often tell me, "Don't worry bout it, scale solves this."

But what is the rebuttal to someone who argues that this indicates a fundamental limitation?

[Nicholas J. Matiasz @NicholasMatiasz]

This online series of talks regarding contemplative science begins in two days.

[Nicholas J. Matiasz @NicholasMatiasz]

I‘ll be giving a talk titled “What is contemplative science?” on February 5, 2025, at 11:00 a.m. PST, as part of the online series The Dawn of Contemplative Science, hosted by Les Cèdres Bleus.

Speaker list and registration: https://t.co/QfYTYUmfdo

[Nicholas J. Matiasz @NicholasMatiasz]

I‘ll be giving a talk titled “What is contemplative science?” on February 5, 2025, at 11:00 a.m. PST, as part of the online series The Dawn of Contemplative Science, hosted by Les Cèdres Bleus.

Speaker list and registration: https://t.co/QfYTYUmfdo

[Nicholas J. Matiasz @NicholasMatiasz]

I believe the way forward is to expand the domain of empiricism to include the faculty of mental perception, & to acknowledge that objectivity is rooted in intersubjective verification. @BAlanWallace & I make this case here (full preview available, Ch. 7): https://t.co/PUQfJONcTN

[Erik Hoel @erikphoel]

My magnum opus of the fall: the arguments for scientific incompleteness and consciousness being a true but unprovable statement within science
https://t.co/ZA7IrOIynB

[Nicholas J. Matiasz @NicholasMatiasz]

In @EJNeuroscience, @alcinojsilva, Justin Wood, & I discuss how the cumulative evidence index (CEI) can gauge both the consistency of a single line of evidence and the convergence of multiple lines of evidence, addressing the reproducibility crisis. #CEI
https://t.co/ZleLxMnKfP

[Nicholas J. Matiasz @NicholasMatiasz]

For anyone interested in the mind, I strongly recommend Prof. Piet Hut’s new blog “FEST” (= Fully Engaged Science and Technology — or, alternatively, Fully Empirical Science and Technology).

https://t.co/RwqYAuRv6m

[Nicholas J. Matiasz @NicholasMatiasz]

“The crucial point here is that we do not have empirical access to any form of matter, where empirical is defined as given in experience”
—Piet Hut

https://t.co/5rk8eZvYKc

[Nicholas J. Matiasz @NicholasMatiasz]

In a new chapter published by @routledgebooks, @BAlanWallace & I discuss how professional contemplatives can work with neuroscientists, psychologists, and even physicists—not just as study participants, but as true colleagues who help frame the research.

https://t.co/kU2O19A6N9

[Prof Miranda Wolpert @mirandarwolpert]

Evidence Synthesis Infrastructure Collaborative | News | Wellcome https://t.co/j9fU7TJdu2

[Nicholas J. Matiasz @NicholasMatiasz]

@krzysztofwos The @Center_CCR is trying to rectify this.

https://t.co/NSgscGs55w

[Nicholas J. Matiasz @NicholasMatiasz]

.@BAlanWallace refutes this idea in The Taboo of Subjectivity (2000, p. 136).

[Prof. Lee Cronin @leecronin]

Consciousness & wetness have a lot in common. Both ‘emerge’ from the substrate, but they are not part of the substrate.

[☿ Footnotes2Plato ☼☽ @ThouArtThat]

In my opinion the most important pages of *The Blind Spot* are in the Cognition chapter dealing with artificial intelligence and machine-learning. @evantthompson @AdamFrank4 @MGleiser