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If Brains are Computers, Who Designs the Software? - with Daniel Dennett

The Royal Institution · 873.3K views · 2017-04-06 · 1:16:22

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Overview

Daniel Dennett's Royal Institution lecture on whether the brain is a computer and where its software comes from. He argues that minds are built by evolution and culture, with competence arising without comprehension.

On Hacker News

Cited as an excellent entry point to Dennett's thinking on minds, memes and competence without comprehension.

Recommended by 3 HN people across 4 months · HN mentions 2018–2024

Topics

Consciousness & cognitionPhilosophy & ethicsEvolution & genetics
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daniel dennettconsciousnesscognitive scienceevolutionmemes

What people said

az09mugen · 2024-04 · Strong recommendation

I discovered him with the excellent Royal Institution talk "If Brains are Computers, Who Designs the Software?" [0]. And the quote which marked my mind is "How could a slow, mindless process build a thing that could build a thing that a slow mindless process couldn't build on it's own ?". [0] : [VIDEO]

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az09mugen · 2024-11 · Recommendation

Thanks for the link, I didn't know about that. It's kind of in the autocatalysis way, but more about "memes" in the sense of the book which introduced the term "The selfish gene" by Richard Dawkins. He says it 2 times, it's what drives his speech : At the beginning : [VIDEO] And at the end : [VIDEO] That's a very nice and profound speech asking good questions.

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rthrfrd · 2024-03 · Recommendation

I find Daniel Dennett's framing of competency vs comprehension a good place to start. He did a nice talk at the RI on it some time ago[1]. A previous one overlaps with similar ground[2]. [1] [VIDEO] [2] [LINK]

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Sources

Video by The Royal Institution, played through YouTube.

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