{"id":219945,"date":"2025-08-12T15:16:33","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T20:16:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/llms-cellular-automata-the-brain-a-conversation-with-duggan-hammock-of-the-wolfram-institute"},"modified":"2025-08-12T15:16:33","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T20:16:33","slug":"llms-cellular-automata-the-brain-a-conversation-with-duggan-hammock-of-the-wolfram-institute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/llms-cellular-automata-the-brain-a-conversation-with-duggan-hammock-of-the-wolfram-institute","title":{"rendered":"LLMs, Cellular Automata &amp; the Brain\u2014a conversation with Duggan Hammock of the Wolfram Institute"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MLvL_yuOQ7U?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>What do large language models, cellular automata, and the human brain have in common? In this polymath salon, I talk with Dugan Hammock from the Wolfram Institute to discuss the deep links between these seemingly disparate fields.<\/p>\n<p>Highlights include:<\/p>\n<p>Computational Irreducibility: Why we can\u2019t take shortcuts in complex systems\u2014whether it\u2019s a simple cellular automaton or a sophisticated LLM generating text.<\/p>\n<p>The Power of Autoregression: How the simple, step-by-step process of predicting the next element can give rise to incredible complexity and human-like language.<\/p>\n<p>The Nature of Thinking: Whether our own thought processes are fundamentally autoregressive and sequential, or if there\u2019s a different, parallel mode of cognition at play.<\/p>\n<p>Memory and Consciousness: The critical role of a system\u2019s \u201cmemory\u201d or history in shaping its future, and how this relates to our own awareness and sense of self.<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/llms-cellular-automata-the-brain-a-conversation-with-duggan-hammock-of-the-wolfram-institute\">Continue reading \u201cLLMs, Cellular Automata &amp; the Brain\u2014a conversation with Duggan Hammock of the Wolfram Institute\u201d | &gt;<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What do large language models, cellular automata, and the human brain have in common? In this polymath salon, I talk with Dugan Hammock from the Wolfram Institute to discuss the deep links between these seemingly disparate fields. Highlights include: Computational Irreducibility: Why we can\u2019t take shortcuts in complex systems\u2014whether it\u2019s a simple cellular automaton or [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-futurism","category-robotics-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219945\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}