Sean Manion is a neuroscientist and systems thinker, and he came back on the show to pull a thread with me. It started when organizers canceled a consciousness conference after disclosures about Epstein-linked funding. From there, Sean traces how money and networks shape what scientists pursue.
Cybernetic roots
We connect John Boyd’s OODA loop to its roots in cybernetics. Sean walks through Norbert Wiener’s work on teleology and purpose-driven action, and the Macy meetings that brought many fields into one room. He covers John von Neumann’s warnings about oversimplified architectures. He also covers the turn in AI toward narrow engineering, which pushed philosophy, neuroscience and systems thinking to the side.
What today’s AI gets wrong
Sean explains why large language models dazzle and still fall short on reliability, including consistency when you test them again. He argues that publishing incentives flood the field with preprints nobody has vetted. Curation, provenance and grading evidence remain human work. Wiener warned that technology without governance becomes manipulation. Sean ties that warning to “limited hangout” dynamics from the Church Committee era and to selective transparency today.
Analog computing
Interest in analog computing is building again. Sean describes the brain as a hybrid of digital and analog signals, with glial cells shaping timing, thresholds and sequences that current neural networks leave out. Analog computing promises lower power at the edge and cognition closer to natural intelligence. We also talk about how messy memory is, why human judgment still beats any oracle, and how to treat an LLM as a thinking partner.
Small circles
Sean makes the case for small, facilitated circles across disciplines. Writers, scientists, engineers and theologians who use open tools together can recover the creative friction that once moved fields forward.
What hard problem do you want us to take on next?
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Written by Ponch Rivera with AI assistance in production. The full conversation is in the player below.