When Life Gives You a Brain

Epizodes

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  Is Seeing Really Believing? 01.07.2025 16min

  We move through the world assuming our senses are in sync. Sight, sound, touch—they usually agree. But flip just one of them, and the whole system starts to wobble. That’s exactly what happens with prism goggles.This week, I revisit some classic experiments with inverting goggles. How does the brain adapt to conflicting signals? Does it rebuild an internal representation—or just adjust its predictions?What are we really doing when we say we’re seeing? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suzitravis.substack.com
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  Looking for Meaning 17.06.2025 20min

  We talk about meaning all the time — what things mean, what people mean, what life means. It feels obvious that meaning is something we have. Probably in the brain. Somewhere.Neuroscientists even talk that way. They say things like, “This part of the brain represents faces,” or “That spike means the person saw a dog.”But it’s not clear what “means” really means in this context.What is meaning? And where does it really come from? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suzitravis.substack.com
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  Does the Mind Need a Body? 10.06.2025 25min

  Most of us take it for granted that our thoughts have meaning. You can think about a dog, a holiday, or the square root of 144 — and somehow, your brain just gets it. Cognitive science has long explained this by saying the brain uses internal representations: mental models that stand in for things in the world.But not everyone agrees. Some researchers say we’ve got it backwards — that meaning doesn’t come from internal models, but from how we move through and interact with the world.So which is it? Are our minds built on internal maps — or is meaning something we do, not something we store? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suzitravis.substack.com
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  What Gives Brain Activity Meaning? 03.06.2025 27min

  We might mistake a garden hose for a snake. There’s no snake — just a brain responding to the wrong thing in the wrong way. But somehow, we still say the our brain represents a snake. Even though there is no snake.That sounds straightforward, until you ask what “represent” really means — and how a lump of neurons can be about anything. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suzitravis.substack.com
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  Does your Brain Represent the Outside World? 27.05.2025 24min

  When you see a dog, something happens in your brain. A pattern of activity fires, and somehow, that pattern feels like it means something. Cognitive scientists often say that your brain “represents” things — objects, ideas, emotions, and dogs. Representations is how we explain perception, memory, language, and thought.But not everyone agrees that this idea holds up. Some say the notion of representation is more metaphor than mechanism. So what does it really mean to say your brain represents something? And is it the right way to think about what the brain does? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suzitravis.substack.com
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  Could a Language Model Know What a Dog Is? 20.05.2025 20min

  We tend to think words get their meaning from the world.You see a dog, you learn the word “dog,” and now the word points to the thing.But large language models don’t see dogs. Or anything at all.They’ve learned only from text — just patterns of words predicting other words.This week, I wrote about what that means for AI, language, and us.It’s a deep dive into the grounding problem — a philosophical puzzle that’s suddenly become very practical.Some researchers think models like ChatGPT are edging closer to real understanding.Others say they’re just spinning in circles — stuck in a world of words about words.So here’s the puzzle: Can a model talk about reality without ever touching it? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suzitravis.substack.com
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  How to Talk to Aliens 13.05.2025 13min

  Think about a sign. Or a symbol, an idea, a thought, a concept, or a representation. What kind of thing are you really thinking about?In 1972, NASA pinned a message to a spaceship, hoping one day an alien life form might find it and understand it. The plaque was full of symbols — diagrams, drawings, a raised human hand. Those symbols mean something to us. But only because we know they’re symbols — and because we know what they mean. Could an alien understand them too?This week, I’m asking: what gives a sign, a symbol, or a thought its meaning at all? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suzitravis.substack.com
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  Hello? Is There Anybody in There? 06.05.2025 23min

  We’ve all been chatting with machines lately — ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude — and they sound impressively human.It’s easy to wonder: do they just seem to understand, or is there something real going on inside?Back in 1980, philosopher John Searle argued that no matter how good a machine’s answers are, something crucial is missing.His Chinese Room thought experiment challenges the idea that smart programs can ever really understanding.I’ve written an essay exploring what Searle’s Chinese Room says about AI, minds, and meaning.The essay unpacks the argument, why it feels convincing, and why many philosophers still push back on it today.At its heart, the Chinese Room forces us to ask: is manipulating symbols enough to create a mind — or does it leave us forever on the outside of meaning?If Searle’s right that symbol-shuffling isn’t enough, then what is enough to make meaning? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suzitravis.substack.com
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  If It Predicts, Is It Intelligent? 22.04.2025 14min

  Brains predict. LLMs predict. But does that mean they’re doing the same thing? A short essay on functions, intelligence, and the trouble with words.We used to think intelligence was all about reasoning.Then we said it was biological.Now we’re told it’s maybe... prediction?That shift raises a big question:If both brains and language models predict, does that mean they’re doing the same thing?This essay explores this idea — and tests the argument behind it. Because if prediction really is the function behind intelligence, we need to ask:What happens when two systems predict in completely different ways? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suzitravis.substack.com
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  How to Build a Brain 15.04.2025 17min

