Requiem for an Artificial Superintelligence

Alexandria, artificial general intelligence, artificial superintelligence, arts, batteries, Brownshirts, Caltech, competition, Computational Sciences, Elliot Pryce, Engineering, ethics, experience machine, family, fans, Fiction, fidelity, general intelligence, governments, Gustav Mahler, human beings, humans, intelligences, language, light, machine life, Maine, marriage, Mars, metaphysics, Palo Alto, perpetual light, processors, quantum effects, retirement, Robert Nozick, robots, Science and Culture Today, self-preservation, superintelligence, Technology, The Battering Company, theorems, University of Texas
On the morning of his upload, he signed transfer papers, redundancy protocols, continuity covenants, and one handwritten page that no lawyer saw. Source
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The End of the Machine Metaphor? 

"survival of the fittest", animals, bears, biology, Books, Casey Luskin, celibacy, chihuahua, DNA, Evolution, evolutionary psychology, Fiction, Foresight (book), foxes, genes, How Life Works, Intelligent Design, machines, Marcos Eberlin, Meaning, Oskar Schindler, otters, Philip Ball, purpose, relationships, religion, reproduction, Science and Faith in Dialogue, self-sacrifice, survival, work, writing
Rather than purpose deriving from a purposeless process like natural selection, natural selection can only occur when life itself is the result of purpose. Source
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 “What Is a Man?” — New Book Out Today from Nancy Pearcey

animal nature, Center for Science and Culture, Charles Darwin, Culture & Ethics, Darwinian theory, Darwinism, divine image, European customs, Evolution, evolutionary psychology, Fiction, human beings, males, masculinity, men, Nancy Pearcey, Sean McDowell, Tarzan, The Toxic War on Masculinity, women
Set aside one question of the moment — “What is a woman?” — and turn to another no less important problem that troubles our culture. Source
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Why Mathematics and Literature Point to Intelligent Design

algebra, Arthur Conan Doyle, Blood Meridian, Books, C.S. Lewis, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Cormac McCarthy, Culture & Ethics, Fiction, fractal structure, geometry, Herman Melville, Intelligent Design, J.R.R. Tolkien, James Joyce, Jurassic Park, Leo Tolstoy, literature, mathematicians, mathematics, Meaning, Michael Crichton, Moby-Dick, New York Times, Once Upon a Prime, order, Sarah Hart, Sofia Kovalevskaya, Stella Maris, The Passenger, The Road
In an era where un-design is celebrated, a mathematician shows that structure and order are inherent in both literature and the universe. Source
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Did Religion Evolve, or Was It Designed, to Foster Cooperation?

Aboriginal Australians, Agricultural Revolution, Catholics, Crusades, dead ends, designer, Faith & Science, Fiction, group cohesion, hospital, Human Origins, Jesus, myths, religion, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, selfish genes, shared beliefs, strangers, unguided evolution, Yuval Noah Harari
Harari’s assurance about building group cohesion is simplistic and woefully insufficient to account for common characteristics of religion. Source
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Is the Historical Jesus Fact or Fiction?

Apologetics, Bible, Christianity, Evidence, Fact, Fiction, Free Thinking Ministries, Gospel, history, Jesus, Jesus Christ, New Testament, Skeptics, theology, Theology and Christian Apologetics, Tim Stratton
By Tim Stratton As a pastor who spends a lot of time on the college campus, I hear the following challenges quite often from young skeptics: “There is no good evidence to think that Jesus ever existed,” or “Christianity has pagan roots!” One might put these common challenges as two questions: (1) Did Jesus of Nazareth really exist? (2) Are the gospel records of this man merely fictional mythology? In this essay, I want to explore several lines of evidence that will show that the answer to the first question is a clear “Yes!” and to the second “No!”       i. Did Jesus of Nazareth really exist? Though there are many “street atheists,” or “internet infidels” who espouse their unqualified views and who in the process influence many…
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