Thanks Philip, I have a paper out soon in Metabolic Eng. using Bayesian model averaging - with tempered Occam's razor - to sift through competing simple systems biology (featured in your latest excellent book) models but arguing for its general utility (eg. in machine learning).

New paper is out - Patrick McMillen
nature.com/articles/s4200…
'Collective intelligence: A unifying concept for integrating biology across scales and substrates'

💭At what levels does causation happen in biology? Are metaphors are useful for understanding biology?💭

📖 In this episode, we talk with Phil Ball, a science writer who was also an editor for the journal Nature for over 20 years. …(1/3)

This is very kind, but naturally I'd be inclined to agree.

I figured it might not be a bad idea to post a little thread on what my book How Life Works does and doesn't do...
how-life-works.philipball.co.uk

Ockham’s razor, which states that the most economical way of looking at the world is probably the correct one, is crucial for distinguishing science from superstition. Yet it is widely misunderstood, argues University of Surrey biologist Johnjoe McFadden: openmindmag.org/articles/the-s…

I'm lucky to be part of this exciting Templeton World Charity Foundation funded adversarial collaboration, pitting IIT against active inference - with the experiment design now out in preprint! 🧵👇🏽

This summer, May 24-27, I will be talking/debating at the incredible HowTheLightGetsIn Festival - alongside Peter Singer, Martha Fiennes, Paterson Joseph, @danieldennet, Thangam Debbonaire and many more incredible speakers, musicians and comedians. Get your tickets now: howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/hay/…

'When Tao is lost, there is goodness. When goodness is lost, there is kindness. When kindness is lost, there is justice. When justice is lost, there is ritual. Now ritual is the husk of faith and loyalty, the beginning of confusion.' The Tao Te Ching, Laozi, ~ 250 BCE

Spooky Tree

“The depth of the horror surpasses our ability to describe it.” theguardian.com/world/2024/mar…

And despite this being evident to the New Yorker, it still isn't to some folks in the UK.

“Murgia’s vivid, sympathetic reportage looks beneath the grandiose promise of AI…. a biting and skeptical look at the brave new world of AI”.

Starred PW preview for Madhumita Murgia’s CODE DEPENDENT, coming June from Holt USA.

Living in the Shadow of AI publishersweekly.com/9781250867391

In the vast canvas of the cosmos, a nebula unfurls its fiery wings, a phoenix rising from stellar ashes.

A reminder that I'll be giving the 2024 The Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize Lecture this Tuesday March 26th 6:30pm: 'Consciousness in humans and in other things'. Tix are free (1st come 1st served), & the event will be IRL & streamed. See you there! royalsociety.org/science-events…

In 2002, I published two papers proposing that the substrate of consciousness is the brain's electromagnetic field. It's great to see that, 20 years later, there are now a plethora of EM field theories of consciousness as reviewed by Tam Hunt et al: frontiersin.org/articles/10.33…

Great to see my 'Life is Simple' published by Basic Books Basic BooksUK recommended by the Wall Street Journal alongside 7 other great books that help to 'unlock the universe within [our mind]'. wsj.com/articles/8-boo… via WSJ Books Section

good to be in great company!

Neuropteris 🌿 a tiny wee snapshot into the vast tropical wetland forests that once flourished in parts of Scotland, over 300 million years ago 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🖤

Computer- bound life - I'll be interested in it when it generates a testable, and tested, prediction. If life is as easy and inevitable as England claims, make some!