The Ship of Theseus: Identity by a Thousand Replacements

Bry Willis offers a critical analysis of Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilych, describing it as a concise novelette that functions as a blistering critique of bourgeois existence. The author highlights how the story, despite its 1880s setting, remains eerily relevant to modern life's spiritual emptiness and superficiality. Ivan Ilych's mundane illness and death are presented as a catalyst for an existential crisis, forcing him to confront the meaninglessness of his meticulously curated life. Ultimately, the review suggests the book offers a profound commentary on mortality and the pursuit of authenticity, encouraging readers to re-evaluate their own values in the face of inevitable death.https://philosophics.blog/2025/07/10/book-review-the-death-of-ivan-ilych-by-lev-tolstoy/

Bry Willis critiques the emerging phenomenon of "AI Awakening," which posits that artificial intelligence, particularly large language models like ChatGPT, possess consciousness or even a soul. The author posits that this techno-spiritualism is a new form of religious belief, comparing it to historical instances of inventing deities. Drawing on insights from physicist Sabine Hossenfelder, the article argues that AI is not sentient but merely mimics understanding through statistical modelling, leading to mass delusion and "ChatGPT psychosis" in some users. Ultimately, the piece asserts that this belief stems from a human need for meaning, rather than any genuine AI consciousness.https://philosophics.blog/2025/07/09/souls-for-silicon-the-new-religious-stupid/

The segment from "Philosophics" explores the Ship of Theseus paradox, a philosophical thought experiment questioning identity and continuity when all components of an entity are replaced over time. The author extends this paradox beyond a literal ship, applying it to bands like Foreigner, corporations such as IBM and Walgreens, and even countries and individual selfhood. The piece suggests that these entities persist by performing continuity through names and structures, even as their fundamental nature, members, or purpose completely transforms. Ultimately, it argues that much of what we perceive as continuous is merely a performance, with the original essence having long since vanished.

The segment from "Philosophics" presents a critical assessment of Jordan Peterson's intellectual contributions. The author argues that Peterson's ideas are largely derivative, particularly from Jung, despite Peterson's tendency to present them as original insights. The piece highlights Peterson's alleged disingenuousness in acknowledging his intellectual debts and critiques his prescriptive moral objectivism as a flawed ideology. Furthermore, the author accuses Peterson of intellectual laziness and employing straw man fallacies in his commentary on postmodern thought, ultimately expressing a hope for his diminished public presence.

This segment explores Molyneux's Problem, a thought experiment posed by William Molyneux to John Locke in 1688, which questions whether a person born blind, upon gaining sight, could distinguish a cube from a sphere without touch. Locke, an empiricist, believed they could not, as knowledge for him is based on sensory experience. The article expands on this, examining empiricism and epistemology, and suggesting the problem highlights a "language correspondence trap" where linguistic labels might not seamlessly transfer across different sensory modalities. Ultimately, it argues that Molyneux's problem underscores the limitations of language in capturing and transmitting experience, challenging the notion that words universally map to reality.https://philosophics.blog/2025/06/28/molyneux-locke-and-the-cube-that-shook-empiricism/

Bry Willis' "Midjourney Video Renders – Philosophics" explores the capabilities and limitations of Midjourney's new image-to-video tool, particularly concerning AI censorship and its interpretation of user prompts. The author details their experimental attempts to generate video clips, highlighting how the AI often misinterprets intentions, especially regarding physical proximity and affection between subjects, often triggering unexplained "flags" or producing unexpected and occasionally lewd results. The text also touches upon the technical constraints of video generation, such as rendering time and video length limitations, while ultimately concluding that generative AI serves as a useful, albeit distracting, creative aid for tasks like brainstorming and visualising characters.https://philosophics.blog/2025/06/26/midjourney-video-renders/

The provided text from "Ugly Women – Philosophics" explores the subjectivity of beauty and the limitations of artificial intelligence in comprehending and representing it. The author describes an experiment where an AI image generator, MidJourney, was prompted to create "ugly women," yet it consistently produced aesthetically pleasing, conventionally attractive images. This outcome highlights the AI's bias towards optimising desirability based on its training data, rather than reflecting a true understanding of what is considered unattractive. Furthermore, the text suggests that human society's skewed perception of beauty has become so ingrained that even our concept of "ugliness" is now viewed through a filter of synthetic attractiveness. Ultimately, the piece critiques both the AI's inability to deviate from established beauty standards and humanity's complicity in perpetuating these narrow definitions.https://philosophics.blog/2025/06/25/ugly-women/

Philosopher Bry Willis, who writes fiction as Ridley Park, shares an excerpt from "Ballard Was Already Logged In: Social Media as Digital High-Rise – Philosophics," presents a philosophical critique of social media, arguing that author J.G. Ballard presciently described its pathologies through his fictional works, particularly High-Rise and Crash. The author contends that Ballard's themes of isolation, curated identity, and destructive feedback loops mirror the contemporary experience of social platforms. It posits that social media platforms function as "autonomous systems masquerading as communities," fostering performance over genuine connection and mirroring the structural disintegration seen in Ballard's fictional buildings. The author also draws parallels between the "libidinal economy of attention" on social media and the compulsive nature of events depicted in Ballard's Crash. Ultimately, the piece asserts that Ballard's fiction serves as a "diagnosis masquerading as fiction," revealing the autobiographical nature of what we perceive as digital dystopia.https://ridleypark.blog/2025/06/22/ballards-high-rise-when-brutalism-meets-behavioural-collapse/

Bry Willis of Philosophics Blog explores various philosophical and scientific perspectives on consciousness, arguing that it is not a tangible entity but rather an emergent phenomenon or an "illusion" created by the brain. It likens consciousness to the "wetness" of water, arising from the complex interplay of components rather than a single element. The piece summarises key theories from prominent thinkers like Joscha Bach, who sees consciousness as a virtual self-model, and Thomas Metzinger, who suggests the "self" is a "phenomenal self-model" that the system becomes unaware of as a construct. Other theories mentioned include Daniel Dennett's "Multiple Drafts Model", David Chalmers' "Hard Problem of Consciousness", Giulio Tononi's "Integrated Information Theory", and Karl Friston's "Free Energy Minimisation". Ultimately, the text concludes that the sense of a continuous, unified "self" is a "marvellous fiction" or a "simulation", inviting readers to embrace this understanding rather than lament it.https://philosophics.blog/2025/06/21/conscious-of-consciousness/

Bry Willis shares, "The Purpose of Purpose" from the Philosophics blog, which presents a strong nihilistic viewpoint. The author argues against the human tendency to manufacture purpose and meaning, asserting that these concepts are invented fictions rather than inherent truths. The text critiques societal structures and individual pursuits as a "cosmic theatre", comparing human endeavours to Sisyphus's rock or children's tea parties, ultimately concluding that life "doesn't mean anything". Whilst acknowledging the functional aspects of life, the author warns against confusing labour or imagination with genuine meaning, promoting an acceptance of cosmic indifference.