A Teacher
Joscha Bach
The mind is a story the brain tells itself, and consciousness is the model of a self running on neural computation.
The transmission
Joscha Bach is a German-born cognitive scientist and AI researcher who works on cognitive architectures and computational theories of mind. He developed the MicroPsi architecture, modelling motivation, emotion and cognition as an integrated artificial system, and has held research positions at the MIT Media Lab, Harvard, and the AI Foundation.
He is known for arguing that consciousness and selfhood are simulations generated by the brain, and for a ‘cyber-animist’ view that minds are software patterns that can run on many substrates.
What they gave
Consciousness as self-model: Argues that selfhood and consciousness are simulations the brain generates, a story it tells itself, running on neural computation.
- MicroPsi architecture: Built a cognitive architecture operationalising motivation, emotion, and cognition as an integrated artificial system.
- Substrate independence: Advances a ‘cyber-animist’ view that minds are software patterns that can run on many substrates.
- Computationalist bridge: Connects AI, cognitive psychology, and the philosophy of consciousness into a single computational account of mind.
The line they stand in
Taught by / Influenced by: Marvin Minsky; Dietrich Dörner’s Psi theory; Alan Turing and the cybernetics tradition.
- Taught / Influenced: the AI-consciousness research community; computational-theory-of-mind discourse.
Revelations they taught
Essential Works
- Principles of Synthetic Intelligence: Psi2009
- From Computation to Consciousness2014