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opentheory.net
Personal blog · opentheory.netphilosophyscience
opentheory.net is a personal blog at opentheory.net about philosophy and science. Since 2011, 17 different Hacker News readers have linked it 18 times, most often “Principles of Vasocomputation”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-08-24, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (10) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link opentheory.net, Michael Edward Johnson's blog, for posts on consciousness, vasocomputation, autism as a disorder of dimensionality, and DMT experiences. Often cited as further reading.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 10 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
A map of major opentheory.net research paths.
Most-linked posts?
- Principles of Vasocomputation5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2024-07-07
- Neural Annealing: Toward a Neural Theory of Everything3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-11-29
- Autism as a Disorder of Dimensionality3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-07-03
What Hacker News says?
I wouldn't call the mapping necessarily arbitrary. The causal/information processes that your nerves connect to may have some mathematical structure that distinguishes them. There's the symmetry theory of valence which proposes that symmetric (in some strict mathematical sense) processes feel good, and vice versa with bad qualia. But this is only one of many subproblems: https://opentheory.net/wp-content/uploads/201…
Comment linking /wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Eight-Problems2-1-1024x611.png
on “What If Consciousness Comes First?”Submitted Neural Annealing: Toward a Neural Theory of Everything as a story · 86 points
HN discussionReminds me of the armchair medical theory about autism being a disorder of brain density/dimensionality: https://opentheory.net/2023/05/autism-as-a-disorder-of-dimen...
Comment linking /2023/05/autism-as-a-disorder-of-dimensionality/
on “A human-accelerated neuron type potentially underlying autism in humans”Submitted Principles of Vasocomputation as a story · 32 points
HN discussionThe one quibble is that computationalism – the idea that experience is simply what some kinds of computation feel like from the inside, regardless of the substrate – may or may not be correct. It could be that qualia can only arise in systems that are physically intertwined in particular configurations (see Tononi's IIT), and it could even be that quantum effects are required (I'm skeptical, but who knows). The jury…
Comment linking /PrincipiaQualia.pdf
on “A startup is building computer chips using real neurons”Submitted Autism as a Disorder of Dimensionality as a story · 5 points
HN discussion> You must be confused. The words Buddhist or Twitter do not appear anywhere in this paper. I'm referring to the link in the parent comment: https://opentheory.net/2023/07/principles-of-vasocomputation... It has "Buddhist" in the URL, the title, and the first sentence.
Comment linking /2023/07/principles-of-vasocomputation-a-unification-of-buddhist-phenomenology-active-inference-and-physical-reflex-part-i/
on “Norepinephrine-mediated slow vasomotion drives glymphatic clearance during sleep”Submitted Principles of Vasocomputation: A Unification of Buddhist Phenomenology as a story · 3 points
HN discussionMichael Edward Johnson has an interesting theory called vasocomputation with the core hypothesis: > vasomuscular tension stabilizes local neural patterns. A sustained thought is a pattern of vascular clenching that reduces dynamic range in nearby neurons. The thought (congealed pattern) persists until the muscle relaxes. https://opentheory.net/2023/07/principles-of-vasocomputation... https://x.com/johnsonmxe/status/…
Comment linking /2023/07/principles-of-vasocomputation-a-unification-of-buddhist-phenomenology-active-inference-and-physical-reflex-part-i/
on “Norepinephrine-mediated slow vasomotion drives glymphatic clearance during sleep”Submitted Gene Expression - The Future of Medical Diagnosis as a story · 3 points
HN discussionOn this topic I really enjoyed reading "Autism as a disorder of dimensionality" https://opentheory.net/2023/05/autism-as-a-disorder-of-dimen... I'm just a casual reader I can't vouch for the veracity of the content, but I found it very interesting
Comment linking /2023/05/autism-as-a-disorder-of-dimensionality/
on “Brain Hyperconnectivity in Children with Autism and Its Links to Social Deficits (2013)”Submitted Principles of Vasocomputation (2023) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionHello! I'm the author of this article. I stand by it and I think comments are failing to engaging with the actual models, phenomenological observations, and synthesis provided. I suspect people here have not actually payed attention to these experiences and may have epistemological assumptions that make them think it's impossible to bring useful information back. In particular, I'll say that the article's analysis a…
Comment linking /2019/11/neural-annealing-toward-a-neural-theory-of-everything/
on “The Hyperbolic Geometry of DMT Experiences (2016)”Submitted The Neuroscience of Meditation: Four Models as a story · 2 points
HN discussionDon't worry: Tononi (and, by extension, Koch) have thought about IIT much more than the author of this article. You are correctly pointing out the conflict between computationalism ("consciousness is what certain computations feels like from the inside") and physicalism ("consciousness is what certain computations feel like from the inside, when they take place on physical substrates, perhaps requiring the involveme…
Comment linking /PrincipiaQualia.pdf
on “The AI delusion: why humans trump machines”Submitted A Future for Neuroscience (2018) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionYes, it's called Advaita Vedanta. Swami Sarvapriyananda's lectures are always a great source of knowledge about Advaita. So Advaita is about you, that is, about consciousness. You are consciousness. And then it goes something like "you're not your body and you're not your mind, you are the "pure subjectivity" present in any qualia, you are Sakshi." Or Atman, also a popular term. Also there's that equation that Atman…
Comment linking /2018/09/a-new-theory-of-open-individualism/
on “Ask HN: What do you think is all this? (this reality, existence, space-time, us)”a more general take on the subject https://opentheory.net/2019/11/neural-annealing-toward-a-neu...
Comment linking /2019/11/neural-annealing-toward-a-neural-theory-of-everything/
on “Psychedelic Mushrooms Hit the Market in Oregon”
