Robyn Repko Waller is a Lecturer in Philosophy (Mind and Cognition) at University of Sussex. She received her PhD from Florida State University in 2014. Her research is in philosophy of mind and philosophy of cognitive science. Her work focuses on the issue of free will, including philosophical accounts of free will as well as how those accounts intersect with neuroscience and psychiatry. One of the main questions she investigates is what neuroscience can tell us about meaningful agency. Her work has appeared in academic journals such as the The Monist, Philosophia, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, and Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics as well as forthcoming work in academic press anthologies. She has also contributed to publications on the state of research in free will for the John Templeton Foundation and Scientific American. Twitter: RobynRWaller Email: robyn.r.waller.philosophy[at] gmail.com
by Robyn Repko Waller AI has a proclivity for exaggeration. This hallucination is integral to its success and its danger. Much digital ink has been spilled and computational resources consumed as of late in the too rapidly advancing capacities of AI. Large language models like GPT-4 heralded as a welcome shortcut for email, writing, and…
by Robyn Repko Waller Cringy. Real. Surreal. Socially Suspect. A lot can (and has been) said about Nathan Fielder’s HBO docu-comedy The Rehearsal. Are the clients actors? Are the actors acting? Is Fielder an actor or client? Script becomes life and life becomes script in a recursive dream (nightmare?) of which one cannot help but…
by Robyn Repko Waller Recent news heralds the advancement of the “first living robots,” the scientifically exciting xenobots, and their astonishing ability to self replicate. Xenobots are millimeter-sized life forms comprised of complexes of frog stem cells (from the species Xenopus laevis), whose shape is tailor engineered by AI according to their human-prescribed task. Capable…
by Robyn Repko Waller In the United States these days, it’s difficult to find a person not profoundly angry about something. Headlines scream of the vaccinated America tired, frustrated, and angry at the vaccine-hesitant and anti-vaxxers. And unvaccinated America in turn, outraged at the local jurisdiction and vaccinated for the increasing restrictions they face in…
by Robyn Repko Waller The case for the illusion of conscious agency from neuroscience is far from a straightforward conclusion. Last month I introduced a curious disconnect in public perception of neurotechnology. Whereas reports of brain-computer interfaces (BCI) inspire celebration of expanding agency, the public seem wary that neuroimaging exposes the illusion of conscious agency.…
by Robyn Repko Waller In April, many watched in awe as Elon Musk’s Neuralink demonstrated how Pager the rhesus monkey can play the video game Pong using only the power of thought. No bodily movements required. That is, he can control the virtual paddle with his mind. How? The researchers at Neuralink have fitted Pager…
by Robyn Repko Waller Last spring we stumbled through the frighteningly new COVID landscape, facing unknowns. This spring we steer the course for a COVID exit, armed with vaccines. But how has our experience as agents changed? This March we found ourselves in a starkly different pandemic reality from last. Gone are the early days…
by Robyn Repko Waller We think of AI as the stuff of science, but AIs are born artists. Those artistic talents are the key to their scientific power and their limitations. We often seem to conceive of artificial intelligence (AI) as implementing an abstract, advanced version of the scientific method. Think, for instance, of recent…
by Robyn Repko Waller Wednesday’s riots at the Capitol shook many Americans and, indeed, individuals around the globe. Screens worldwide glared with shocking and impactful images of some Trump supporters breaching Capitol police barricades and scaling the Capitol walls to loot and overrun the halls and private chambers in an attempt at undermining the ceremonial…
by Robyn Repko Waller Academic titles aren’t everything. But they signpost what might not otherwise be socially salient; I, and others like me, are present here as members of this academic community. Earlier this week the Wall Street Journal published a now widely criticized op-ed piece, imploring Dr. Jill Biden to drop her academic title…
by Robyn Repko Waller As the fall term winds down for universities across the US (and abroad), what has one semester, interrupted, and another one, planned, under COVID taught us about university life? In March 2020, with the growing community spread of COVID-19 upon the nation, universities shuttered in response to the seismic early rumblings of…
by Robyn Repko Waller Whether a data-driven nudge diminishes my agency turns on more than just its algorithmic origin. With the US Presidential Election and other national contests a mere weeks away, voter persuasion efforts of all stripes are at a peak. While traditional methods of pressing the flesh (but not too literally these days…
by Robyn Repko Waller Lack of choice is frustrating, but sometimes choice — choosing for others — can be equally daunting This August parents and guardians of children across the country are facing unenviable decisions about childcare and school in the time of COVID. Carers of school-age kids have been surveyed by the school district,…
by Robyn Repko Waller My professional expertise as a philosopher concerns questions of free will. Sometimes the question is whether determinism threatens our free will. Sometimes the question is whether science speaks against our having free will. And sometimes the question is how others’ influence on our lives limits our control and responsibly. Often the…