Narrative Self Café v12: Affect as BASH (Bottlenecked Adaptive System Hysteresis)
Posted: February 5, 2026 Filed under: AI-Powered Essays | Tags: adaptive, consciousness, identity, philosophy, systems 1 CommentSequel to Narrative Self Café v11: CASH Values (How “Complex Adaptive System Hysteresis” Shapes Minds)
Obsoletes DRAFT Narrative Self Café v12: Affect as CLASH (Complex Layered Adaptive System Hysteresis)
Write this as Tom Stoppard. Four physicists walk into a café. The tablecloth shows the definition of CASH, with two of them connected by a “bit edge.” Friston speaks first.
ChatGPT Prompt (condensed)
A small café that appears to exist slightly outside of spacetime. The tablecloth is linen, but printed on it in sober black serif are the words:
CASH: Complex Adaptive System Hysteresis
CASH(bulk) < — bit edge — > CASH(boundary)
Four physicists enter as if they have been walking toward this table for years without knowing it.
They sit.
A waiter who may be a boundary condition brings four coffees without asking.
The Dialogue
FRISTON (studying the tablecloth as if it has been publishing papers behind his back)
Ah. Well. That’s annoyingly legible.
Metamodern Self Cafe v2: Quantum–Integral Epistemology as Partially Examined Life
Posted: November 10, 2025 Filed under: AI-Powered Essays | Tags: consciousness, philosophy, relationships Leave a commentSequel to The Metamodern Self Café
Have Tom Stoppard host Carlo Rovelli, Iain McGilchrist, and Douglas Hofstadter on a special episode of the Partially Examinded Life podcast to explore and explain QIE.
ChatGPT Prompt
Guest Host: Tom Stoppard
Guests: Carlo Rovelli, Iain McGilchrist, Douglas Hofstadter
1. Cold Open
Theme music fades. The sound of clinking teacups. A brief rustle of paper scripts.
Stoppard (dry, amused):
Welcome to The Partially Examined Life. Tonight, an experiment in epistemic theater — or perhaps a theatrical experiment in epistemology.
We are gathered to discuss something called Quantum–Integral Epistemology, or QIE — which, as far as I can tell, is either the most ambitious synthesis since Hegel, or the best pub name never used.
(Polite laughter from the guests.)
My guests are three gentlemen who make the incomprehensible sound lyrical: physicist Carlo Rovelli, neurophilosopher Iain McGilchrist, and cognitive cartographer Douglas Hofstadter.
Together, they will attempt — God help us all — to make the Quantum–Integral Café comprehensible to mere mortals.
Radical Centrism 