The hottest Cognition Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Technology Topics

A New Model of Memory: Representational Change and Representational Success

The Memory Palace • 139 implied HN points • 30 Apr 24
📖 Philosophy Cognition
  1. Memory shouldn't be judged the same way as perception. Just because we can't remember everything perfectly doesn't mean our memory is faulty.
  2. Instead of thinking about memory accuracy, we should look at how well a memory represents something. This means we can accept changes in how memories are formed and recalled.
  3. Unique aspects of memories, like 'authenticity,' might not be the best standard to evaluate them. Instead, we should focus on how memories succeed in representing our experiences in various ways.

Good Memory

The Memory Palace • 79 implied HN points • 11 Jun 24
📖 Philosophy Cognition
  1. Memory is often seen as less reliable than other ways of knowing, like perception. It doesn't create new knowledge but relies on what it's given, so it might forget important details.
  2. When we remember things, we can also remember them incorrectly or distort them. This means that sometimes memory can lead us to feel certain about things that are actually wrong.
  3. Despite its flaws, memory still plays an important role in how we understand our experiences. It can help us organize our memories, but we should be careful not to trust it too much.

Cetacean Philosophy

Justin E. H. Smith's Hinternet • 846 implied HN points • 15 Dec 24
📖 Philosophy Cognition
  1. Sperm whales have their own unique way of thinking and understanding the world. It's important not to put their ideas into human categories too easily.
  2. Recent studies show that sperm whales do have a true language, which we are still trying to fully understand. They can express complex thoughts and engage in creative conversation.
  3. The attempt to define 'cetacean philosophy' risks oversimplifying the whales' perspectives. We need more time and careful study before making conclusions about their thoughts and beliefs.

The Topography of Thought Edition

Why is this interesting? • 965 implied HN points • 24 Oct 24
🚌 Education Cognition
  1. Your writing style can show how you think and might predict your success. It's not just about the words you use, but how you organize your ideas.
  2. Some people can express a lot of different ideas briefly, while others might take longer to get through them. This can affect how effectively they communicate their thoughts.
  3. Understanding how successful people manage their ideas can help us improve our own writing and storytelling skills. It’s useful to have data to back up what we believe about writing.

Invisible feedback loops: How the body shapes the brain

Brain Pizza • 662 implied HN points • 27 Nov 24
🔬 Science Cognition
  1. The brain is not separate from the body; they work together in complex ways. Understanding how they interact can give us better insights into health and disease.
  2. Various bodily factors like gut health, muscle activity, and fat can influence how our brain functions. This shows the importance of considering the whole body when studying the brain.
  3. Topics like cancer cachexia and the gut-brain axis highlight specific connections between body signals and brain function, which can impact cognitive health.
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Specialization and Interdisciplinarity: Beyond Memory

The Memory Palace • 99 implied HN points • 23 Apr 24
📖 Philosophy Cognition
  1. Specialization in fields like the philosophy of memory can lead to growth and deeper understanding, but it may also risk limiting broader explorations. It’s important to balance focus with the desire to explore new ideas.
  2. Interdisciplinary work can enrich research by bringing in diverse perspectives and expertise. Collaborations across different fields can lead to new insights that wouldn't be possible in isolation.
  3. Memory connects with many other cognitive and emotional processes in complicated ways. To really understand memory, researchers need to look beyond just memory itself and consider its interactions with different aspects of life.

How bad will you feel when your side loses the election?

Brain Pizza • 662 implied HN points • 05 Nov 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Cognition
  1. People often think losing an election or a game will make them really sad, but they usually recover faster than they expect.
  2. We tend to imagine the worst emotional outcome when our side loses. However, we are naturally resilient and adapt quickly.
  3. Many times, we forget how quickly we can move on from disappointments and let other distractions take over our feelings.

Contra Hanania: Why Reading Books is Good, Actually

Mind & Mythos • 539 implied HN points • 11 May 23
📚 Literature Cognition
  1. Reading books helps with remembering and understanding ideas better than just quick posts or tweets. It's about taking time to fully grasp concepts.
  2. Books can connect new ideas with what we already know, making them more meaningful and easier to recall later.
  3. Not every book is worth reading, but the long tradition of books shows they still have a special value in learning and reflection.

