New Books in Psychology M. Chirimuuta, "The Brain Abstracted: Simplification in the History and Philosophy of Neuroscience" (MIT Press, 2024)
Mar 10, 2025
Mazviita Chirimuuta, a senior lecturer in philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, discusses her book on the oversimplification in neuroscience. She critiques how models misrepresent brain functions, emphasizing the efficiency of biological cognition compared to AI systems. Chirimuuta introduces 'haptic realism', highlighting the interplay between scientific methods and our understanding of the brain. The conversation also addresses misconceptions about AI, the energy demands of data centers, and the philosophical dilemmas in equating brain processes with computer operations.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
From Lab Bench To Philosophy
- Mazviita Chirimuuta describes her transition from visual neuroscience lab work to philosophy and modeling experiments she ran herself.
- She recounts using herself as a psychophysics subject and building computational receptive-field models linking physiology to behavior.
Biology Magnifies Model Gaps
- Idealizations like frictionless planes work well in physics but biology's complexity makes such simplifications less reliable.
- The gap between simplified models and real biological systems is often much larger in neuroscience than in physics.
Models Are Useful But Not Literal
- Computational models in neuroscience function as useful idealizations but risk being read as literal accounts of brain ontology.
- Pretending away neurochemistry, glia, and vasculature can mislead interpretations of how brain function causes behavior.
