The Blind Spot Podcast Episode 11: Mind, Life and Intelligence
Sep 17, 2025
Evan Thompson, a philosopher and cognitive scientist, dives deep into the connections between life and intelligence. He argues that intelligence is about biological sense-making and introduces the concept of autopoiesis. The discussion reveals how bacteria sense their environment far better than today's AI, which merely predicts outcomes without understanding. Thompson critiques traditional views of perception, presenting a more embodied approach to cognition that raises important ethical and planetary questions about intelligence.
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Episode notes
Intelligence As Relevance Realization
- Intelligence is the ability to make a world of sense by distinguishing relevant from irrelevant.
- That relevance-realization is rooted in living systems' self-producing organization rather than abstract computation.
No Algorithm For What Matters
- Relevance realization cannot be solved by a general algorithm; organisms learn heuristics and common-sense through practice.
- Skilled selection of what's important (e.g., good note-taking) relies on embodied background knowledge and training.
Note-Taking Example Of Relevance
- Evan uses the example of taking philosophy notes to show relevance realization in practice.
- Students must learn to pick emphasized points and structure rather than transcribe verbatim.