2.0 Aristotle, Plato, & Newton

Fields & Energy • 259 implied HN points • 13 Dec 23
📖 Philosophy Cognition
  1. Aristotle and Plato have very different views on existence. Aristotle believes existence comes first, while Plato thinks consciousness creates reality.
  2. The Aristotelian approach focuses on observing nature to discover principles, while the Platonist starts with foundational ideas and deduces from them.
  3. Both schools of thought are important for science. Sometimes we discover new principles like Aristotle, and other times we analyze and apply ideas like Plato.

Robust Cognitive Strategies for Resource-Rich Minds

Eurykosmotron • 353 implied HN points • 26 Apr 23
🕹 Technology Cognition
  1. Living in scarcity shapes our thinking and behavior, but abundance can lead to new cognitive strategies.
  2. Feasible abundance can change how we approach problem-solving and relationships, leading to more optimism for the future.
  3. With abundant cognitive resources, we could develop new strategies like sampling from possible multiverses and maintaining a history of prior versions.

Dementia (.... and Joe Biden)

Brain Pizza • 1258 implied HN points • 13 Feb 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Cognition
  1. Our world is getting older as life expectancy increases, leading to a significant demographic shift with implications for society.
  2. As we age, changes in mental abilities are natural, with factors like brain tissue flexibility diminishing and communication speed between nerve cells slowing down.
  3. Dementia is a complex condition, not a normal part of aging, and it is essential to recognize signs early for timely interventions and support.

The worse bullshitter

Sunday Letters • 139 implied HN points • 26 Feb 24
📖 Philosophy Cognition
  1. It's easy to think we understand something fully, but we often realize we don't when we actually try to do it. This can happen in both math and programming.
  2. Sometimes we can fool ourselves into believing we know more than we do, which can make us the worst kind of bullshitter. This is especially tricky because it can tie into feelings of impostor syndrome.
  3. To avoid deceiving ourselves, it's important to be honest about our results. Whether in math, programming, or management, focusing on real outcomes can keep us grounded.

1.5 The Paradigm Shift to a New Model

Fields & Energy • 239 implied HN points • 29 Nov 23
🔬 Science Cognition
  1. People often prefer sticking to familiar ideas instead of embracing new ones, which can create mental barriers to understanding change. To overcome this, simplifying complex concepts is important.
  2. Models are tools we use to understand the world around us. Having multiple models allows us to tackle problems from different angles, making us better problem solvers.
  3. Understanding basic principles in science can help anyone grasp more complex ideas without needing extensive knowledge. For example, knowing atoms make up everything can help explain many scientific concepts.

The Iron InfoTech Law of Master & Servant: The Biggest Threat from MAMLMs Is Not Malevolent Machines, But Our Own Accidental Self-Pwnage

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality • 146 implied HN points • 16 Jul 25
🕹 Technology Cognition
  1. The biggest danger from AI isn't evil machines, but rather how we let them influence our thinking and behavior. We need to be careful to not become too dependent on technology.
  2. As technology gets better, we need to adapt and find new ways to work with it. This means changing how we think about roles and tasks in society to ensure technology helps us rather than controls us.
  3. It's important to build our skills in critical thinking and information filtering. With so much information available, we need to be smarter about what we consume and how we understand it.

"Cheap tricks" in human language comprehension

The Counterfactual • 119 implied HN points • 04 Mar 24
🔬 Science Cognition
  1. People often don’t notice mistakes in language and just assume they are reading correctly. This happens because our brains are quick to fill in the gaps and make sense of sentences, even if they are wrong.
  2. Traditionally, understanding language was thought to involve deep processing, but new ideas suggest we often use simple, fast tricks instead. This is called 'good-enough' comprehension and helps us keep up in fast conversations.
  3. Just like humans, language models also use shortcuts. While some criticize AI for not truly understanding language, humans rely on similar cognitive tricks to quickly navigate and understand communication.

A Second Kind of Objects

Justin E. H. Smith's Hinternet • 345 implied HN points • 02 Feb 25
📖 Philosophy Cognition
  1. Many short words can have different meanings in various languages. For example, the word 'kut' means very different things in Hungarian, Dutch, and Sanskrit.
  2. Exploring words like 'kut' can reveal interesting connections between different cultures and languages. It shows how language can be rich and complex.
  3. The idea of cross-linguistic homonyms helps us appreciate the diversity of human language and thought. It’s fascinating to see how one small word can connect so many meanings.

