On Constructing Reality with Joscha Bach

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Our guest this week is Joscha Bach. He is a German cognitive scientist, artificial-intelligence researcher and philosopher of mind who consistently bridges the gap between what human intelligence is and what machines could become. He has an MA in computer science and a PhD in cognitive science. Over the course of his career he has held research positions at institutions such as the MIT Media Lab and the Harvard Program for Evolutionary Dynamics.

Bach is best known for his work on computational models of human-like cognition: he developed the cognitive architecture called “MicroPsi”, exploring how perception, motivation, emotion and decision-making interact in autonomous agents. He is the author of Principles of Synthetic Intelligence. In addition to his academic output, he has taken roles in applied AI research and strategy, bringing theoretical insight into real-world settings.

What sets his approach apart is his deeply integrative mindset: he treats intelligence not just as surface behaviour or pattern-recognition, but as the emergent result of rich internal models of the world and self. His philosophical lens brings questions of consciousness, free will and meaning into the technical domain, framing AI and cognition as part of a broader inquiry into what it means to think, feel and act.

We talk about:

• We live in a story not in the physical world
• Consciousness does not depend on the substrate
• Can you learn reality by just watching YT
• Alternative approaches to building AI
• Intuition is the part of your mind you cannot yet reflect
• The constraint to becoming superhuman only applies to humans
• There is no obligation to unite your many selves

This episode will require your full focus. We recommend you put on headphones and turn off all your other devices.

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