Machine Learning Street Talk (MLST) Abstraction & Idealization: AI's Plato Problem [Mazviita Chirimuuta]
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Jan 23, 2026 Professor Mazviita Chirimuuta, a philosopher of neuroscience and author of *The Brain Abstracted*, explores the intricate dance between neuroscience and philosophy. She highlights the pitfalls of oversimplification in scientific models and questions whether the brain truly functions as a computer. Delving into concepts like haptic realism, she argues for knowledge gained through interaction. Mazviita also discusses the ethical implications of digital attention and the complexity of biological systems that challenge the limits of current AI understanding.
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Black-Box Behaviorism Has Philosophical Limits
- Treating systems as black boxes (behaviourism) can be useful but risks ignoring subjective, mechanistic differences.
- Chirimuuta argues it's a philosophical leap to equate similar input-output behaviour with identical internal states.
Haptic Realism: Knowing By Doing
- Knowledge is interactional: 'haptic realism' says we learn by engaging and altering the world, not by passive observation.
- Chirimuuta borrows the touch metaphor to emphasize manipulation as both sensing and doing in science.
Biology Resists One Final Theory
- Biology may be 'Protean' and resist a single convergent theory; many true descriptions can coexist.
- Chirimuuta suggests scientific progress in biology is less like physics' one final theory and more pluralistic and contingent.