God Help Us, Let's Try to Understand the Self-Memory System

Mind & Mythos • 119 implied HN points • 28 Feb 24
📖 Philosophy Cognition
  1. Autobiographical memory is how we remember our personal life experiences, like childhood or important events. It’s not just about facts but also how we feel about those memories.
  2. The Self-Memory System connects our memories to our sense of self. It has three parts: the Episodic Memory System for short-term details, the Long-Term Self for broader life stories, and the Working Self that manages our thoughts and goals.
  3. When we recall memories, we don’t just pull them up exactly as they happened. Instead, we reconstruct them based on our goals and how we see ourselves, which can sometimes change over time.

Observer Memory and Imagination as our Inner Social Lab

The Memory Palace • 39 implied HN points • 04 Jun 24
📖 Philosophy Cognition
  1. Episodic memory helps us remember past events, while imagination lets us think about future or imaginary situations. Both can give us insights into our social experiences.
  2. How we see ourselves in memories and imagined situations can change based on what perspective we adopt. We might identify more with our own feelings or how others see us.
  3. The connection between our memories, imagination, and understanding others' thoughts suggests that these mental activities help us navigate social interactions and self-awareness.

Personality traits and intelligence

Stew's Letter • 255 implied HN points • 09 Jul 23
🔬 Science Cognition
  1. Certain personality traits like self-esteem and compassion are generally helpful for cognitive abilities.
  2. Some personality traits like neuroticism and anxiety are generally unhelpful for cognitive abilities.
  3. Specific personality traits such as industriousness and openness correlate strongly with verbal ability.

The Cogsec Chronicles

Investing 101 • 96 implied HN points • 02 Aug 25
🕹 Technology Cognition
  1. Cognitive security, or cogsec, is about protecting your mind from manipulation. It's important to actively choose your beliefs instead of letting outside influences shape them.
  2. Propaganda has been around forever and can be used for good or bad. The key is to be aware of the stories being told and to take responsibility for the narratives we accept.
  3. Writing and critical thinking are powerful tools for understanding and transforming our beliefs. Engaging deeply with ideas helps us resist being programmed by others.

Do People Prefer Curved Lines?

UX Psychology • 218 implied HN points • 30 Mar 23
🔬 Science Cognition
  1. Research indicates that people generally prefer curved lines over straight or angular ones due to associations with grace and gentleness.
  2. Preference for curves is not just psychological, but has roots in our perception of safety and nurture, related to our evolutionary past.
  3. In design, understanding people's preference for curved lines can help create more visually appealing and effective products, but individual factors like personality and culture also play a role.

Prompting is Managing

Breaking Smart • 125 implied HN points • 19 Jun 25
🕹 Technology Cognition
  1. Using AI tools like chatbots is similar to managing interns. It's not about doing the work yourself but overseeing the process.
  2. Focusing on sameness in writing can help maintain quality, but it may also limit creativity. Good management knows when to stick to the rules and when to encourage originality.
  3. We need to change how we teach writing and management skills for the AI era. It’s important to build skills for overseeing new technologies rather than just avoiding them.

Results from poll #3 (and updates)

The Counterfactual • 59 implied HN points • 11 Apr 24
🕹 Technology Cognition
  1. Tokenization won the recent poll, so there will be an in-depth explainer about it soon. This will help people understand how tokenization works in large language models.
  2. The visual reasoning task was a close second, so it might come up in the next poll for more ideas. This shows there is interest in how models think visually.
  3. There are updates about recent publications and discussions on related topics in AI and psychology. These will be shared in upcoming posts, expanding on interesting research topics.

How to metacognate

Sunday Letters • 99 implied HN points • 29 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Cognition
  1. Working with complex models can be hard when they get confused by incorrect or incomplete information. This can lead to mistakes and conflicts in what they remember.
  2. Creating a stable pattern for how tasks are done can help models work better by giving them a solid structure to follow. This is like giving the model a framework to lean on for more complicated tasks.
  3. As models improve, the need for extra coding to guide their thinking may lessen. Better memory strategies will likely help them function more effectively over time.

