The universal reach of human thought

Insights into the brain from physicist David Deutsch and lessons for AI

Figure by Adobe.

Table of contents

· Introduction
· Explanation and prediction
∘ The temptations of instrumentalism and reductionism in neuroscience
∘ What explanations don’t require
∘ What explanations do require
· Human ideation is a knowledge-creating process
∘ What is knowledge, and what constitutes a knowledge-creating process?
∘ Why processes of knowledge creation are unpredictable
· Reach as a defining characteristic of knowledge-creating processes
∘ Greater reach = greater explanator power
∘ Understanding reach via linguistics
∘ The universal reach of human thought
∘ A constructor theoretic interpretation of reach
∘ Humans are universal constructors
· Why we haven’t achieved general AI
· Summary
· About the author
· Sources and further reading

Introduction