Philip Laughlin

Utility alone cannot explain why humans seek out beauty. After all, a sunset or a sonata yields no evolutionary benefit. For Nicholas Humphrey, humans seek out beauty because it helps us “provide the training sets for our own minds.”

"The bee must know about the patterns and which flowers belong together... but the bee never asks, 'Why is it there? Who made this for me? Aren’t I lucky?' I think that’s a unique human emotion." Nicholas Humphrey discussed his new book, "Why Is the World So Beautiful?," with @nautil.us.

Morality is not merely an innate instinct or a cultural script, but an active construction shaped by our evolving interactions with the social world. Moral Development by Audun Dahl and Mahesh Srinivasan https://oecs.mit.edu/pub/01qi4kql #CognitiveScience

Meaning involves far more than just linking words to the world, bridging the gap between abstract logical truth and the fluid nature of human… Meaning by Giosuè Baggio https://doi.org/10.21428/e2759450.6609ecb6 #CognitiveScience

A dream came true. Essentially since I moved to the US, almost 24 years ago, I’ve been dreaming of being interviewed at NPR. That happened last week, on Due South, and the episode was aired today. I was very nervous but I enjoyed the experience! @npr one.npr.org/i/fis-122616...

Some paper should back that! www.somebody-book.com @mitpress.bsky.social @dryan149.bsky.social @michaelbrownstein.bsky.social

Humans lack a dedicated sensory organ for time, yet our perception of change, duration, and order remains fundamental to the unity of consciousness. Time Perception by Christoph Hoerl https://doi.org/10.21428/e2759450.8680bbb7 #CognitiveScience

This week I have two events at Southern Illinois University as Keene Visiting Scholar. On Thursday (22 Oct), it will be "LLM 101" for a lecture at the Edwardsville Public Library. And on Friday (23 Oct), it will be "Person, Thing, Robot" as the keynote for the SIUE undergrad philosophy conference.

Author copies of 'The Idealized Brain: Uniting Philosophy of Science and Computational Neuroscience' (MIT) have arrived. Exciting! Stay tuned for its official open access release on 15 December 2026. For more information about the book, see mitpress.mit.edu/978026205492...

We offer #OA publishing options for all our journals. Minds, Machines, and Brains aims to advance scientific understanding of the principles of intelligence & cognition that cross-cut natural & artificial minds and brains. Follow @mmb-journal.bsky.social for more. #OpenAccessWeek

Language requires hierarchical mental structure, challenging the view that communication is merely a series of simple behavioral responses. Language by Adele E. Goldberg https://doi.org/10.21428/e2759450.40bf93ad #CognitiveScience

"My philosopher’s take is that it is very unlikely that AI will send us extinct," writes Nicholas Agar. "I’m much more worried about people currently being bullied out of jobs because of ... Big AI’s insane market valuations."

The poem of the year. Maybe the decade.

Wordbank, my lab's open database of children's vocabulary development, has a new home. There's a new website, a new data release, and wordbankr is back on CRAN. A few details 🧵 wordbank.stanford.edu/

Experimental psychology has long relied on a narrow slice of humanity, but these populations are often statistical outliers rather than universal… WEIRD by Joseph Henrich https://doi.org/10.21428/e2759450.8e9a83b0 #CognitiveScience

Nonfiction science new releases for October, 2026! ❓Which of these books are you adding to your TBR? I’m reading AGE OF ALCHEMY, TYRANT LIZARD QUEEN (our Dec science book club pick!), & A MOTHER’S BRAIN. #nonfiction #booksky #science 🧪 #sciencebooks #womeninscience #nonfictionscience #chemsky

Beliefs provide the essential framework for predicting human behavior, yet science remains divided on whether they are measurable mental states or… Belief by Eric Mandelbaum and Cristina Ballarini https://doi.org/10.21428/e2759450.c09a632d #CognitiveScience

So….this is out now. mitpress.mit.edu/978026205645...

Ownership shapes human behavior across cultures, yet whether it stems from innate cognitive structures or is purely a social invention remains… Ownership by Ori Friedman https://doi.org/10.21428/e2759450.6aa18129 #CognitiveScience

Algorithmic systems often replicate existing social hierarchies, embedding systemic inequality into technical design, data choices, and real-world… Algorithmic Bias by Abeba Birhane https://doi.org/10.21428/e2759450.50c7e139 #CognitiveScience

In "How We Govern Our Minds Through Others," @jadamcarter.bsky.social and @neillevy.bsky.social argue that epistemic autonomy worth valuing requires various kinds of epistemic dependence on others, as well as on tools and technology. Available #OpenAccess: mitpress.mit.edu/978026205645...

"Many people will consider reading this book simply because it is the latest from Levy and Carter....I will definitely be not only reading the book but writing about it as well." - Professor James R. Beebe, SUNY Buffalo How We Govern Our Minds Through Others mitpress.mit.edu/978026205645...

