<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="auto">Jennifer Ouellette's piece on Daniel is well written too - like his books very readable and always interesting. Jennifer is the wife of Sean Carroll.</div>https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/04/philosopher-daniel-dennett-dead-at-82/<div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">-J.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div><br></div><div align="left" dir="auto" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000"><div>-------- Original message --------</div><div>From: Russ Abbott <russ.abbott@gmail.com> </div><div>Date: 4/23/24 12:16 AM (GMT+01:00) </div><div>To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam@redfish.com> </div><div>Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Daniel Dennett (1942-2024) </div><div><br></div></div><div dir="ltr"><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000" class="gmail_default">Stephen,</div><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000" class="gmail_default"><br></div><div style="" class="gmail_default"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" color="#000000">Thanks for the link to Michael Levin's piece on Dennett. Levin, also <a href="https://as.tufts.edu/biology/people/faculty/michael-levin">at Tufts</a>, is one of the most </font>insightful<font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" color="#000000"> and creative </font>biologists<font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" color="#000000"> around. The article points to a joint </font><a style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small" href="https://aeon.co/essays/how-to-understand-cells-tissues-and-organisms-as-agents-with-agendas">Aeon piece</a><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" color="#000000"> Levin wrote with Dennett. Even though it was published 3 1/2 years ago, it's very much worth reading. It will give you a sense of the kind of work Levin does.It also illustrates Dennett's notion of competence without comprehension from his </font><span style="color:rgb(0,32,33);font-family:"Google Sans",Roboto,"Helvetica Neue",Arial,sans-serif;background-color:rgb(197,233,235)"><a style="" href="https://www.amazon.com/Bacteria-Bach-Back-Evolution-Minds/dp/0393242072">From Bacteria to Bach and Back</a></span>, published 3 years earlier. The article is a very nice example of the melding of two minds.</div><div style="" class="gmail_default"><br></div><blockquote style="margin:0 0 0 40px;border:none;padding:0px"><div style="" class="gmail_default"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:"Academica Book Pro",Times,Georgia,serif;font-size:22px">Many will want to maintain that real cognition is what brains do, and what happens in biochemistry only seems like it’s doing similar things. We propose an inversion of this familiar idea; the point is not to anthropomorphise morphogenesis – the point is to naturalise cognition. There is nothing magic that humans (or other smart animals) do that doesn’t have a phylogenetic history. Taking evolution seriously means asking what cognition looked like all the way back. Modern data in the field of basal cognition makes it impossible to maintain an artificial dichotomy of ‘real’ and ‘as-if’ cognition. There is one continuum along which all living systems (and many nonliving ones) can be placed, with respect to how much thinking they can do.</span></div></blockquote><div><div data-smartmail="gmail_signature" class="gmail_signature" dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><font><u style="color:rgb(33,33,33);font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:20px"><br></u></font></div><div dir="ltr"><font><u style="color:rgb(33,33,33);font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:20px"> </u></font><span style="color:rgb(33,33,33);font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16.5px;line-height:24.75px"> </span>-- Russ Abbott <br>Professor Emeritus, Computer Science<br>California State University, Los Angeles<br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div class="gmail_attr" dir="ltr">On Sun, Apr 21, 2024 at 1:15 PM Stephen Guerin <<a href="mailto:stephen.guerin@simtable.com">stephen.guerin@simtable.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex" class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr">Michael Levin's farewell to Dan Dennett<br> <a href="https://thoughtforms.life/farewell-dan-dennett-i-will-really-miss-you/">https://thoughtforms.life/farewell-dan-dennett-i-will-really-miss-you/</a><div><br></div><div><div><div class="gmail_signature" dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><br><div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div class="gmail_attr" dir="ltr">On Fri, Apr 19, 2024 at 2:46 PM Stephen Guerin <<a href="mailto:stephen.guerin@simtable.com">stephen.guerin@simtable.