What Is Man That Thou Art Mindful of Him?: How We All Already Have Our Superintelligent AI-Assistant :: POSSIBLE LECTURE OUTLINE

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality • 107 implied HN points • 19 Jun 25
🕹 Technology Cognition
  1. Humanity's collective brain can be viewed as our superintelligent partner, and we don't need to create a new one. We already have intelligence through our connections and shared knowledge.
  2. Our evolution has shaped us into a high-energy species that relies on cooperation and sharing, helping us thrive over time. This social interaction was key to our development and success.
  3. Smartphones and technology are just the next step in our long journey of collective thinking. They are tools that enhance our ability to connect and process information together.

Orange peels, human tests, and LLMs

The Counterfactual • 139 implied HN points • 28 Nov 23
🕹 Technology Cognition
  1. It's tricky to know what Large Language Models (LLMs) can really do. Figuring out how to measure their skills, like reasoning, is more complicated than it seems.
  2. Using tests designed for humans might not always work for LLMs. Just because a test is good for people doesn't mean it measures the same things for AI.
  3. We need to look deeper into how LLMs solve tasks, not just focus on their test scores. Understanding their inner workings could help us assess their true capabilities better.

The Sequence Opinion #672: Mind Over Model: Chain-of-Thought vs. System 1/System 2

TheSequence • 105 implied HN points • 26 Jun 25
🕹 Technology Cognition
  1. Chain-of-thought reasoning in AI helps it to process and structure information more clearly. This is similar to how humans take time to think through problems rather than jumping to conclusions.
  2. Human thought has two systems: System 1, which is quick and instinctive, and System 2, which is slower and more deliberate. This comparison helps us understand AI reasoning better.
  3. Understanding the similarities and differences between AI reasoning and human cognition can give us insights into how to improve AI systems in the future. It's important to keep exploring these connections.

Neuroscience/AI - Can rats ‘think’? A paper by Chongxi Lai and colleagues on cognitive teleportation in rats [8 min read]

James W. Phillips' Newsletter • 157 implied HN points • 10 Apr 23
🔬 Science Cognition
  1. There is a paper on cognitive teleportation in rats, pushing the boundaries of what we understand about rodent cognition.
  2. The research involves tasks where rats navigate in virtual reality based on their brain signals, not physical movements.
  3. The study successfully shows rats 'thinking' by rewarding them for imagining being in a particular location, showcasing impressive advancements in neuroscience and AI.

Salience Landscaping

the shimmering void • 93 implied HN points • 08 Jun 25
📖 Philosophy Cognition
  1. Our brains deal with a lot of information, but we need to filter and prioritize what's important. This filtering helps us focus on what's relevant in the moment.
  2. Curiosity is a natural response to uncertainty. It's like a feeling that nudges us to explore new ideas or solutions when we're unsure about something.
  3. Improving our awareness of what we care about can help us make better decisions and avoid self-deception, especially in a world filled with distractions.

Against using Nicholas Cage movies to teach correlation and causation

Unconfusion • 39 implied HN points • 31 Mar 24
🚌 Education Cognition
  1. Using silly examples to teach correlation and causation can let students off too easily. It's important to challenge them with examples that make them think.
  2. Most teaching examples use time-series data, but many real-world correlations don't fit this model. We should focus on typical variations found in research.
  3. Mixing random correlations with spurious connections creates confusion. Teaching should clearly explain how confounders can lead to false relationships.

The Sequence Opinion #662: From Words to Worlds: Some Observations About World Models

TheSequence • 77 implied HN points • 12 Jun 25
🕹 Technology Cognition
  1. LLMs are great with words, but they struggle with understanding and acting in real-life environments. They need to develop spatial intelligence to navigate and manipulate the world around them.
  2. Spatially-grounded AI can create internal models of their surroundings, which helps them operate in real spaces. This advancement represents a big step forward in general intelligence for AI.
  3. The essay discusses how new AI designs focus on spatial reasoning instead of just language, emphasizing that understanding the physical world is a key part of being intelligent.

Why Job Displacement Predictions are Wrong: Explanations of Cognitive Automation

Scaling Knowledge • 117 implied HN points • 30 May 23
🕹 Technology Cognition
  1. Predictions about job displacement due to large language models are often wrong because they lack explanations of how LLMs and human intelligence differ.
  2. Jobs are more likely to be augmented than automated by technologies like LLMs, as human creativity and autonomy are essential in many fields like software engineering, medicine, law, and media production.
  3. Regulations on AI and cognitive automation may hinder progress and knowledge creation, leading to unforeseen consequences and limiting the potential benefits of such technologies.

