02Nov 2024 by Post

Putting AI to the “Tolkien Test”: Could It Pass?

3 Quarks Daily, algorithms, art, Books, cathedrals, ChatGPT, Creativity, Culture & Ethics, human beings, intelligence, large language models, materialism, Middle-earth, music, music theory, nature, Neuroscience & Mind, On Fairy Stories, Oxford University, sentience, soul, sub-creators, The Lord of the Rings, theists, Tolkien test, Turing test, War and Peace
Could ChatGPT ever hope to get close to the creative depth found in Tolkien’s Middle-earth? Source
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30Jun 2024 by Post

Bees with Feelings? A Darwinist Winces

animal consciousness, animals, Chemistry, consciousness, Daniel Dennett, Evolution, Feelings, flight distance, human consciousness, insects, Jerry Coyne, Lars Chittka, natural selection, naturalism, Neuroscience & Mind, panpsychism, Princeton University Press, protozoans, qualia, Queen Mary University, Scientific American, sentience, The Mind of a Bee, Tufts University
Most naturalist philosophers of mind have held that human consciousness — maddeningly mysterious — is an illusion. Source
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09Mar 2024 by Post

The Humanity and Personhood of an Embryo

Alabama Supreme Court, biology, colon, Culture & Ethics, death, doctors, egg, embryos, fetuses, human beings, human rights, ideology, in vitro fertilization, independence, IVF, Judeo-Christian tradition, Medicine, newborn baby, newborns, personhood, petri dish, pregnancy, reproduction, right to life, sentience, sperm, Steven Novella, womb, Yale University, zygotes
A sperm and an egg separately constitute a potential human. But when they unite, the result is a human being from the moment of fertilization. Source
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08May 2023 by Post

Peter Singer Compares Abortion to Turning Off a Computer

abortion, Artificial Intelligence, babies, bioethics, ChatGPT, chimpanzees, computer, Culture & Ethics, dementia, human life, humans, infanticide, infants, Medicine, moral collapse, persons, Peter Singer, philosophy, pregnancy, Princeton University, self-awareness, sentience, sentient beings, unborn baby, unconsciousness, Yahoo News
Singer first claims that should an AI ever become “sentient,” turning it off would be akin to killing a being with the highest moral value. Source
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06Jul 2022 by Post

Marks: Non-Computable You Won’t Achieve Immortality Through an AI Machine

Alan Turing, algorithms, Baylor University, Church-Turing Thesis, computation, computer science, computers, consciousness, Creativity, Dallas Conference on Science and Faith, emotion, faith, Faith & Science, future, human exceptionalism, humans, immortality, Intelligent Design, machines, mathematicians, Neuroscience & Mind, Non-Computable You, qualia, Ray Kurzweil, Robert J. Marks, sentience, Singularity, speed, spirituality, Turing Machine, understanding, William Dembski
Dreams of achieving immortality by having your consciousness uploaded, merging man and computer in the predicted 2045 “Singularity,” are just that — dreams. Source
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26Jun 2022 by Post

Five Reasons Why AI Programs Are Not “Human”

adrenaline, algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, Blake Lemoine, Boundaries of Humanity Project, computer science, Culture & Ethics, DNA, emotions, engineers, Feelings, free will, Google, human cells, imagination, Isaac Asimov, LaMDA, Language Model for Dialogue Applications, life, Love, machines, materialists, Neuroscience & Mind, René Descartes, self-awareness, sentience, software, soul, Stanford University, Three Laws of Robotics, toaster, Washington Post, William Hurlbut
A Google engineer, Blake Lemoine, mistakenly designated one AI program "sentient." Source
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07Apr 2022 by Post

Evolutionary Psychologist Argues that Worms Feel Pain. But How?

Aimen Mirza, alarm system, biology, David Barash, earthworms, endothermic life, Evolution, evolutionary psychology, exothermic life, intelligence, invertebrates, Nautilus, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, pain, panpsychism, Richard Dawkins, sentience, slaughter, Through a Glass Brightly, University of Washington, Wormmy
Wait. Barash’s hypothesis overlooks the fact that suffering is more than an alarm system. An alarm could be going off in an empty building. Source
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29Feb 2020 by Post

Judge Wishes She Could Rule Elephant a “Person”

Alison Y. Tuitt, animal personhood, animal rights, animal welfare, beach sand, Bronx Zoo, chimpanzee, Court of Appeals, Culture & Ethics, elephant, elephant sanctuary, Eugene M. Fahey, financial penalties, habeas corpus, Happy, human exceptionalism, judge, New York Supreme Court, Nonhuman Rights Project, sentience, trial court
Having failed to have a court declare chimpanzees to be persons entitled to habeas corpus protection, the Nonhuman Rights Project next tried the same thing with an elephant named Happy, that — not who — is held in her own pen at the Bronx Zoo due to behavioral conflicts with other elephants. This case also just failed. But before we applaud and say, “Well, of course,” it is clear that New York Supreme Court (the name of the trial court in that state) Justice Alison Y. Tuitt only dismissed the case because she felt bound by precedent. Happy to Meet You Justice Tuitt clearly wanted to declare Happy a “person.” Indeed, she took the time to quote from a non-binding statement in the above-referenced chimpanzee case by Court of Appeals…
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