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex" class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr"><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex" class="gmail_quote">Such a loss :-(<br><a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2024/04/19/daniel-dennett-philosopher-atheist-darwinist/">https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2024/04/19/daniel-dennett-philosopher-atheist-darwinist/</a></blockquote><br>yes a loss of a great person and intellectual. Though in the loss is the possibility of progress. if you consider the above "atheist-darwinist" url representing a certain paradigm in which Dennett has been cast as a central figure. <br><br>Planck's Principle on paradigms and funerals:<br><br><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 40px;border:none;padding:0px"><p style="margin:0px;padding-bottom:0.5em;color:rgb(32,33,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px">An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents: it rarely happens that <a style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(51,102,204);background:none" title="Conversion of Paul the Apostle" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_of_Paul_the_Apostle">Saul becomes Paul</a>. What does happen is that its opponents gradually die out, and that the growing generation is familiarized with the ideas from the beginning: another instance of the fact that the future lies with the youth.</p><div style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:1.5em;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0px;color:rgb(32,33,34);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px">— <cite style="font-style:inherit">Max Planck, Scientific autobiography, 1950, p. 33, 97<br><br>Colloquially, this is often paraphrased as "Science progresses one funeral at a time"<br></cite></div></blockquote><br clear="all"><div><div class="gmail_signature" dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">_________________________________________________________________<br>Stephen Guerin<br>CEO, Founder <br><a href="https://simtable.com">https://simtable.com</a><br><a href="mailto:stephen.guerin@simtable.com">stephen.guerin@simtable.com</a> <br><br><div><a href="mailto:stephenguerin@fas.harvard.edu">stephenguerin@fas.harvard.edu</a><br><a href="https://hwpi.harvard.edu/eps-visualization-research-laboratory/home">Harvard Visualization Research and Teaching Lab</a><br><div><div><div><span style="font-size:12.8px"><br>mobile: (505)577-5828</span></div><div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div class="gmail_attr" dir="ltr">On Fri, Apr 19, 2024 at 1:03 PM Jochen Fromm <<a href="mailto:jofr@cas-group.net">jofr@cas-group.net</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex" class="gmail_quote"><div dir="auto">Such a loss :-(<div dir="auto"><a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2024/04/19/daniel-dennett-philosopher-atheist-darwinist/">https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2024/04/19/daniel-dennett-philosopher-atheist-darwinist/</a></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">I will put his autobiography "I’ve Been Thinking" from last year on my reading list<div dir="auto"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/oct/01/ive-been-thinking-by-daniel-c-dennett-review-an-engaging-vexing-memoir-with-a-humility-bypass">https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/oct/01/ive-been-thinking-by-daniel-c-dennett-review-an-engaging-vexing-memoir-with-a-humility-bypass</a></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">-J.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div></div><div><br></div><div style="font-size:100%;color:rgb(0,0,0)" dir="auto" align="left"><div>-------- Original message --------</div><div>From: Jochen Fromm <<a href="mailto:jofr@cas-group.net">jofr@cas-group.net</a>> </div><div>Date: 4/19/24 7:32 PM (GMT+01:00) </div><div>To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <<a href="mailto:friam@redfish.com">friam@redfish.com</a>> </div><div>Subject: [FRIAM] Daniel Dennett (1942-2024) </div><div><br></div></div>A sad day today. Daniel Dennett has died :-( For every big question in philosophy there is at least one Daniel Dennett book:<br dir="auto"><br dir="auto">"Consciousnes Explained" (1991) about consciousness<br dir="auto">"Darwin's Dangerous Idea" (1995) about evolution <br dir="auto">"Freedom Evolves" (2003) about free will<br dir="auto">"Breaking the spell" (2006) about religion<br dir="auto"><br dir="auto"><a href="https://dailynous.com/2024/04/19/daniel-dennett-death-1942-2024/">https://dailynous.com/2024/04/19/daniel-dennett-death-1942-2024/</a><div dir="auto"><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">-J.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div></div></div>-. --- - / ...- .- .-.. .. -.. / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. .<br>
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