On Minds and Machines, Richard Dawkins’s Curious Inconsistency

artificial inteligence, atheists, biology, chatbots, ChatGPT, Claude, Computational Sciences, computing, consciousness, intelligence, Intelligent Design, large language models, living systems, personal identity, philosophy, plagiarists, Richard Dawkins, Technology, UnHerd
If we encounter far more advanced informational technology in living organisms, isn’t the same intuition at least worth considering? Source
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On Our 250th Anniversary, There Is a Battle for America’s Soul

apes, bacteria, Bertrand Russell, Bible, California, carbon, Center for Science and Culture, chauvinism, consciousness, Declaration of Human Rights, Declaration of Independence, DNA, dolphins, endowed by our creator, Faith & Science, human rights, Intelligent Design, John Lilly, John West, language, legal protection, Legal Science (jurisprudence), Leon Kass, moral crisis, Science (journal), solar system, Thomas Jukes, United Nations, United States, Yale University, zoo, __featured3
While some researchers have "personified" their apes, others have mechanized their concept of man. Source
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Fantasy in Conformal Cyclic Cosmology

aeons, assumptions, Bars-Steinhardt-Turok model, black holes, Boltzmann brain, bouncing cosmologies, concentric low-variance circles, conformal cyclic cosmology, consciousness, cosmic microwave background, cosmology, cyclic cosmologies, dark matter, de Sitter horizon entropy, disorder, Douglas Scott, Edward Tryon, entropy, erebon, fine-tuning, gravitational wave epoch, Hawking radiation, intelligent cause, Mount Everest, Phil Halper, physicists, physics, Roger Penrose, Sean McDowell, Second Law of Thermodynamics, Stephen Hawking, Stephen Meyer, Tod equations, trilemma, universe, Weyl Curvature Hypothesis
Penrose was right, then, that fashion, faith, and fantasy have led much of modern cosmology astray. He was more right than he knew. Source
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Zombie Metaphysics: Dawkins Versus Pope Leo

child, Claude, Claudia, Computational Sciences, consciousness, Conversations, design, employee, encyclical, evolutionary logic, humans, Large Language Model, LLMs, machines, men, metaphysics, mice, person, Pope Leo XIV, Richard Dawkins, self-reflection, slave, spiritual communion, Ted Chiang, telos, The Atlantic, The Free Press, Tyler Cowen, UnHerd, wisdom, word-generation machines, writing, zombies
This casual devaluing of consciousness is actually intertwined with the rush to ascribe it to AI. The ultimate conclusion is the same. Source
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Scientists Ask, “Is Materialism Holding Science Back?”

Adam Frank, astrophysicists, biologists, consciousness, dualism, emergence, Güneş Taylor, Institute for Arts and Ideas, Lisa Feldman Barrett, materialism, Michael Levin, neuroscientists, perspectival view, Philosophy of Science, physicists, religion, scientific reasoning, spacetime, Stephen Hawking, straightjacket, superstition, third-person view, universe, University of Rochester, Werner Heisenberg, YouTube channels
Is materialism a straightjacket? The very fact that a respectable conversation is going on around this question tells us that something has changed. Source
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What Is Consciousness For? Sixteen Theories Take a Crack at the Question

Albert Newen, anole lizards, Antonella Tramacere, Antonio Damasio, Axel Cleeremans, biology, Carlos Montemayor, Catherine Tallon-Baudry, cognition, cognitive science, consciousness, Dogs, Eva Jablonka, Experience, Gianmarco Maldarelli, horses, Jacques Singer, Jonathan Birch, Jonathon D. Crystal, Julio Hechavarria, Kristin Andrews, Krzysztof Dołęga, Lars Chittka, Léa Moncoucy, Lucia Melloni, Maxime Janbon, memory, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, Nicholas Humphrey, Noam Miller, Olga Dyakova, Onur Güntürkün, philosophy, Robert Lawrence Kuhn, Royal Society, Sarah Skeels, self-awareness, Simon Alexander Burns Brown, Simona Ginsburg, T.S. Eliot, Yuranny Cabral-Calderin, zoology
It sounds like we do not really know what we are looking for, which will doubtless complicate efforts to find it. Source
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Terminal Lucidity Points to Indestructible Personhood

abstract thought, brain, brain function, communication, consciousness, death, Denyse O'Leary, emotions, free will, Human Identity, ID The Future, materialism, medical literature, Medicine, memories, memory, Michael Egnor, mind, movements, near-death experiences, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, physicalism, reason, seizures, sensations, terminal lucidity, The Immortal Mind, Threshold
Why would the human mind sometimes appear strongest when the brain is weakest? We begin a two-part conversation discussing the phenomenon of terminal lucidity. Source
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According to New Physics Model, Consciousness Underlies the Universe

Carl Sagan, consciousness, Daily Mail, David Klinghoffer, life after death, Maria Strømme, metaphysics, near-death experiences, Neuroscience & Mind, panpsychism, physicists, physics, Plato, Plato's Revenge, quantum mechanics, Richard Sternberg, Stephen Hawking, telepathy, terminal lucidity, Thomas Henry Huxley, universal field, universe, Uppsala University, William Hunter, __featured2
We live in a universe closer to the vision of Plato (c. 427 – 348 BC) than of Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895). Source
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Does Quantum Mechanics Help Make Sense of the Soul?

Bayesian reasoning, Carl Sagan, Christopher Hitchens, consciousness, COSM 2025, Faith & Science, George Gilder, immaterial reality, information, Jay W. Richards, life after death, Measurement Problem, Michael Egnor, Michael Shermer, Neuroscience & Mind, neurosurgeons, physics, quantum mechanics, Roger Penrose, Technology, The Human Advantage
Quantum mechanics seems to be the game-changer that Albert Einstein (1879–1955) feared it would be. It is certain to liven up discussions about the soul. Source
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Living in 3-D: Not a Big Deal? New Video Explains Why It’s a VERY Big Deal

astigmatism, athletes, awareness, body parts, cars, consciousness, cornea, curvature, emergence, Engineering, eyeglasses, headlights, hearing, Howard Glicksman, Intelligent Design, lens, prescription, proprioception, purpose, routine tasks, Secrets of the Human Body, Steve Laufmann, street, three dimensions, vision, walking, Your Amazing Body
Living in three dimensions is crucial not only for athletes, who excel at exploiting the body’s abilities, but for any one of us walking down the street. Source
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