Design: A Scientific Proxy for Intelligence

Antarctica, arson, biology, carbon dioxide, Dead Sea Scrolls, design detection, Evolution, geological history, Greenland Ice Sheet Project, intelligence, intelligent agency, Intelligent Design, Lake Vostok, magnetic field, Michael Egnor, minds, natural forces, Paul Nelson, probability, shales, water, Willaim Dembski
The Dead Sea Scrolls are an example of a design artifact for which intelligence is inferred as the source. Source
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The Superior Programming that Makes Plants Look Smart

animals, anthropomorphism, bacteria, behavior, biology, Chapman University, Curiosity rover, Darwinians, Duke University, ethylene, flowers, herbivores, Ian T. Baldwin, intelligence, Intelligent Design, ivy, leaf senescence, leaves, Life Sciences, memory, Michael Pollan, Nature (journal), nitrogen, programming, Richard Karban, self-awareness, strigolactone, synthetic organic chemistry, tendrils, tentacles, The New Yorker, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, trees, Wesley Smith
Two signaling molecules — strigolactone and ethylene — can work independently to begin the process of leaf senescence. Source
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Are Plants Cognitive, Intelligent Beings?

audible range, botany, cognition, Darwinism, David G. Robinson, ecologists, EMBO Reports, emotions, Frantisek Baluška, infection, intelligence, Life Sciences, Louvre, mathematics, Neuroscience & Mind, panpsychism, plants, random mutations, spirituality, Tel Aviv University, teleology, Third Way of Evolution, University of Heidelberg, water deprivation, ZME Science
Some plant biologists want to see them that way; others continue to insist on a Darwinian view. Source
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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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In Some Science Contexts, “Emergence” Really Means “We Don’t Know How”

Abram, Artificial Intelligence, caterpillars, consciousness, Derek Cabrera, emergence, empathy, Evolution, evolutionary theory, explanations, Genesis, intelligence, language, materialism, mind, monotheism, Neuroscience & Mind, origin of life, promissory materialism, religion, RNA, robotics, socialization, transcendental aesthetics, Yervant Kulbashian
The word often permits the improbable to be considered probable for the purposes of sounding like science without providing any. Source
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Blind Ambition — Revisiting Searle’s Chinese Room

analytic philosophy, Artificial Intelligence, Chinese, Chinese characters, Chinese Room, Clearasil, computers, English, intelligence, Intelligent Design, intentionality, Irish Sweepstakes, John Searle, judo, MacArthur Fellowship, Neuroscience & Mind, observer, Pepsi, psychology, Roger Schank, script, Sophia Loren, The Cognitive Computer, Yale University
For the most part, computer scientists have tended to ignore Searle’s argument and the point of view that it represents. Source
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Researchers: Neanderthals Invented Process to Produce Birch Tar

23andMe, antiseptic, birch tar, birch wood, Clive Finlayson, Germany, Gibraltar Museum, glue, Homo sapiens, Human Origins, insect repellent, intelligence, Michael Shermer, Middle Palaeolithic, missing link, Neanderthals, Neuroscience & Mind, paleontology, Patrick Schmidt, ScienceAlert, University of Tübingen
The tar can be used for glue, bug repellent, and killing germs. This finding tracks growing recognition of Neanderthals as intelligent. Source
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