Perception organizes sensory input into coherent wholes through innate grouping and segregation principles rather than by assembling individual parts. Gestalt Perception by Mary A. Peterson https://doi.org/10.21428/e2759450.20f19477 #CognitiveScience

"Rhyme is in the DNA of the world we live in." An interview with "Why Is the World So Beautiful?" author Nicholas Humphrey on Instant Genius of BBC Science Focus Magazine.

Also excellent and I think missed by a lot of people.

𝗢𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 Excellent book on relational aspects of knowledge and world. Inspired by physics but providing a general process + relational + perspectival framework. Quite convergent with The Blind Spot by Frank, Gleiser, and Thompson.

"Mazviita Chirimuuta ... wrote an extraordinarily beautiful book... It made me think about how many idealizations [such as the brain as a computer] are super helpful, even if they’re wrong." A kind shout-out for "The Brain Abstracted" from 2026 MacArthur fellow @felipedebrigard.bsky.social.

Sign language grammars reveal that human language faculty is independent of speech, flourishing in diverse communities from remote villages to… Sign Language by Carol Padden https://doi.org/10.21428/e2759450.ce72080b #CognitiveScience

This is why we shouldn't let Americans build technology.

Nobody told me this, but sometimes books get you into parties.

Learning from trial and error involves a complex interplay of neural circuits and computational processes that extend far beyond simple reward… Reinforcement Learning by Anne GE Collins https://doi.org/10.21428/e2759450.36d1ca92 #CognitiveScience

A review of my book Artificial Religion: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

mitpress.mit.edu/978026205221...

The human mind relies on a finite, multicomponent buffer to hold and manipulate information, creating the bottleneck that defines our cognitive… Working Memory by Graham J. Hitch and Alan D. Baddeley https://doi.org/10.21428/e2759450.4f342e36 #CognitiveScience

New this week from the MIT Press. Congratulations authors! 📚👇

"[F]ull of fresh insights. [Humphrey's] emphasis on rhyme has primed me to look at flowers and trees anew and hear Bach’s music better. I am grateful for this sparklingly original book." -- Rupert Sheldrake Why Is the World So Beautiful? mitpress.mit.edu/978026205658...

Shared human traits like language and music suggest deep psychological commonalities, though their emergence may also reflect convergent cultural… Cultural Universals by Manvir Singh https://doi.org/10.21428/e2759450.44a6d380 #CognitiveScience

The human mind instinctively extracts order from chaos, tracking probabilities across sounds and scenes to build complex knowledge from raw input. Statistical Learning by Jenny Saffran https://doi.org/10.21428/e2759450.7a74eed8 #CognitiveScience

And the co-editor of 'Neuroscience and Philosophy' published my @mitpress.bsky.social in 2022. Congrats again Felipe!

New month, new books: A pioneering exploration of the maternal brain; a darkly comedic journey into the science of aging; a fascinating inquiry into why beauty matters and how it has played an evolutionary role in our understanding of the world; and more: mitpress.mit.edu/october-2026...

Cognitive science evaluates human behavior against a shifting, patchwork history of normative standards ranging from formal logic to modern decision… Human Rationality in Research by Ulrike Hahn https://oecs.mit.edu/pub/aj80dki5 #CognitiveScience

So thrilled to see this. Congrats to Felipe de Brigard! Among the many hats he wears are core member of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and DGS of its Cognitive Neuroscience Admitting Program for PhD students. Way to go Felipe! 🙌 @felipedebrigard.bsky.social today.duke.edu/2026/09/duke...

Perfectly timed with the forthcoming publication of Felipe's new book NEUROSCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY II (just like we planned it)! mitpress.mit.edu/978026205590... @felipedebrigard.bsky.social @mitpress.bsky.social

Language relies on a flexible, distributed neural network that integrates beyond traditional speech centers to adapt to real-time communication… Neuroscience of Language by Gesa Hartwigsen https://doi.org/10.21428/e2759450.9793d1ae #CognitiveScience

Chuffed to learn that my book with @dryan149.bsky.social and @madva.bsky.social has been shortlisted for the Goddard Riverside Book Prize for Social Justice. The winner will be announced Oct 7th. @mitpress.bsky.social @goddardriverside.bsky.social

Over the moon to share that our book, Somebody Should Do Something, is a finalist for the @goddardriverside.bsky.social Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice! Huge thanks to @mitpress.bsky.social for nomination & for their support to me, @michaelbrownstein.bsky.social, & @dryan149.bsky.social

Subjective experience challenges traditional science because it remains unclear how neural computations generate the feeling of what it is like to… Consciousness by Claire Sergent and Frédérique de Vignemont https://doi.org/10.21428/e2759450.0aea8c7d #CognitiveScience

Converting abstract thoughts into fluent speech requires a rapid, subconscious orchestration of syntactic structure, word choice, and motor planning. Language Production by Zenzi M. Griffin https://doi.org/10.21428/e2759450.b076f599 #CognitiveScience

Neurologist Richard E. Cytowic offers compelling evidence that we can change the way we use technology, resist its addictive power, and take back the control we have lost. "Your Stone Age Brain in the Screen Age" is available in paperback: mitpress.mit.edu/978026204900... @neuromandc.bsky.social