How Octopuses Got So Smart? “Junk DNA”

biology, birds, brain, California octopus, clams, common octopus, genome, intelligence, Intelligent Design, invertebrates, jumping genes, Junk DNA, Long Interspersed Nuclear Elements, mammals, marine invertebrates, Neuroscience & Mind, octopuses, oysters, transposons, unguided evolution
Jumping genes used to be dismissed as junk DNA which in turn was held to be slam-dunk evidence for unguided evolutionary processes. Source
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Brain Size Doesn’t Determine Intelligence

Ars Technica, birds, brain size, brains, chimpanzees, genetic engineering, Homo sapiens, human brain, humans, information processing, Intelligent Design, jetliner, John Timmer, lemurs, London School of Economics, Michael Denton, Michel Hofman, monkeys, Neuroscience & Mind, octopus, oxygen, Peter Cochrane, primates, psychology, superintelligence, synaptic connections, The Miracle of Man
Brains are not simple, so many “just common sense” theories have fallen by the wayside. Source
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Hyping Artificial Intelligence with Seductive Optics and the Frankenstein Complex

Artificial Intelligence, Boris Karloff, Buddhist monks, Diane Ackerman, eye contact, Frankenstein, Frankenstein Complex, Goddess of Mercy, Kannon, Mary Shelley, Mindar, Neuroscience & Mind, News Media, packaging, regression curve, robots, seductive optics, seductive semantics, Sophia the Robot, Technology, Thomas Edison, uncanny valley, Victor Frankenstein, YouTube videos
Some of the panicky AI-will-take-over-the-world talk grows out of seductive optics — that is, the AI packaging. Source
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Marks: Non-Computable You Won’t Achieve Immortality Through an AI Machine

Alan Turing, algorithms, Baylor University, Church-Turing Thesis, computation, computer science, computers, consciousness, Creativity, Dallas Conference on Science and Faith, emotion, faith, Faith & Science, future, human exceptionalism, humans, immortality, Intelligent Design, machines, mathematicians, Neuroscience & Mind, Non-Computable You, qualia, Ray Kurzweil, Robert J. Marks, sentience, Singularity, speed, spirituality, Turing Machine, understanding, William Dembski
Dreams of achieving immortality by having your consciousness uploaded, merging man and computer in the predicted 2045 “Singularity,” are just that — dreams. Source
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Can Artificial Intelligence Be Creative?

Ada Lovelace, Alan Turing, chatbot, computer science, computers, Creativity, English, Eugene Goostman, George Gordon, Go (game), Intelligent Design, Lord Byron, machines, Neuroscience & Mind, Non-Computable You, programmers, Selmer Bringsjord, software, swarms, The Carpenters, The Imitation Game, trickery, Turing test, Ukrainians
Lady Ada Lovelace (1815–1852), daughter of the poet George Gordon, Lord Byron, was the first computer programmer. Source
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Five Reasons Why AI Programs Are Not “Human”

adrenaline, algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, Blake Lemoine, Boundaries of Humanity Project, computer science, Culture & Ethics, DNA, emotions, engineers, Feelings, free will, Google, human cells, imagination, Isaac Asimov, LaMDA, Language Model for Dialogue Applications, life, Love, machines, materialists, Neuroscience & Mind, René Descartes, self-awareness, sentience, software, soul, Stanford University, Three Laws of Robotics, toaster, Washington Post, William Hurlbut
A Google engineer, Blake Lemoine, mistakenly designated one AI program "sentient." Source
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How Darwin and Wallace Split over the Human Mind

Alfred Russel Wallace, Animal Liberation, Anthony Flew, Anthony O’Hear, biology, consciousness, cosmogonism, Darwin, David Bentley Hart, David Hume, deism, Donald Hoffman, Erasmus Darwin, Europeans, Evolution, Francis Crick, How Darwin and Wallace Split over the Human Mind, Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity, Lawrence Krauss, Lucretius, materialism, Michael Ruse, mind, natural selection, natural theology, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, Peter Singer, Racism, rationalism, Richard Dawkins, Richard Rorty, Richard Spilsbury, Stephen Hawking, Ternate letter, The Origin of Species, Thomas Huxley, Tom Wolfe
Marvelously free of racist prejudice, Wallace noted in his fieldwork in far-flung locations that primitive tribes were intellectually the equals of Europeans. Source
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Yes, Ants Think — Like Computers

Agouti, agriculture, algorithm, ant colony, antennae, anternet, ants, Bert Hölldobler, biology, brains, capybara, castes, cities, computer, computer programmers, consensus-building, Deborah M. Gordon, division of labor, E. O. Wilson, eggs, evolutionary biologists, foraging, humans, Intelligent Design, language, larvae, leafcutter ants, mammals, neurons, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, pheromones, pupae, slavery, Stanford University, superorganism, territorial wars, The Superorganism
Computer programmers have adapted some ant problem-solving methods to software programs (but without the need for complex chemical scents). Source
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