Study Probes the Origins of Consciousness

Allen Brain Institute, Allison Parshall, anatomy, COGITATE, cognition, consciousness, decisions, Denyse O'Leary, Global Workspace Theory, Integrated information theory, Intelligent Design, Michael Egnor, Nautilus, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, neuroscientists, prefrontal cortex, pseudoscience, Robert Chis-Ciure, Science Daily, The Immortal Mind, The New England Journal of Medicine, University of Sussex
Understanding consciousness by these means is going to be a much slower process than the researchers had hoped. Source
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Pointing to Design, Ross Douthat Makes the Case that Religious Belief Is Rational

Artificial Intelligence, Belief, Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious, carbon dioxide, Christianity, consciousness, disenchantment, fail, Faith & Science, freedom, hamlet, intelligence, Intelligent Design, metaphysics, multiverse, New York Times, open-mindedness, Physics, Earth & Space, Return of the God Hypothesis, Roman Catholics, Stephen Meyer, Tao Lin, Technology, telescope, universe, water, Zondervan
He kicks off the book by talking about the evident design in nature and the fine-tuning of the universe. Source
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Faith, Reason, and the Search for Truth: Stephen Meyer and Michael Shermer

Brian Keating, Bryan Callen, complex life, consciousness, Energy, Faith & Science, faith and science, ID The Future, Intelligent Design, mathematics, matter, Michael Shermer, mind, origin of life, Podcast, Skeptic Magazine, skepticism, Stephen Meyer, The Bryan Callen Show, truth, UC San Diego, universe
Dr. Meyer calls math mind-independent. We discover it, we don’t invent it. And it’s conceptual, not a physical material thing. Why is that Important? 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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Soul Survives Death? ER Doc Faces Skepticism

Baram Elahi, brain function, cardiac arrest, clinical death, Closer to Truth, consciousness, death, doctors, Faith & Science, John Eccles, Lord Kelvin, Lucid Dying, near-death experiences, Neuroscience & Mind, Nobel Prize, physics, post-death consciousness, Psyche, Robert Lawrence Kuhn, Sam Parnia, skepticism, soul
In discussion with Robert Lawrence Kuhn, Dr. Sam Parnia stuck to his clearly defined evidence, avoiding religious digressions. Source
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What the Heck is Artificial Intelligence and Why Does it Matter?

AI, Alex Cramer, Artificial Intelligence, consciousness, cultural apologetics, Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, MamaBearApologetics.com, personhood, Science and Technology, Techies
A TikToker programs himself a virtual AI girlfriend and decides to “euthanize” her when she becomes less responsive, and he falls into depression. Entire porn sites are dedicated to stealing the images of female online influencers (specifically Twitch streamers) using AI to create “deepfake” pornography. And creative things that we typically perceive as uniquely human, like art and music, are being generated by AI . . . and they are impressive, to say the least. There’s no denying it. Things are getting really weird. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is all the rage in 2023, and why shouldn’t it be? We just got over a pandemic. Time to bring in the free-thinking robots. We’ve got to keep things exciting! If the world isn’t about to end, is it even worth living? No…
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A Quarter of Comatose Patients May Be Aware But Unable to Communicate

brain activity, brain responses, brain scans, cognitive motor dissociation, comatose, communication technologies, consciousness, Elon Musk, fMRI, Julian Nowogrodzki, Medicine, Neuralink, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, Noland Arbaugh, patient assessment, patients, Technology
“Covertly” means that the patients were not able to respond directly but brain activity showed that they understood what was asked of them. Source
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Biophysicist Proposes “Spiritual Particle”

beetroots, consciousness, Daniel Dennett, Darwinian evolution theory, Darwinism, Douglas Youvan, eliminationism, Energy, Evolution, Galen Strawson, illusion, matter, natural selection, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, panpsychism, Physics, Earth & Space, psychology, random mutation, snakes, spiritual particle, universe
It has, Douglas Youvan suggests, a dual nature, interacting with both matter and consciousness. Source
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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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