Elan Barenholtz Λ William Hahn: The (Terrifying) Theory That Your Thoughts Were Never Your Own

Elan Barenholtz and William Hahn argue that language functions as a self‑generating organism that writes its own software into our minds, shaping cognition and behavior. Drawing on large language models, autoregression, and cognitive science, they suggest memory, self and even concepts of God are merely informational tokens.- 00:00 - Introduction- 05:28 - The Nature of Autoregression- 10:14 - Memory and Cognition Redefined- 11:28 - The Role of Language Models- 14:23 - Exploring Consciousness and Software- 26:22 - The Evolution of Language- 38:08 - Language: A Cultural Artifact- 54:19 - The Power and Danger of Language- 1:02:52 - Embracing Uncertainty in Knowledge- 1:04:59 - Courage to Believe in Ideas- 1:09:30 - Support and Engagement with ContentSPONSORS:- The Economist: 20% off discount - https://www.economist.com/toeRESOURCES:- Join My New Substack (Personal Writings): https://curtjaimungal.substack.com- Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e- Elan's Substack: https://elanbarenholtz.substack.com/- Elan's Papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=2grAjZsAAAAJ&hl=en- William's Blog: https://hahn.ai/blog/index.html- Ekkolapto's Site: https://www.ekkolapto.org/- Andrés Emilsson [TOE]: https://youtu.be/BBP8WZpYp0Y- Elan Barenholtz [TOE]: https://youtu.be/A36OumnSrWY- Anna Ciaunica & Michael Levin [TOE]: https://youtu.be/2aLhkm6QUgA- William Hahn [TOE]: https://youtu.be/3fkg0uTA3qU- Michael Levin's Presentation [TOE]: https://youtu.be/Exdz2HKP7u0- Stephen Wolfram [TOE]: https://youtu.be/0YRlQQw0d-4- Geoffrey Hinton [TOE]: https://youtu.be/b_DUft-BdIE- Ai Panel [TOE]: https://youtu.be/abzXzPBW4_s- Joscha Bach & Ben Goertzel [TOE]: https://youtu.be/xw7omaQ8SgA- Noam Chomsky [TOE]: https://youtu.be/DQuiso493ro- Michael Levin Solo [TOE]: https://youtu.be/c8iFtaltX-s- Consciousness Iceberg [TOE]: https://youtu.be/65yjqIDghEk- Joscha Bach [TOE]: https://youtu.be/3MNBxfrmfmI- Scott Aaronson [TOE]: https://youtu.be/gGsh0_-q7LI- Iain McGilchrist [TOE]: https://youtu.be/Q9sBKCd2HD0- The Master and His Emissary [Book]: https://www.amazon.com/Master-His-Emissary-Divided-Western/dp/0300188374- Michael Levin & Karl Friston [TOE]: https://youtu.be/0yOV9Pzk2zw- Shape Rotators vs Wordcels [Article]: https://sasamilic.medium.com/some-thoughts-on-the-shape-rotator-vs-worcel-meme-f320261a21cd Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices