{"podcast":{"title":"The Functional Mind","slug":"the-functional-mind-7826989","podcast_index_feed_id":7826989,"rss_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/8698142.rss","website_url":"https://thefunctionalmind.substack.com/podcast","image_url":"https://substackcdn.com/feed/podcast/8698142/2c8bd2577949e6b2e5288e35e2d46025.jpg","author":"Steve Wagar","episode_count":7,"summary":"What are we, exactly? Not biologically — we have good answers there. I mean scientifically: what kind of thing is a mind, a feeling, a self? I think the answer has been hiding in plain sight for a century. This is where I make the case.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-15T08:19:50.761977+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-functional-mind-7826989"},"episode":{"title":"Lesson 3: Being Objective About Functional Things","slug":"lesson-3-being-objective-about-functional-things","published_at":"2026-06-02T19:12:25+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-functional-mind-7826989/lesson-3-being-objective-about-functional-things","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-functional-mind-7826989","url":"https://thefunctionalmind.substack.com/p/lesson-3-being-objective-about-functional","audio_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/200344958/4481fe51087fa223cd651f517b87ef39.mp3","summary":"Nobody has ever seen an electron. We grant it existence because our best models require it — and those models survive every test we put them to. The immune system earns existence by exactly the same standard. Same method. Same logic. Same rigor. So why has science treated one as real and the other as a convenient shorthand? Lesson 3: Being Objective About Functional Things is live. It makes the case that functional entities have exactly the same claim to scientific reality as physical ones — and that a science treating only one of them seriously is working with half its tools. 🎧 Apple Podcasts or Spotify — search The Functional Mind 📖 thefunctionalmind.substack.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thefunctionalmind.substack.com","meta_description":"Nobody has ever seen an electron. We grant it existence because our best models require it — and those models survive every test we put them to. The immun…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":480,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-functional-mind-7826989/episodes/lesson-3-being-objective-about-functional-things/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-functional-mind-7826989/lesson-3-being-objective-about-functional-things.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}