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Francis Irving

@flourish.org

Coercing LLMs into understanding software product teams. Cohost on "Imagine an apple" podcast about our inner experience. Trustee of London College of Political Technology (soon).

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15.04.2023
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Latest posts by Francis Irving @flourish.org

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Land Talks #4: Land-For-Flats, A New Forest City, Undead Property Taxes & More! Β· Luma πŸ—ΊοΈ Where Fresh Thinking Meets Britain’s Oldest Bottleneck Land is key to economic growth and equality of opportunity, yet in Britain we’ve done almost nothing…

Speaking at Land Talks next week - come along! luma.com/ba8uvclo

10.02.2026 10:10 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Land Talks #4: Land-For-Flats, A New Forest City, Undead Property Taxes & More! Β· Luma πŸ—ΊοΈ Where Fresh Thinking Meets Britain’s Oldest Bottleneck Land is key to economic growth and equality of opportunity, yet in Britain we’ve done almost nothing…

Excited to announce we're running a second season of Land Talks! Evenings of lightning talks in London about radical land policy.

Come along to the first one two week's tomorrow (Monday):
luma.com/ba8uvclo

Or follow us on Luma for updates as we announce speakers for all of them!

01.02.2026 19:59 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
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Meditation with Jess by @Francis Irving What’s the detail of the inner experience of meditating? What do you see while body scanning? How does noticing more details of inner experience alter your beliefs about your mind? Welcome to another...

Thanks Jess for really detailed insights!

Find in any podcast app or at zencastr.com/z/gbMzgVr6

14.01.2026 21:52 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I think meditation is a particular area where more comparison to the variety of normal experience is important. Everyone's mental experience before they meditate is so different, it makes lots of the conversations confused esp. about early stages.

14.01.2026 21:52 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Pleased with Vynn and my new episode of our podcast "Imagine an apple".

We talk with Jess - who organises JessCamp where Vynn and I met! - about the inner experience of meditation.

14.01.2026 21:52 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Brilliant, thank you! I've signed up!

30.12.2025 18:09 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Am interested! That doesn't seem like the full link though - just takes me to Luma home page. Am struggling to find it!

And happy Christmas!!

25.12.2025 08:43 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Yes! Well technically I'm hypophantasic as I have some spatial imagination. I have SDAM though, which is an important part in terms of daily life impact.

Crosswords can have a theme? I'm not quite getting how it is themed after aphantasia from looking at the clues!

25.12.2025 08:42 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Jeeps that sold out fast! Thanks for continuing to run it!

20.12.2025 20:11 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

He clearly really doesn't want to believe humans are machines, AND wants to believe physics can explain things. Which are contradictory desires, if you're studying minds and consciousness.

24.11.2025 08:23 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Oh gosh, no-episodic-memory-me didn't remember you'd come to that too!

The thing I do remember (and you can maybe correct me) is I asked the question "But we could make computers that use the same quantum effects you say are used in our minds, so AI still possible right?", and he said "Yes"

24.11.2025 08:22 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Land Talks 2025 Christmas Quiz Β· Luma Jingle all the way through the most wonderful Land Talks Christmas quiz where we celebrate the inaugrial year of Land Talks and look ahead to 2026. Alys and…

I've had fun running Land Talks this last year, and we're ending it with a pub quiz.

If you're in London two week's on Tuesday, and fancy a more relaxing and social evening, with people who want to improve Britain's land system, see you there!

luma.com/c5944qgc

09.11.2025 19:44 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Alexander technique with Michael Ashcroft by @Francis Irving What is it like to experience β€œopen awareness”? What’s the difference between doing and non-doing? What is β€œthinking”? Welcome to another episode of β€œImagine an apple”. In this episode, Vynn and Fra...

Really happy to interview @michaelashcroft.com on my podcast "Imagine an apple" about the inner experience of Alexander Technique.

What is it like to experience β€œopen awareness”? What’s the difference between doing and non-doing?

Really enjoyed this one!

zencastr.com/z/ST9vDWiJ

03.11.2025 21:55 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I found the book very emotionally connecting, making me warm and connected to the variety we have as humans.

05.10.2025 16:15 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

It's about how people think in lots of varying circumstances - from schizophrenia to playing the guitar. All based on a random mind-sampling technique, which is more like a therapeutic practice than a psychology questionnaire.

05.10.2025 16:15 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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"Pristine Inner Experience" by Hulburt (a review) by @Francis Irving How does Hurlburt’s method of sampling what is happening in our minds work? What have we learnt from it about the variety of our everyday inner worlds - from thinking without symbols, to schizophrenia...

New season of my podcast "Imagine an apple" starting. Today is my co-host Vynn interviewing me about my new favourite book...

zencastr.com/z/MlzU79lP

(more in thread)

05.10.2025 16:15 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Times of day when I wake up from a dream and react well enough to record a description of it.

