iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I thought ‘Supremacy’ by @parmy.bsky.social was an excellent book about the race to AGI by Demis Hassabis & Sam Altman. It ends in March 2024 after a revolution in user experience. But has that experience changed much for most users since then?

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Some of my questions are illustrated by this cartoon: Free Will? Or just luck, upbringing & genes?

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Do the simulated people in a simulated rainstorm get wet?

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

My poster at #AGI2026 in San Francisco. Affective Control under Uncertainty. “I feel, therefore I am conscious. I am uncertain, therefore I become a self.” #AGI26

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Pleased to be published in Artificial General Intelligence. AGI 2026. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 16855. Springer. Page 57 - Affective Control Under Uncertainty.

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Pleased to be part of AGI-26 today. I’ve got an article in the book (between @macrinephd.bsky.social & @bengoertzel.bsky.social /Anna Mikeda). There is also a livestream at 00:35 UK time.

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

How do you do all this amazing stuff? I tried with Kimi and this is what I got.

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

This cartoon is a super-simplification, but what are the issues with it in terms of the free-will debate? @wiringthebrain.bsky.social @greggdcaruso.bsky.social

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

AI disproves the Jacobian conjecture after 87 years. Levent Alpöge (with Fable) showed an example of non-reversibility in a single post during the World Cup!

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

What about this for a movie idea? “In a world where everyone can vanish, one man refuses to disappear.” ‘Tiger, Tiger’: adaptation of ‘The Stars My Destination’ by Alfred Bester (itself a sci-fi adaptation of ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’) with Austin Butler & Anya Taylor-Joy.

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Lot of hype for Kimi K3 AI from Moonshot. I’ve had a little try. Maybe it’s my prompts, but it doesn’t seem as world shattering as some are saying. Topically, I thought I’d ask for a realistic football game. On the left: what I thought I’d get. On the right: what I got.

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

I quite like PJ Harvey’s new song ‘Voyager’. What do you think? youtu.be/XzCjzFsGl_c?...

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

I watched the feature-length Black Mirror episode “Beyond the Sea” where Aaron Paul & Josh Hartnett’s consciousnesses alternately inhabit a robot body. They only do this one at a time, but what if two consciousnesses inhabited one body? Is that feasible? Has it ever happened?

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

“A Fire Upon the Deep” by Vernor Vinge. How about a movie version with Domhnall Gleeson and Zendaya?

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Why has no one ever done a drama on Henri Bergson? I give you “The Time War”

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

‘Just as the constant increase of entropy is the basic law of the universe, so it is the basic law of life to be ever more highly structured and to struggle against entropy. Life rebels against all uniformity and leveling; its aim is not sameness, but variety.’ Vaclav Havel

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

What about this… The World’s Greatest Problem P v NP “The proof is out there”

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Werner Herzog as Hegel? What do you think?

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

The idea that ChatGPT recently disproved the 80year old Erdos conjecture that grids were the best way of connecting points is amazing. It subdivided the grid and found more ways for the same-length stick to fit between points.

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Philosopher biopic trend Ryan Gosling is Albert Camus Every Day Is The Last Judgement

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

“Because we are in the world, we are condemned to meaning.” Merleau-Ponty We never meet raw facts first, then add meaning later. A door is already an exit, a face already a mood, a silence already a threat or invitation. To be conscious is to be caught in significance.

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

This is quite a fun use of AI. All computer generated (including the presenter), but very well done. The YouTube clip is about 12minutes. Not perfect, but a clever idea. Chloe VS History is an AI YouTuber who goes back in time to do a travel vlog from 1536 London.

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

I saw this online and wondered whether the future demand is for more specialists or more generalists or a mixture. What do you think and why?

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Could artificial systems ever feel? Ever experience a self? This paper explores a testable hypothesis. zenodo.org/records/1949...

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

How an AI might become conscious.

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

What does it mean for a machine to feel its own survival?

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

What does it mean for a machine to feel its own survival? Affective Control under Uncertainty (ACU) proposes a testable architecture for AI systems whose control is grounded in their own continued viability, not just assigned goals Survival is the constraint, not the objective.

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

Conclusions on LLMs from Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize Lecture delivered by 2025 winner Professor Michael John Wooldridge.

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

This formula says selfhood (self model recruitment intensity) increases with 3 things: uncertainty about what to do (H), big differences in how good or bad the options are (Variance) & time running out (T). As options clash and a deadline looms, the system boosts self commitment.

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

The friction between education & digital devices - encapsulated in Dave Eggers’ 2021 novel ‘The Every’.

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Temporal continuity without persistent selfhood? Each time a self is recruited, it forms under stable constraints: same body, affective architecture, values, memories & social world. Similar constraints produce similar reconstructions. Continuity may be repetition, not permanence. Thoughts?

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Great title: ‘Do Dice Play God?’

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

If you tried to build a copy of a human that acted exactly as a human would, screamed if they stubbed their toe, laughed at a funny joke, but inside they had no conscious experience (all ‘in the dark’), would that be feasible? I don’t think the ‘philosophical zombies’ would work

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

From @hohwy.bsky.social’s new Open Access book on Self-Evidencing: “Self-evidencing in agents of volatility can plausibly capture subjectivity in conscious experience.”

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

Does a rock star have a “self”? The intense, hyper-aware “I” that shows up on stage in front of 70,000 people? Is that a permanent entity? Or is it what the brain does when stakes & uncertainty explode. Most of the time, is there even a central pilot?

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

Two-Level Architecture of Consciousness

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

What is the difference between subjectivity & the subject? Rather than being 'thinking things' that feel, are we ‘feeling regulators' that occasionally think?

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

A Two-Level Theory of Consciousness: Level 1: Affective Control Awareness Level 2: Self-Modelling under Uncertainty

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

If there was a Two-Level theory of consciousness, Level 1 would be affective control awareness: the felt monitoring of whether homeostatic and allostatic regulation is succeeding under uncertainty. Level 2 would be a transient and graded self-model. ‘Zombies’ don’t have either.

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

Why can’t there be philosophical zombies?

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

Where is consciousness? Tam Hunt suggests it is in the electromagnetic field. “The Hippies Were Right,” he jokes in a paper. “It's All about Vibrations, Man!” He likens the spiking neurons to tree trunks in a forest & the EM field to the wind that blows through the leaves.

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

IIT says consciousness is structure. GWT says consciousness is broadcast. HOT says consciousness is meta-representation. PP says consciousness is inference. But what if consciousness is about affective control under uncertainty?

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

I feel, therefore I’m conscious. I doubt, therefore I become a self. Descartes located certainty in thought. But is consciousness located in feeling? And the self in unresolved choice?

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

If AI had genuine uncertainty and something to lose, would it suddenly develop a self? Or is selfhood strictly biological?

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

Wow! Looking forward to listening to all of them. I like the Pixies at the start. Do you think a C. elegans worm is conscious? Kristin Andrews did some great work on this.

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

Consciousness ≠ selfhood. Most theories conflate them, but what if consciousness is just the constant felt check on whether your body’s regulation is winning under uncertainty? Self only kicks in when stakes + ambiguity force a real commitment. Thoughts?

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

Where are you on the Selfometer today?

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Scott McFarnell @scottmcf.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

Does our sense of self ebb and flow depending on the situation?

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