Jonathan Birch (@birchlse) / X

Jonathan Birch

5,775 posts

Jonathan Birch

@birchlse

Professor, LSE. Philosophy of science, animal consciousness, animal ethics. Director of The Jeremy Coller Centre for Animal Sentience.

London, UK

edgeofsentience.com

Joined September 2019

Pinned
Jonathan Birch
@birchlse
Jul 29, 2024
🦀🐝🧠🤖 How should we make decisions when faced with systems of uncertain sentience? My new book The Edge of Sentience: Risk and Precaution in Humans, Other Animals, and AI is available online for free at academic.oup.com/book/57949. Please download it! Just click on PDF to get a
Jonathan Birch
@birchlse
Jun 1, 2020
I always appreciate a courteous email from a student.
Jonathan Birch
@birchlse
Mar 26, 2024
On the Teaching Philosophy fb group, someone offered their students an amnesty if they admitted to using ChatGPT in their assignments, and 23/25 students replied...
Jonathan Birch
@birchlse
Sep 1, 2024
How did people describe the brain before computer metaphors? Charles S. Sherrington in 1942 called it "that enchanted loom where millions of flashing shuttles weave a dissolving pattern."
Jonathan Birch
@birchlse
Feb 8, 2022
I must have seen more than 40 tenure-track "job talks" by now. Here are some general reflections on what works and what doesn't work. (1/7)
Jonathan Birch
@birchlse
Dec 22, 2024
In 10 years, chatbots have gone from "this can persuade 33% of users it's a 13yr old Ukrainian boy speaking broken English" to "the community of mathematicians, taken collectively, is still smarter than this."
Jonathan Birch
@birchlse
Dec 12, 2022
This belongs in the "real articles that sound fake" hall of fame.
Jonathan Birch
@birchlse
Aug 21, 2024
Some evidence that human brains are about 0.5% plastic by weight now. We are slowly hybridising with our water bottles.
Microplastics are infiltrating brain tissue, studies show: ‘There’s nowhere left untouched’
From theguardian.com
Jonathan Birch
@birchlse
Feb 24, 2024
People say large language models are a watershed because, for the first time in human history, we've invented a technology we cannot control - but we haven't been able to control printers for 40 years.
Jonathan Birch
@birchlse
Dec 24, 2023
As a child: Santa exists. As a teenager: Santa doesn't exist. As an adult: Santa is part of social reality like money, electrons and numbers.
Jonathan Birch
@birchlse
Sep 3, 2023
Schopenhauer said that we should address each other not as "Mr" or "Mrs", but as "fellow sufferer, companion in misery" - thinking of trying this out.
Jonathan Birch
@birchlse
Jan 4, 2025
We need more Philosophy & Computer Science double majors - students taking computer science need some skills that will still be useful after they graduate.
Jonathan Birch
@birchlse
May 9, 2020
Wittgenstein was ahead of his time - the first philosopher to express himself entirely in the form of Twitter threads.
Jonathan Birch
@birchlse
Mar 5, 2025
Replying to @dioscuri
It does make sense though. It's just two textbook causal loops, one nested within the other.