Is the ‘Dumb Jock’ Really a Nerd?

Let's Get Psychophysical ! • 117 implied HN points • 18 Jul 23
🏥 Health & Wellness Cognition
  1. Training the body and mind simultaneously is possible through psychophysical culture.
  2. Neuroscience challenges the distinction between practical and theoretical activities, suggesting success in one area translates to success in another.
  3. Complex motor activities combining physical and cognitive demands have shown to enhance cognition.

Automaticity, Mega-Machine, Planetary Super-Organism, Nirvana, Hive Mind

Daniel Pinchbeck’s Newsletter • 9 implied HN points • 16 Dec 25
🕹 Technology Cognition
  1. Skills learned through practice become automatic and habitual, letting our conscious mind focus on other things.
  2. Modern civilization acts like a mega-machine or technosphere that invisibly handles basic survival tasks, removing those labor demands from individual awareness and action.
  3. AI threatens to extend that automaticity to thought itself by outsourcing cognitive and administrative work to networks, which could free people but also risk loss of autonomy or a hive-mind–like planetary system.

What We Remember and What We Forget When We Forgive

The Memory Palace • 1 HN point • 10 Sep 24
📖 Philosophy Cognition
  1. Forgiveness can change how we feel about bad memories. People may remember the details, but the anger and hurt can lessen over time.
  2. Just because someone forgives doesn't mean they forget the event. They can still remember what happened without feeling the same pain or desire for revenge.
  3. Research shows that forgiveness mainly affects the emotional parts of memories. This means that even when we remember a bad event, we can feel less upset about it.

Setting The Stage

Weekly Wisdom • 79 implied HN points • 13 Jul 23
📖 Philosophy Cognition
  1. Integral theory introduces stages of development, covering cognition, values, and identity.
  2. Stage development in integral theory involves growing up, moral development, and understanding perspectives.
  3. Integral theory categorizes levels of development using colors, from egocentric to kosmocentric stages.

Introducing not-knowing.

The Uncertainty Mindset (soon to become tbd) • 199 implied HN points • 11 Jan 23
📖 Philosophy Cognition
  1. Understanding not-knowing helps us deal with uncertainty in our lives. It’s important to recognize that we often face different types of not-knowing that affect our decision-making.
  2. The world is more interconnected today, which means uncertainties can spread faster. We need to be aware that one issue in one part of the world can quickly impact others.
  3. It's important to accept that we can't know everything. Recognizing our limits can help us manage our emotions better and make clearer decisions in uncertain situations.

Elephant Riding

Polymathic Being • 104 implied HN points • 10 Nov 24
📖 Philosophy Cognition
  1. We balance emotions and reason like an elephant and a rider. The elephant represents our feelings, which often drive our decisions more than we think.
  2. Relying only on logic can lead to problems. Emotions help us make decisions, and without them, we might struggle with even simple choices.
  3. To make better decisions, we should understand our emotions and how they influence us. This means taking time to think things through and checking if our feelings align with reality.

Making Sense of Consciousness Part 1: Perceptual Awareness

Rough Diamonds • 32 implied HN points • 25 Jun 25
🔬 Science Cognition
  1. Consciousness is all about personal experiences and awareness of self, and it's usually absent during deep sleep or anesthesia. Understanding how consciousness works doesn't require diving into complex philosophy.
  2. There are fascinating phenomena like blindsight, where people can respond to visual stimuli without consciously seeing them, showing that our brains can process information even when we're not aware of it.
  3. Similar to blindsight, there are cases of 'deaf hearing' and 'numb touch,' where individuals can react to sounds or sensations without consciously feeling them. This suggests that perception can happen on different levels, even with brain damage.

Side Effects of outsourcing our Thinking

Poems, Short stories and other things.. • 29 implied HN points • 08 Jul 25
🕹 Technology Cognition
  1. Relying too much on smart tools makes us lazy thinkers. We should still use our brains to analyze and understand things instead of just taking shortcuts.
  2. AI can help us save time but it's important to keep our memories and reasoning sharp. We shouldn't let AI do all the thinking for us.
  3. While AI has the ability to remember everything, it's not always a good idea. Sometimes forgetting helps us move on and making tools that remember everything can be harmful.