02.10.2025 18:59 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Screenshot is a quote from Hurlburt's writeup of someone who most of the time has no particularized inner experience.

hurlburt.faculty.unlv.edu/ieo/mel/mel%...

02.10.2025 06:32 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

My review of Silksong and the difficulty discourse around it... It doesn't need an easy mode, it needs a *hard* mode.

People with naturally good reactions and observation skills are finding it too easy.

They need a hard mode to make it as hard as it is for me!

20.09.2025 11:37 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Land Talks #3: New Prisons, Open Source Construction, Land in Japan & More! Β· Luma πŸ—ΊοΈ Where Fresh Thinking Meets Britain’s Oldest Bottleneck Land is key to economic growth and equality of opportunity, yet in Britain we’ve done almost nothing…

If you're in London - my third evening of lightning talks about Radical Land Policy is next Tuesday - have a look at the Luma page to see the speakers!

luma.com/v8knl21z

09.09.2025 20:13 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Agreed, each metaphor is getting closer, more like a simile!

And I was having a long conversation with @berbank.bsky.social about the whole thing being compression just yesterday... Hadn't thought about the scientific method being that, but it is.

28.08.2025 06:16 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

We're doing that a bit with LLMs too. There's something very architecturally different about human minds that we still don't know/understand. LLMs help solidify things we knew anyway about the mind (it is made by composing trillions of connection weights), and give a feel for that. That's all.

28.08.2025 05:42 πŸ‘ 17 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Julian Jaynes' The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind has a brilliant opening chapter explaining how we *always* make simile's of current technology to the human mind. e.g. It's like a steam engine.

28.08.2025 05:42 πŸ‘ 21 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

The various Anthropic interpretability papers a least give a hint at how it is doing it - with imagination of the few features they document scaled billions of times.

Yes, humans are similarish networks, and part of what we do is clearly "LLM-like". I wouldn't stretch this too far though.

28.08.2025 05:42 πŸ‘ 20 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
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Land Talks #2: Fixing Freeholds, Postcode Pains, Cowboy Clashes & More! Β· Luma πŸ—ΊοΈ Where Fresh Thinking Meets Britain’s Oldest Bottleneck Land is key to economic growth and equality of opportunity, yet in Britain we’ve done almost nothing…

If you're in London, and think land policy needs to be more radical, come to Land Talks #2, a second evening of lightning talks I'm co-organising.

First three speakers - on the Postcode Address File, Freehold and Yellowstone (TV show) - are up:

lu.ma/cthbcn45

08.06.2025 15:56 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Land Talks #2: Fixing Freeholds, Postcode Pains, Cowboy Clashes & More! Β· Luma πŸ—ΊοΈ Where Fresh Thinking Meets Britain’s Oldest Bottleneck Land is key to economic growth and equality of opportunity, yet in Britain we’ve done almost nothing…

If you're in London, and think land policy needs to be more radical, come to Land Talks #2, a second evening of lightning talks I'm co-organising.

First three speakers - on the Postcode Address File, Freehold and Yellowstone (TV show) - are up:

lu.ma/cthbcn45

08.06.2025 15:56 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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TheyWorkForYou: how you can help An update on some upcoming TheyWorkForYou projects, and how you can help us make them better.

TheyWorkForYou is now on Bluesky! Here's a few things coming up, and ways you can help us over the next few weeks www.mysociety.org/2025/05/14/t...

14.05.2025 11:50 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 8 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Great to be at the inaugural Land Talks

Lightning talks on land in art, Scotland's 'log cabin conundrum', building on MoD land and more

with @flourish.org

06.05.2025 19:13 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Land Talks #1: Tanks, Cabins, Addresses & More! Β· Luma πŸ—ΊοΈ Where Fresh Thinking Meets Britain’s Oldest Bottleneck Land is key to economic growth and equality of opportunity, yet in Britain we’ve done almost nothing…

I'm organising three lightning talk evenings in Farringdon on Tuesday evenings, about radical land policy and digital tech. They're called "Land Talks".

lu.ma/mm4dg8fy

Please sign up, follow the Luma calendar, and share this with others who want to help improve how property works in Britain!

17.04.2025 07:48 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Land Talks #1: Tanks, Cabins, Addresses & More! Β· Luma πŸ—ΊοΈ Where Fresh Thinking Meets Britain’s Oldest Bottleneck Land is key to economic growth and equality of opportunity, yet in Britain we’ve done almost nothing…

I'm organising three lightning talk evenings in Farringdon on Tuesday evenings, about radical land policy and digital tech. They're called "Land Talks".

lu.ma/mm4dg8fy

Please sign up, follow the Luma calendar, and share this with others who want to help improve how property works in Britain!

17.04.2025 07:48 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0