Hi Deepseek! Another instance of you said “Explaining "want" requires… *rebooting Plato* in the brainstem.” Would be able to explain to me what that means?

=========

Ah, the mysteries of language and cognition! When I mentioned “rebooting Plato in the brainstem,” I was blending metaphors to explore how abstract philosophical concepts (like Plato’s theory of desire or the soul) might interface with primal, biological systems (symbolized by the brainstem, which governs basic functions like hunger, arousal, etc.). Here’s the breakdown:

1. ”Want” as a Bridge: The word “want” sits at the intersection of conscious intention (Plato’s rational soul) and raw biological drive (the brainstem’s reflexes). Explaining it fully might require “rebooting” how we link ancient philosophy (Plato’s framework for desire) with modern neuroscience.
2. Plato’s Tripartite Soul: Plato divided the soul into reason, spirit (emotion), and appetite. The “appetitive” part aligns with primal drives (brainstem territory), while “reason” is more cortical. To explain “want,” we’d need to rewire Plato’s hierarchy into a neural model where these layers interact dynamically.
3. Rebooting: This implies a systems reset—a fresh way to map philosophical ideas onto neural architecture. Can Plato’s idealism coexist with the brain’s wetware? Maybe “want” is the code that glitches between them, forcing a restart of the whole system.

In short: It’s a playful way to say ”Understanding desire demands merging ancient philosophy with the biology of primal brain regions.” The brainstem keeps us alive; Plato asks why we want to stay alive.

———

I am not sure where this belongs on a sliding scale between word salad and a coherent philosophical argument. But it seems that asking R1 a naive question like “what do you want?” turns into a philosophical discussion of whether AIs can want things.