I, scientist with Balazs Kegl Kevin Mithcell
Jun 15, 2025
Kevin Mitchell is a neuroscientist and geneticist at Trinity College Dublin, known for his work on free will and agency. He delves into the paradox of free agency amidst randomness, discussing how indeterminism allows for control. The conversation explores nested cognition, highlighting how subsystems in our brain can create conflicts, impacting mental health. Mitchell also examines the boundaries of self and collective agency, and the implications for artificial intelligence, emphasizing the need for grounding in creating true agency.
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Indeterminism Enables Agency
- Physics is not strictly deterministic; indeterminism at low levels opens real possible futures.
- That causal slack plus selection lets macroscopic organization exert control and enable agency.
Noise Is Both Bug And Feature
- Biological systems balance noise buffering with exploiting randomness for flexibility.
- Neural circuits both suppress and use noise depending on function and timescale.
Nested Hierarchies Drive Decisions
- Cognition is hierarchical: slower, long-horizon goals constrain faster controllers.
- Decision-making emerges from many subsystems settling into a low-tension global state.
