02Feb 2024 by Post

Artificial General Intelligence: Machines vs. Organisms

Accelerating Change Conference, algorithm, An Idol for Destruction (series), Are We Spiritual Machines?, artificial general intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, brain, ChatGPT, Chinese, Chinese Room argument, computers, consciousness, COSM, Culture & Ethics, endogenous activity, George Gilder, Gottfried Leibniz, Jay Richards, John Searle, John Smart, jumbo jet, machines, Marvin Minsky, Mastery (book), Michael Denton, Monadology, Moore’s law, Neuroscience & Mind, organisms, Ray Kurzweil, Robert Greene, Stanford University, Telecosm, The Age of Intelligent Machines, The Age of Spiritual Machines, Thomas Ray, Turing Machine, Venice
It may seem that I’m picking too much on Ray Kurzweil. But he and I have been crossing paths for a long time. Source
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24Jan 2024 by Post

Brain as a Quantum System: Theory Gets New Traction

Al Gore, anesthesiologists, Astonishing Hypothesis, behavior, Bill Clinton, birds, brain tissue, consciousness, Dorje C. Brody, Francis Crick, George Musser, human mind, internal compass, materialism, Medicine, neurons, Neuroscience & Mind, New Scientist, Orch Or Theory, organoids, proteins, Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation, quantum computation, Roger Penrose, Stuart Hameroff, Trinity College Dublin, University of Surrey
Hameroff and Penrose’s Orch Or Theory sees consciousness as the outcome of a quantum collapse of a wave function. Source
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27Dec 2023 by Post

No. 6 Story of 2023: On Free Will, ChatGPT4 Blows Away Atheist Sam Harris

atheists, Being as Communion, Belief, brain, ChatGPT4, consciousness, Culture & Ethics, decision-making, determinism, free choice, free will, illusion, irony, Judgment, mind, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, Persuasion, reality, Reasoning, Sam Harris, The Design Inference, Winston Ewert, YouTube videos
Yes, the irony here is palpable, and I’ve long been critical of Harris’s view of free will as an illusion. Source
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12Dec 2023 by Post

Can Animal Minds Explain Human Minds?

Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness, Christof Koch, consciousness, crabs, dualists, Francis Crick, hard problem of consciousness, John Horgan, Kristin Andrews, Life Sciences, materialism, mind, nervous system, neurological capacity, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, panpsychism, philosophers, philosophy, physiology, The Animal Mind, theists, York University
Kristin Andrews thinks consciousness researchers should discard the assumptions of “white, male and WEIRD” philosophy profs and study more crabs. Source
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20Oct 2023 by Post

Consciousness May Occur Near Time of Birth

abortion, baby, birth, Children, Christof Koch, consciousness, dreaming, fetuses, hard problem of consciousness, Icahn School of Medicine, infant experience, Integrated information theory, Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, newborn, philosophy, pregnancy, prenatal consciousness, Robert Wright, synaptic connections, Thomas Nagel, Trinity College Dublin, unborn humans
Researchers generally stress that the unborn child’s brain is in a rapid, ongoing, and little understood state of development. Source
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20Sep 2023 by Post

Study: Brain Is Still Active After Death

brain, consciousness, cosmic fine-tuning, CPR, Dartmouth College, Durham University, Elsevier, hospitals, Langone Medical Center, Marcelo Gleiser, Medicine, near-death experiences, Neuroscience & Mind, NYU, oxygen deprivation, persistent vegetative state, Philip Goff, Rachel Nuwer, researchers, Resuscitation (journal), Sam Parnia, Scientific American, wrongthink
Obviously, these experiences point to something that is irrelevant to claims about evolution. Source
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20Aug 2023 by Post

A Theoretical Biologist’s Mission Impossible: Banish Teleology While Retaining Meaning

academic politics, Chemistry, consciousness, Darwinian evolution, DNA, Evolution, genes, genetic code, information, Intelligent Design, Marcello Barbieri, materialism, Meaning, natural selection, paradigm, physics, private truth, public truth, teleology, University of Ferrara
The nonsense will cease eventually. But eventually is a long way off, if Barbieri’s dilemma is any guide. Source
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04Aug 2023 by Post

Self-Referential Absurdity in a Theory of Consciousness

blindness, Charles Darwin, consciousness, Euler's Identity, Evolution, evolutionary epistemology, Ezequiel Morsella, intelligence, Intelligent Design, Leonhard Euler, materialists, mathematics, mind, Nancy Pearcey, Neuroscience & Mind, rationality, Richard Dawkins, San Francisco State University, self-referential absurdity, self-referential fallacy, Theodosius Dobzhansky, William Provine, zombies
Leonhard Euler was known to work out complex derivations in his head while blind. Of what possible use was this ability for survival? Source
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02Aug 2023 by Post

Craig, Moreland: Two Philosophers Discuss Aliens and Artificial Intelligence

aliens, Artificial Intelligence, Biola University, consciousness, Culture, Culture & Ethics, dating, extraterrestrial life, Faith & Science, friendship, Internet, J.P. Moreland, marriage, Neuroscience & Mind, philosophy of mind, Sean McDowell, sexuality, Technology, virtual existence, william lane craig, worship
As an old professor of mine told me in an email recently: “Long live visceral proximity!” Source
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