[dbpokorny]

The author of this article fails to incorporate two relevant prior explorations of this topic: (1) from the Buddhist perspective and (2) from Wilfrid Sellars' work, in particular "Empiricism And The Philosophy Of Mind". The remarks below pertain to the first; the second is beyond my philosophy-fu to say anything meaningful.

Take the idea, "We see with our brains, not with our eyes" as a criticism of the "naive view" that sense data / fabrications are neutral, that they are just "out there", and it is only when they come into contact with the mind that the mind infuses the raw sense data with desire and aversion. The idea that we are just passive observers of phenomena.

Thanissaro Bhikkhu critiques this idea from the Buddhist perspective:

"040920 Disenchantment & Dispassion \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu \ \ Dhamma Talks" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8M-_Msav1Q

He says that on the contrary, desire and aversion are involved a priori in the formation of the fabrications (sense data).

So this is not a new idea. It is a very old idea. The idea that the technology of ML can confirm this particular critique of the naive view is novel (although I'm not convinced it is wise to draw conclusions about the mind in this way, just as I'm not convinced it is wise to draw conclusions about the way evolution operates based on artificial life simulations).