AI Dependence Makes Us Dumber, but That’s Not the Worst Thing About It

Andrew McDiarmid, Artificial Intelligence, baked salmon, ChatGPT, Chicago Tribune, Complexity, Computational Sciences, computer assistance, Copilot, createdness, Creativity, Engineering, Gemini, Grok, human exceptionalism, humans, living systems, Nikolai Berdyaev, salmon, scientists
I realized this when I found myself, not for the first time, asking Grok to remind me again how long to bake salmon at 400 degrees. Source
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Michael Levin and the Philosophy of Intelligent Design

AI Overview, Archaeology, art, Bas van Fraassen, biology, ChatGPT, complex specified information, computation, computer science, Conservation of Information, control, cryptography, Darwinian theory, Discovery Institute, Ernest Nagel, experiment, fecundity, forensics, function, gnana yoga, Grok, Hinduism, ID 3.0 Research Program, Imre Lakatos, information, Intelligent Design, James Tour, James Woodward, Karl Popper, large language models, Larry Laudan, Law, Lex Fridman, living things, materialism, mathematics, mechanism, methodological naturalism, Michael Levin, Nancy Cartwright, naturalism, ontology, origin of life, patterns, Paul Feyerabend, philosophy, Philosophy of Science, Pierre Duhem, Plato, Platonic space, pseudoscience, Richard Dawkins, Sandra Mitchell, scientific theory, SETI, steganography, Stephen Meyer, testability, testing, thermostats, Thomas Kuhn, Tufts University, Willard Van Orman Quine
Levin is not a reflexive Darwinian materialist. Moreover, he touches on many themes that intelligent design theorists touch on. Source
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Against Anti-LLM and Anti-AI Absolutism

1 Thessalonians, absolutism, Aristotle, Artificial Intelligence, Bible, Carl Rogers, ChatGPT, Christians, Computational Sciences, dopamine, Doug Smith, Education, Edward Thorndike, Eighteenth Amendment, ELIZA program, Frederick Buechner, geography, history, Jacques Ellul, Jaime Escalante, Joseph Weizenbaum, Judeo-Christian tradition, large language models, Laurent Siklossy, liquor, Marshall McLuhan, math, mathematicians, Neil Postman, Open AI, Phillips Exeter Academy, programmed learning, Prohibition, Rogerian therapists, Sam Altman, science education, software, St. Paul, Substack, Technology, Turing test, William Jennings Bryan, [Un]Intentional
Doug Smith has been a software developer for three decades. He writes extensively about the impact of technology on culture. Source
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Charles Murray and Others Rediscovering God: No Accident of Timing

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, catechism, Charles Murray, ChatGPT, Christianity, Coming Apart, consciousness, cosmology, Faith & Science, faith and science, gospels, intellectuals, J.D. Vance, Joel Kotkin, Jordan Peterson, Justin Brierley, Losing Ground, media, New Atheism, Politics, Richard Dawkins, Richard Herrnstein, Taking Religion Seriously, The Bell Curve, UnHerd, universe
Not what you heard? Well, if you heard something else from traditional media, maybe those media aren’t so reliable any more. Source
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John Searle (1932–2025): A Titan Passes

Baylor University, brain, ChatGPT, Chinese Room argument, computation, Computational Sciences, conscious states, Daniel Vanderveken, digestion, Discovery Institute Press, epistemic objectivity, Expression and Meaning, Foundations of Illocutionary Logic, John Searle, language, Minding the Brain, Neuroscience & Mind, ontic dualism, ontological idealism, ontology, philosophy, prose, qualitativeness, Science and Culture Today, scientism, Speech Acts, subjectivity, The Construction of Social Reality, The Nature of Nature, Unity, William Dembski
Searle’s most famous argument is undoubtedly the Chinese Room argument, first presented in his essay “Minds, Brains, and Programs” (1980). Source
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In Connecticut, Horrors of AI Finally Come into View

advisors, Artificial Intelligence, Bobby Zenith, California, ChatGPT, companionship, Computational Sciences, confidants, Connecticut, counselors, delusions, editing, emotional intelligence, empathy, employees, friends, guardrails, intimacy, John West, journalists, kindness, kitchen tips, liability, memory, mental health, mental illnesss, Microsoft, Microsoft AI, Microsoft Copilot, misconduct, murder-suicide, Mustafa Suleyman, New York City, Old Greenwich, OpenAI, recipes, Stein-Erik Soelberg, suicide, tech companies, Technology, Wall Street Journal, writing
A 56-year-old man, living with his mother in a wealthy New York suburb, developed a “friendship” with ChatGPT. Source
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Are “Mind” and “Brain” the Same Thing?

Angus Menuge, animals, Artificial Intelligence, bacon, Benjamin Libet, brain, C. elegans, ChatGPT, computer, Denyse O'Leary, determinism, Dogs, free will, free won't, human exceptionalism, Humanize, large language models, machines, Medicine, Michael Egnor, mind, Minding the Brain, neural mechanisms, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, philosophy, Podcast, The Immortal Mind, totalitarianism, Wesley J. Smith
Neurosurgeon Michael Egnor passionately argues that denying free will undermines moral responsibility and paves the way for totalitarian ideologies. Source
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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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