Biologist Michael Levin: A Farewell to Physicalism

Andreas Wagner, biology, Daniel Dennett, David Deutsch, Discovery Institute, DNA, emergence, Engineering, environment, Evolution, flatworms, frogs, George F. R. Ellis, Günter Bechly, Harvard University, Life Sciences, material world, materialism, mathematics, Max Tegmark, Michael Levin, morphogenesis, mysterian, mysticism, naturalism, numerosity, philosophies, physical world, planarian flatworms, Platonism, Platonists, preprint, Richard Sternberg, Roger Penrose, spooky, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, teleology, Tufts University, University of Zurich, Werner Heisenberg
Levin proposes a “radical Platonist view in which some of the causal input into mind and life originates outside the physical world.” Source
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Dawkins and Picard Win This Year’s Trotter Prize

affective computing, American Humanist Association, C.S. Lewis, Charlie Townes, clash, Culture & Ethics, Daniel Dennett, Darwin's Dangerous Idea, debates, Denis Noble, Denyse O'Leary, Faith & Science, Francis Collins, Francis Crick, Ide P. Trotter Sr., Intelligent Design, James Shapiro, Mendelian genetics, Micah Green, Michael Egnor, Miracles (book), MIT, Old Testament, qualia, Richard Dawkins, Roger Penrose, Rosalind Picard, Rudder Theatre, Santa Fe, Simon Conway Morris, Stephen Jay Gould, Steven Pinker, Steven Weinberg, Stuart Kauffman, Texas A&M University, The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Blind Watchmaker, The End of Christianity, The Third Way of Evolution, Trotter Prize, Tufts University, violence, Zeitgeist
A reflection on the 2025 Trotter Prize Lecture delivered by Oxford's Richard Dawkins and MIT's Rosalind Picard. Source
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The Multiverse Has a Measure Problem

Aaron Zimmer, atoms, Bible, Boltzmann brain, Donald Trump, Dragons, Elie Feder, Faith & Science, fine-tuning, life, measure problem, molecules, naïve multiverse, observers, physical constants, physical laws, physics, Physics to God, Physics, Earth & Space, planets, quantum fluctuations, rivers, Roger Penrose, stars, Taylor Swift, universe
In terms of science, the central problem with the naïve multiverse is that it could explain any observation, so it really explains nothing. Source
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Getting Stoned: Did It Shape Human Origins?

abstract thinking, anthropology, Aristotle, behavior, Big Think, Bobby Azarian, consciousness, Entropic Brain Hypothesis, Evolution, evolutionary psychology, Food of the Gods, human mind, Human Origins, magic mushrooms, Neuroscience & Mind, neuroscientists, New Stoned Ape Theory, panpsychism, psilocybin, Roger Penrose, Stone Age, Stoned Ape Theory, Terence McKenna
For a really wild excursion, nothing beats efforts to explain the evolution of the human mind. Source
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Why AI Won’t Destroy the World, or Save It

Artificial Intelligence, Bill Gates, Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence, Elon Musk, evolutionary innovations, ID The Future, Intelligent Design, Mark Zuckerberg, Neuroscience & Mind, Nobel laureates, Robert J. Marks, robots, Roger Penrose, Sir Roger Penrose, Stephen Hawking, The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith
Will robots or other computers ever become so fast and powerful that they become conscious, creative, and free? Source
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Consciousness BEFORE Life? These Scientists Say Yes

Alexander Oparin, Anirban Bandyopadhyay, asteroids, Bennu, brains, consciousness, Dante Lauretta, Darwinian materialists, Evolution, genes, Institute for Arts and Ideas, mind, Murchison meteorite, Neuroscience & Mind, philosophers, quantum collapse, quantum superpositions, Roger Penrose, scientists, solar system, Stuart Hameroff, wave function
One key way life differs from non-life is that life forms have goals. For example, the amoeba seeks to protect itself. Source
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Brain as a Quantum System: Theory Gets New Traction

Al Gore, anesthesiologists, Astonishing Hypothesis, behavior, Bill Clinton, birds, brain tissue, consciousness, Dorje C. Brody, Francis Crick, George Musser, human mind, internal compass, materialism, Medicine, neurons, Neuroscience & Mind, New Scientist, Orch Or Theory, organoids, proteins, Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation, quantum computation, Roger Penrose, Stuart Hameroff, Trinity College Dublin, University of Surrey
Hameroff and Penrose’s Orch Or Theory sees consciousness as the outcome of a quantum collapse of a wave function. Source
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More on Roger Penrose and Fine-Tuning

Anthropic Principle, chicken feed, fine-tuning, Fire-Maker, gravitational constant, Guillermo Gonzalez, initial entropy, Intelligent Design, intelligent observers, Jay Richards, multiverse, multiverse theory, Nobel Prize, physics, Physics, Earth & Space, Robert Lawrence Kuhn, Roger Penrose, The Edge of Evolution, The Privileged Planet, william lane craig, YouTube videos
Penrose offers as an alternative to design only that maybe some very different kind of life might be possible without the fine-tunings we see in our universe. Source
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#4 Story of 2022: Science Journal Reaffirms Universe Had a Beginning

Anna Ijjas, beginning, Borde-Guth-Vilenkin theorem, Charlotte Hsu, cosmology, Ethan Siegel, Faith & Science, God Hypothesis, Intelligent Design, Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Nina Stein, Null Energy Condition, Paul Steinhardt, philosophy, Phys.org, physics, Physics, Earth & Space, Return of the God Hypothesis, Roger Penrose, spacetime, Stephen Meyer, theism, University of Buffalo, Will Kinney
If the universe and everything in it are the result of a mind, then we are not unintended accidents of nature. Source
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