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Practically-A-Book Review: Byrnes on Trance

Published 1 year, 1 month ago
Description

Steven Byrnes is a physicist/AI researcher/amateur neuroscientist; needless to say, he blogs on Less Wrong. I finally got around to reading his 2024 series giving a predictive processing perspective on intuitive self-models. If that sounds boring, it shouldn’t: Byrnes charges head-on into some of the toughest subjects in psychology, including trance, amnesia, and multiple personalities. I found his perspective enlightening (no pun intended; meditation is another one of his topics) and thought I would share.

It all centers around this picture:

But first: some excruciatingly obvious philosophical preliminaries.

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