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Posts labelled science.
The Theory That Never Asks What Things Are Made Of · October 28, 2026 · conversations series
Thermodynamics was built before anyone knew whether matter is made of atoms, and survived the discovery untouched. Einstein's distinction between constructive and principle theories says why: a principle theory describes a context at its own level, and what the context is made of is a different question.
Thermodynamics was built before anyone knew whether matter is made of atoms, and survived the discovery untouched. Einstein's distinction between constructive and principle theories says why: a principle theory describes a context at its own level, and what the context is made of is a different question.
The Word Travels · October 24, 2026 · conversations series
Clausius built the word entropy to travel — Greek, so every language could take it unchanged — and it was about change from its first day: the transformation content of a body became the transformation content of a message, undergone in the one, chosen in the other.
Clausius built the word entropy to travel — Greek, so every language could take it unchanged — and it was about change from its first day: the transformation content of a body became the transformation content of a message, undergone in the one, chosen in the other.
The Society That Cannot Recognise · October 20, 2026 · conversations series
Argentine ants from opposite ends of a continent, which have never met and never will, treat each other as members of the same colony — and the argument about whether that makes them one society turns out to be an argument about a word.
Argentine ants from opposite ends of a continent, which have never met and never will, treat each other as members of the same colony — and the argument about whether that makes them one society turns out to be an argument about a word.
Where Basal Cognition and SPLectrum Meet · October 4, 2026 · language series
The research field on cognition without brains and SPLectrum arrive at the same open ground from different directions — and the field's cases turn out to be small studies in meaning: languages of experience and interaction, in beings with no neurons at all.
The research field on cognition without brains and SPLectrum arrive at the same open ground from different directions — and the field's cases turn out to be small studies in meaning: languages of experience and interaction, in beings with no neurons at all.
The Field That Waited a Century · September 24, 2026 · conversations series
The story of basal cognition's beginning: a century of orphaned results — Jennings's trumpet cell, Gelber's erased experiments, an Ig Nobel slime mould — until Pamela Lyon inverted the question and gave the evidence a home.
The story of basal cognition's beginning: a century of orphaned results — Jennings's trumpet cell, Gelber's erased experiments, an Ig Nobel slime mould — until Pamela Lyon inverted the question and gave the evidence a home.
Evolution and the Brain · July 8, 2026 · preamble series
The brain is an organ with over 500 million years of evolution behind it. It probably got started as integration centres in simple nerve nets — the early brainless nervous...
The brain is an organ with over 500 million years of evolution behind it. It probably got started as integration centres in simple nerve nets — the early brainless nervous...
The Relational Reality of RQM · May 1, 2026 · positioning series
Relational quantum mechanics drops the privileged observer — properties arise through interaction, shared reality produced by decoherence.
Relational quantum mechanics drops the privileged observer — properties arise through interaction, shared reality produced by decoherence.
From Clockwork to Open Questions · April 26, 2026 · positioning series
From Newton's clockwork to quantum uncertainty — how physics moved from the outside observer to the participant, and left an open question.
From Newton's clockwork to quantum uncertainty — how physics moved from the outside observer to the participant, and left an open question.