  We know how to build things — houses, bridges, and bookshelves. And when we build, we follow instructions: blueprints and manuals.But living things don’t follow fixed instructions. They grow. And that might be a very different kind of thing. This essay is about what happens when we stop trying to build artificial brains — and we start trying to grow them. It’s about the difference between code that executes and code that unfolds. As AI systems get more powerful, the line between what’s built and what grows is starting to blur.So it's worth asking: Could a neural network ever grow like a brain? And if it could… would it matter? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suzitravis.substack.com
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  Does Consciousness Come Along for the Ride? 08.04.2025 19min

  We like to think that if a system gets complex enough, consciousness just kicks in -- the lights turn on. It’s a neat idea — and it shows up everywhere, from neuroscience papers to AI hype.But the science isn’t nearly that simple.This essay asks: does consciousness really just come along for the ride when things get complicated? It looks at what the science actually says. If consciousness isn’t about complexity, then what is it about? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suzitravis.substack.com
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  Why is Complexity So Complex? 01.04.2025 23min

  Complexity is all around us — in life, brains, weather, cities, economies... We know a brain is more complex than a rock, but good luck explaining why. Even scientists struggle to define it — we know it when we see it, but that’s about it. So what exactly makes something complex? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suzitravis.substack.com
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  Could Entropy Explain Consciousness? 25.03.2025 8min

  What if your conscious experience depends on the direction of time? This week I get speculative. Entropy is why cream swirls into coffee and eggs break — but never the other way around. Could that same arrow of time help explain why you have thoughts, memories, and a sense of self? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suzitravis.substack.com
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  Information Isn't Free. Even Demons Must Pay 18.03.2025 21min

  Information isn't just an abstract concept—it has real, physical consequences. Physicists and engineers have long treated information in different ways: one as bits in a message, the other as something tied to the fundamental laws of nature.But Maxwell’s Demon, a thought experiment from the 19th century, revealed a strange connection between information and entropy, suggesting that processing information isn’t free—it has an energy cost. If erasing information increases entropy, what does that mean for things that think? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suzitravis.substack.com
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  A Short History of the Mind (and some of the Weird Things We've Thought About It) 04.03.2025 22min

  The mind has puzzled thinkers for centuries—Descartes saw it as something separate from the body, while today, we tend to think of it as an information processor. Over time, our understanding has shifted, shaped by philosophy, psychology, and even breakthroughs in computing. But the question remains: is the mind just a biological machine crunching data, or is there something fundamental missing from this picture? If thinking is just processing information, then what exactly is the difference between a human mind and a powerful computer? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suzitravis.substack.com
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  Consciousness: Does the Matter Matter? 25.02.2025 18min

  This week, I explore the puzzle of why we need special sciences when physics theoretically explains everything. I ask how different scientific disciplines like psychology and economics might discover things that can't be reduced to physics. I raise the controversial question of whether consciousness is more like money (functionally defined and multiply realisable) or more like jade (defined by what it's made of). Could we be overgeneralising from our limited biological understanding of consciousness when we imagine artificial minds might someday be conscious too? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suzitravis.substack.com
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  Coffee With a Shot of Qualia? 17.12.2024 21min

  Two coffee tasters at Maxwell House suddenly hate the coffee they once loved. One says he's just become more sophisticated, while the other insists his taste buds must be broken -- even though they're drinking the exact same coffee they've had for years. Philosopher Daniel Dennett uses their predicament to challenge something we all take for granted: that we have special, direct access to our own conscious experiences. If we can't even tell whether it's our sensations or our preferences that have changed, how can we be so sure that consciousness is anything more than sophisticated information processing? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suzitravis.substack.com
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  False Memories are Exactly What You Need 10.12.2024 12min

  False memories are incredibly common, even for everyday experiences like driving. Scientists have found that not only can memories be easily manipulated, but our brains regularly reconstruct past events based on our current needs and circumstances. Here's the twist, though - what many consider a flaw in human memory might be a clever evolutionary feature that helps us adapt and learn without getting bogged down by irrelevant details. So, should we start thinking about our imperfect memories not as a bug in the system but as one of our brain's most brilliant innovations? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suzitravis.substack.com
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  Yes, We Can Delete Memories. But... 03.12.2024 22min

  Memories aren't stored like files on a computer - they're constantly being rebuilt every time we remember them. Scientists have discovered ways to manipulate these reconstructions in mice, blocking memories from forming, erasing existing ones, and even creating artificial memories using light. But these techniques are still far from the kind of precise, selective memory manipulation we see in movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, where complex autobiographical memories are cleanly erased. So what would it really take to erase the memory of a lost love -- and would we want to if we could? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suzitravis.substack.com
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  Memory Is Your Brain Making Things Up 26.11.2024 20min

  Our brains don't store memories like computers store files -- they recreate them every time we remember. When we recall something, different brain regions are involved in reconstructing the experience, combining sensory details, emotions, and context into what feels like a replay of the original event. But this means our memories aren't perfect copies -- they change slightly each time we recall them, raising questions about how reliable our memories really are. If our memories are constantly being rewritten, can we trust what we remember? And are some types of memories more reliable than others? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suzitravis.substack.com