Complete series · prequel + 10 episodes · 64:22
Being and Becoming
Begin with Heraclitus’ Brew, then follow ten worked episodes connecting Being, Becoming, observations, models and state changes.
Heraclitus’ Brew
A philosophical opening to the series, from the river to an imaginary café—and back to the question of who you want to become.
Keyboard: focus the player, then Space or K to play/pause and arrow keys to seek. Selectable English captions show the same timed text below the picture.
The ten episodes
- BB01 · What is a state—and what is a description of a state?What does one reading tell us about the state?5:16
- BB02 · What can an observer actually distinguish?Which differences can these observations support for the task?3:59
- BB03 · Can two states look the same now but have different futures?Which distinctions are needed to predict what changes next?5:17
- BB04 · What information matters for the task?Useful for which target, prediction or decision?5:05
- BB05 · How do you choose what to observe next?Will this plan work across the answers that could arrive?5:23
- BB06 · What changes when you act?What changed, and what did we learn about before and after?5:38
- BB07 · How does a model stay useful through change?Did the state change, or did the evidence change our estimate?7:09
- BB08 · How does continuous change become a discrete description?What does the current label leave out about change over time?7:02
- BB09 · Can a system model its own changing machinery?What would show that tracking its own condition actually helps?11:30
- BB10 · What have these models explained—and what remains open?Which claims have support, and which still need a test?4:15
In this prequel
Complete transcript
Show transcript
Heraclitus and change · 0:01
About twenty five hundred years ago, the Greek philosopher Heraclitus explored change. One of his most enduring ideas concerns a man stepping into a river.
The man and the river · 0:11
He steps into the water. The current passes around his feet.
When he steps again, other water meets him.
The man, too, has moved, felt the current, and lived another moment.
The thought is often paraphrased this way: you cannot step into the same river twice. Neither the river nor the person remains unchanged.
Yet we still speak of the same river—and the same man.
What do we mean by “the same”?
Inspired by Heraclitus, we can ask two questions together.
What is something at this moment? And how is it becoming something different?
Heraclitus’ Brew · 0:52
Now imagine Heraclitus opening a little café beside the river. We’ll call it Heraclitus’ Brew.
He leaves a hot coffee on a table in the cooler café. The philosophy is absorbing. The coffee is cooling.
Take the coffee in this cup as our system. It remains our chosen system while its temperature changes. Temperature is one aspect of its state.
Heraclitus makes a note · 1:16
Heraclitus writes “hot” in his notebook and turns away. The coffee can keep cooling while his note stays the same.
He changes “hot” to “warm” without checking the coffee. That edit changes his account. It supplies no new evidence about the coffee. The coffee hasn’t read the notebook.
Already, there are two changes to keep apart: a change in the coffee, and a change in our account of it.
Check the coffee · 1:44
A thermometer gives us a temperature reading. We use that reading to estimate the coffee’s temperature at the place and time measured.
That reading does not tell us its taste, its composition, or how much remains. A description can be useful without being complete.
A prediction to check · 2:01
To predict what happens next, we need a model: an account of how the coffee cools under stated conditions.
How quickly do we expect it to cool? What might putting on a lid change? The model’s answers are predictions to check against observations.
If a prediction fails, we need to investigate. We may need to check the reading, our estimate, or the model’s assumptions. The mismatch alone does not tell us which needs changing.
The café is a small world · 2:30
The same discipline matters when we forecast weather, diagnose a machine, or build an agent that acts on limited information.
An agent’s own condition can matter too. If its camera is switched off, it cannot obtain a fresh image through that camera.
That gives us a further question: how could an agent account for the limits of its own observations?
Heraclitus is part of this small world, too. Perhaps he wants to become a more patient listener.
He notices himself interrupting a customer. Next time, he pauses and lets them finish. Calling himself patient would not make it so. Listening is something he can practise.
For us, becoming can also involve a direction we choose—and practise in the way we live.
Return to the river · 3:17
The river continues to flow. The man continues to change.
Our descriptions must somehow follow both.
What changes? What continues? Is the man who stepped into the river the same man he was before? What allows us to recognise something through its transformations?
Being and Becoming begins with those questions.
Who do you want to become?