27Aug 2023 by Post

By Using Floor Buttons, Can Dogs Talk?

abstractions, animal behavior, Bunny (dog), Carl Sagan, chimpanzees, confirmation bias, crows, Dogs, emotions, floor buttons, gibberish, humans, language, Life Sciences, marine biologists, Neuroscience & Mind, puppies, Sarah Sloat, Scientific American, sheepadoodle, Stephanie Pappas, Thomas Fudge, TikTok, Washington State, wolves
The latest fad in the “Talk to the animals” arena appears to be a classic in confirmation bias. Source
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12Jun 2023 by Post

Does the Scientific Evidence Support Evolutionary Models of Human Origins?

Adam and Eve, Adam and the Genome, Australopithecines, Australopithecus, BioLogos, chimpanzees, computational biology, Dennis Venema, Endogenous retroviruses, Evolution, evolutionary creation, evolutionary mechanisms, fossil record, Francis Collins, Homo sapiens, human evolution, Human Origins, humans, Joshua Swamidass, Junk DNA, Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, Nature (journal), Nature Ecology and Evolution, Nature Reviews Genetics, Ola Hössjer, population genetics, pseudogenes, Queen Mary University London, Richard Buggs, theistic evolution, University of Stockholm, Washington University
The fossil record shows a break between the australopithecines, supposedly directly ancestral to our genus, and the first humanlike members of the genus. Source
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07Jun 2023 by Post

Scientists Are Skeptical that Intelligence in Homo naledi “Erases Human Exceptionalism”

ABC News, archaeologists, Archaeology, Associated Press, Australia, bioRxiv, burial, cave art, chimpanzees, fire use, Germany, Gibraltar, Griffith University, hominids, Homo naledi, human exceptionalism, Human Origins, intelligence, Kenya, Lee Berger, María Martinón-Torres, Maxime Aubert, Michael Petraglia, National Research Center on Human Evolution, Natural History Museum, Neanderthals, New York Times, Newsweek, paleontology, Phys.org, preprint papers, Rising Star Cave, Science News, Silvia Bello, skeletons, Spain, The Conversation, Wall Street Journal
Berger et al.’s claims about the species have been disputed and their idea that it lived 2-3 million years ago was exaggerated by a factor of 10. 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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21Feb 2023 by Post

The Cruel Legacy of Social Darwinism in Nigeria

Africa, Africans, biology, Charles Darwin, chimpanzees, colonialism, Culture & Ethics, Darwin Comes to Africa, ethnicity, Europe, Europeans, Evolution, French Guinea, genetics, historiography, Joseph Stalin, Mandinka, morality, nationality, natural selection, Nigeria, Northern Nigeria, pseudo-science, Race, Racism, random mutation, religion, scientific racism, Social Darwinism, tiger, tiger moth
Social Darwinism rests like a tiger moth on Darwinism, its mother theory; when challenged with facts, it just flits to a slightly different position. Source
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08Sep 2022 by Post

Can Red Have “Redness” if No Self Perceives It?

apes, chimpanzees, Closer to Truth, genomes, human exceptionalism, illusion, inner feeling, Julian Baggini, lichens, neurons, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, origin of life, philosophy, qualia, red, redness, religion, Robert Lawrence Kuhn, rocks, science, scientific explanation, self
Is not the fact that we are having these discussions the best available evidence that we are not “just overgrown apes or undergrown apes”? Source
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