Deric Bownds

LATEST ARTICLES ( 2671 )

• Changing Our Systems of Governance

  I have found Johar's essay From Power Diagrams to Settlement-Construction: What we may be missing about the New Right to be worth several re-readings. Read more

  Posted on 20 February 2026 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• New Ferality - Seeking New Ways of Being Wild in New Nature

  This post is to archive this link to a recent Venkatesh Rao essay, and also pass on condensations of its main ideas done by Google Gemini and ChatGPT 5.2. Read more

  Posted on 18 February 2026 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Buying Futures, Renting the Past: How Speculation and Nostalgia Became the...

  I want to pass on this condensation by Google Gemini of a recent essay by Kyla Scanlon In her essay, "Buying Futures, Renting the Past," Kyla Scanlon explores... Read more

  Posted on 16 February 2026 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• MindBlog is Now 20 Years Old.

  I just realized that MindBlog is now starting its 21st year. I asked both Chat GPT 5.2 and Google Gemini about this, and paste in Gemini's sycophantic response... Read more

  Posted on 13 February 2026 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Against the Machine

  I'm using this blog post to archive for myself ChatGPT 5.2's summary of Paul Kingsnorth’s "Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity" [In this same vein... Read more

  Posted on 12 February 2026 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Future of Being Human

  

  I want to point to Patrick Tanguay's recent Sentiers piece and in particular to Johar's essay. I asked both ChatGPT and Google Gemini to summarize ideas in... Read more

  Posted on 08 February 2026 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Mythology of Conscious AI

  I've just read through an excellent article in Noema Magazine by Anil Seth explaining why consciousness is more likely a property of life than of computation an... Read more

  Posted on 26 January 2026 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Case for Being Human

  ...This Colin Lewis lecture and essay on "Character, Clarity, and connection in a Century of Curated Selves" is a welcome breath of fresh air. Read more

  Posted on 23 January 2026 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Do We Have an Appetite for Transcendence?

  I've been working on a long rambling post on finding meaning in the flow and evolution of the cosmos rather than in the varied anthropomorphic religions that... Read more

  Posted on 20 January 2026 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Venkatesh Rao's 'World Machines'

  As usual, I found Venkatesh Rao's writinting in his latest piece "The Divergence Machine" a bit opaque and wordy, so I asked ChatGPT 5. Read more

  Posted on 05 January 2026 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Institutional Stance - an Evolved Intuitive Theory?

  I have just been sent an article by BBS (Brain and Behavioral Sciences) that is soliciting commentaries on an article by Jara-Ettinger and Dunham titled "The... Read more

  Posted on 31 December 2025 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• What Our Brains Are Doing as We Experience Musical Pleasure.

  I've been playing more Schubert lately, drawn by his genius for inserting melodic sections within his piano works (sonatas, impromptus, fantasies, etc.) that... Read more

  Posted on 29 December 2025 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• What Are Humans For? - AI Forces a Question We’ve Been Dodging

  . AI Is Already Fusing With Us — The Only Question Is How The argument about whether AI will enhance or diminish our our humanity usually starts in the wrong... Read more

  Posted on 26 December 2025 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Modernity Machine

  

  I want to pass on to readers this Venkatesh Rao substack essay that summarizes what his book club has learned in the past year: The Modernity Machine... Read more

  Posted on 24 December 2025 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Human Machines and AI Machines

  The story of life is the story of machines that learned how to copy themselves and persist through time. Over billions of years these replicating systems evolve... Read more

  Posted on 22 December 2025 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Time, Space, Memory and Brain–body Rhythms

  Buzsáki at NYU Medical School offers interesting perspectives on the two 'types' of time that are considered in cognitive science and neuroscience: physica... Read more

  Posted on 18 December 2025 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Changes in Human Brain Organization at Age ~83 (as Well as Ages ~9, 32, and 66)

  This open source paper by Mousley et al. caught my eye because at 83 years of age I am at one of the article's 'turning points' in brain organization. Read more

  Posted on 16 December 2025 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Bigger AI Models Are Failing Faster - The Future Evolution of AI is into the 4D...

  I want to pass on this interesting Venkatest Rao piece (which he calls a "Sloptraptions" because it is written with AI assistance) The current debate over... Read more

  Posted on 12 December 2025 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Focused Attention Mindfulness Meditation Changes Our Cerebrospinal Fluid Dynamics

  From Keating et al. Significance Mindfulness meditation is widely recognized for its self-reported mental and physical health benefits, yet its effects on core... Read more

  Posted on 10 December 2025 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• “Core Perception”: Re-imagining Precocious Reasoning as Sophisticated Perceiving

  I'm enjoying reading through an interesting article by Bai et al. that will appear in Behavioral and Brain Science and is now soliciting commentary. Here is... Read more

  Posted on 09 December 2025 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE