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Matthew Coates

@coatesmatthew

Visiting Professor in Philosophy (PPEL), Bowling Green State University, Ohio | Birdwatcher | Englishman in America | Burnley supporter, Up the Clarets! matthewncoates.github.io

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Latest posts by Matthew Coates @coatesmatthew

The Conservative Party insists humans should go on banknotes. The British public demands banknotes be festooned with animals.

There is only one possible solution to heal a divided nation: furries on banknotes.

11.03.2026 13:44 πŸ‘ 286 πŸ” 65 πŸ’¬ 18 πŸ“Œ 10

Submit your work on causality and networks today!

10.03.2026 16:53 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Calling Cormac McCarthy’s authorial style a β€œmistake” that AI no longer makes is so funny

10.03.2026 11:12 πŸ‘ 739 πŸ” 158 πŸ’¬ 28 πŸ“Œ 43
Post image Post image

Do they think people have literally no memory of past events at all?

07.03.2026 21:59 πŸ‘ 1767 πŸ” 477 πŸ’¬ 73 πŸ“Œ 47

It’s absurd that whenever I visit San Francisco there are always adverts for like 500 new AI related companies I’ve never heard of, all with very similar logos and no indication of what they actually do. Is this what the dot com bubble was like?

07.03.2026 21:59 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

(I might be wrong about this, I don’t know much about those communities. Maybe they are explicitly influenced by philosophical rationalism about knowledge and I’ve missed that. But based on my limited experience with them they aren’t and mean rationalism in a different sense)

07.03.2026 20:09 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

In general I also don’t think there is a connection between Rationalism in the philosophy/cartesian sense and rationalism in the pop philosophy online and Silicon Valley sense, besides a name. Not even a misunderstanding or simplification, theyβ€˜re just using the same word in very different ways

07.03.2026 20:07 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

Of course a physicalist could also say its impossible to replicate the exact physical processes happening in the brain in a machine, so neither are committed to views for or against machine consciousness

07.03.2026 20:01 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

And that doesn’t necessarily mean human processes, as I think we can state at this point that different things can have very different evolution, experiences, and makeup of consciousness but still be conscious (octopus obviously have it very different to humans)

07.03.2026 19:59 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Believing in Cartesianism/dualism seems to give far more room to say that AI can never be sentient, as they’ll never get that non physical β€œsoul”, β€œfundamental mind force” etc that is required for sentience, whilst a physicalist could say replicating physical makeup of sentience gives it

07.03.2026 19:56 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

But that doesn’t seem to be related to questions about physicalist vs dualism. Neither are committed to only thinking in terms of outside behaviour of the subject versus inside feelings.

07.03.2026 19:53 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Looks like it has a lot in general but very few overseas. Given the importance of the area in British history going back millennia, remotely near many Neolithic sites, Romans, early English people etc, could be related to that.

07.03.2026 18:38 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

If anything it seems either view is very suited to both accepting or denying the possibility of ever getting conscious AI, in different ways, but it seems far easier for a dualist to deny its ever possible

07.03.2026 18:31 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

Maybe I’m just being stupid, I’m not a philosopher of mind, but I don’t see why believing in possible machine consciousness requires dualism. That’s not to say that current LLMs have it (they don’t), but the possibility of it seems to fit very well with a standard physicalist view

07.03.2026 18:28 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
Hawk flying in air. Head is twisted almost 180 degrees facing upwards but still with one eye surveying the ground

Hawk flying in air. Head is twisted almost 180 degrees facing upwards but still with one eye surveying the ground

Red-tailed Hawk doing its best Exorcist impression #birds

06.03.2026 18:34 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Hawk flying in air. Head is twisted almost 180 degrees facing upwards but still with one eye surveying the ground

Hawk flying in air. Head is twisted almost 180 degrees facing upwards but still with one eye surveying the ground

Red-tailed Hawk doing its best Exorcist impression #birds

06.03.2026 18:34 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Given Ian Fleming was a birder (and the real person named James Bond being an ornithologist) there is a distinct lack of bird themed Bond things honestly

06.03.2026 05:13 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Goldeneye, a type of duck, swimming on a lake

Goldeneye, a type of duck, swimming on a lake

It’s certainly accurate, name another type of bird that got a James Bond movie

06.03.2026 05:08 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
J-HARDEN

Photo of James Harden holding up a glass of red wine

BOTTLE SIGNING
WITH
JAMES HARDEN
Friday, March 6th
Speedway
880N Rocky Road Drive,
Berea, OH 44017
James Harden Will Only Be Signing Bottles of J-Harden Wines

J-HARDEN Photo of James Harden holding up a glass of red wine BOTTLE SIGNING WITH JAMES HARDEN Friday, March 6th Speedway 880N Rocky Road Drive, Berea, OH 44017 James Harden Will Only Be Signing Bottles of J-Harden Wines

As someone who grew up in Los Angeles and also had to move to Ohio for work, I have never sympathized with James Harden more

04.03.2026 18:17 πŸ‘ 29 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 5 πŸ“Œ 0

As someone who lived in (the suburbs of) LA for their PhD and now lives in Ohio for work, I get this.

06.03.2026 05:03 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I’ve spent the season checked out and waiting for Burnley to get relegated. Didn’t expect the possibility of you lot going down with us though

06.03.2026 04:58 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I had actually seen an American Kestrel before (though only once, in Argentina), I just never got a picture of one

06.03.2026 04:33 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
European Kestrel stood on stone bridge, Dorset, England, 2020

European Kestrel stood on stone bridge, Dorset, England, 2020

American Kestrel stood on metal pole. Small falcon. Santa Clara, California, 2026

American Kestrel stood on metal pole. Small falcon. Santa Clara, California, 2026

I now have a matching picture for one of my first bird photos. European Kestrel in 2020, American Kestrel in 2026 #birds

05.03.2026 00:06 πŸ‘ 20 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
2025 California Condor Population Status Report

39 years ago, there were only 27 California condors in the world. As of 2025, we now have 607, including 392 that are living free in the wild.

"Put that in your doom and smoke it" -Ursula Vernon

www.fws.gov/media/2025-c...

01.03.2026 20:02 πŸ‘ 835 πŸ” 232 πŸ’¬ 10 πŸ“Œ 17

Also, what exactly does he think Labour have been doing for the past year?

01.03.2026 18:13 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I never liked football anyway

28.02.2026 18:46 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Why We Should Be Reading Paul Churchland Right Now The more I get into philosophical and philosophy-adjacent discussions of current-generation "artificial intelligence" (large language models and the like), the more dismayed I am not to see any discus...

Why I think, in the current A.I. moment, we should be reading Paul Churchland. #philsky #philsci

thehangedman.com/philosophy/p...

27.02.2026 22:22 πŸ‘ 22 πŸ” 11 πŸ’¬ 5 πŸ“Œ 0

She joined the party when she was younger reportedly more as a social club and much of her social life has revolved around it. That obviously leads to an emotional connection to the party that voters don’t have

27.02.2026 22:21 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

I think it is but in different ways. The Tories jettisoned much of what made them Tories on the alter of Brexit, potentially killing the party. Labour have decided to not change anything and pretend they’re still in a pre Brexit world, potentially killing the party.

27.02.2026 22:19 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

It probably is, I can’t work out why else they’d name him that. But he just never seemed to have the same attachment to Labour that Kemi had to the Tories. He did the classic jump around various left wing organisations, not the β€œmake the party my life” thing

27.02.2026 22:14 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0