07Dec 2024 by Post

Who (or What) First Used Tools?

abstract ideas, algae, birds, blanket octopus, chimpanzees, Christophe Boesch, crows, decorator crab, Egyptian vulture, Hedwige Boesch-Achermann, invertebrates, Jane Goodall, Lucy, Max Planck Institute, Neuroscience & Mind, octopus, orange-spotted tuskfish, ostrich eggs, otters, paleontology, Taï National Park, tools, Tracy L. Kivell, Tremoctopus violaceus
It’s not stone tool use that is exclusive to humans; vultures can do that too. It’s the ability to form abstract ideas. Source
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06Dec 2024 by Post

More Discoveries Point to Neanderthal Intelligence

Abric Pizarro, Annemieke Milks, Australian National University, cave lion, Clive Finlayson, cognitive ability, feathers, Gabriele Russo, Gibraltar, Gibraltar National Museum, glues, Gorham’s Caves Complex, Günter Bechly, Human Origins, Le Moustier, Middle Palaeolithic, missing link, Neanderthals, Neuroscience & Mind, New York University, pitches, Radu Iovita, resins, Sofia Samper Carro, Spain, Universität Tübingen, University of Reading, Vanguard Cave
This very ancient people we know the most about can’t be the missing link that many paleontologists are looking for. Source
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02Dec 2024 by Post

Now It’s “Whale Rights”

animal standing, anti-Western ideology, conservation, courts, Culture & Ethics, emotionalism, indigenous wisdom, industrialization, Legal Cheek, legal person, legal standing, London, Michelle Bender, national defense, nature rights, Neuroscience & Mind, Ocean Vision Legal, Pacific Whale Fund, rights, River Thames, shipping, Simmons and Simmons, whale rights, whales, windmills
As often is the case in nature rights activism, “indigenous wisdom” is invoked as somehow superior to modern conservation. Source
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14Nov 2024 by Post

Design, Engineering, Specified Complexity: Appreciating the Fruit Fly Brain

brains, C. elegans, coherence, Complexity, cortex, crystals, Drosphila melanogaster, efficiency, flight control, fruit flies, Intelligent Design, mating courtship, morphology, mouse, navigation, neural network, neurons, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, optimization, pheromones, Research, snowflake, specified complexity, subnetworks, swarming
Groundbreaking new research has documented the complexity and design of the brains of fruit flies. Source
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05Nov 2024 by Post

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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02Nov 2024 by Post

Putting AI to the “Tolkien Test”: Could It Pass?

3 Quarks Daily, algorithms, art, Books, cathedrals, ChatGPT, Creativity, Culture & Ethics, human beings, intelligence, large language models, materialism, Middle-earth, music, music theory, nature, Neuroscience & Mind, On Fairy Stories, Oxford University, sentience, soul, sub-creators, The Lord of the Rings, theists, Tolkien test, Turing test, War and Peace
Could ChatGPT ever hope to get close to the creative depth found in Tolkien’s Middle-earth? Source
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26Oct 2024 by Post

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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