Mind Matters
Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis
Latest Articles
Should Christians Harness AI Chatbots As A Force For Good? Part 1
In response to claims from a Christian ministry, as a Christian software developer, I offer some serious cautions
Scottish Proposal Would Ban Assisted Suicide Prevention
The vague proposal would forbid any attempts to “influence” a person’s decision to undergo an assisted suicide, such as through conversation with a family member or the display of a suicide prevention poster
Time Travel: How and Why the Terminator Series Worked—Then Didn’t
Part 2: Time travel works well enough as a soft magic system but time-travel stories run into problems when it is treated as a hard magic system
What Happens When Science Degenerates Into a Spoils System?
Chemistry prof Anna Krylov forces us to look at that in discouraging detail
Scaling Up is Not Going to Make Large Language Models Intelligent
ChatGPT-5 misunderstood the jab in a simple Will Rogers joke five out of six times
Space travel: The future is slowly becoming everyday reality
Catch the vibe at COSM 2025. Oh, and we’ll also be talking about the national debt…
On the State of Men and Reading
Valuable advice to students: Learn how to read deeply
Surprisingly Polite Response to Non-Materialist Book on the Mind
The discussion with well-known skeptic Michael Shermer and leading neuroscientist Christof Koch was notably polite and productive
Wikipedia Qualifies Its “Pseudoscience” Label re Design in Nature
Not only that but newly launched Grokipedia’s entry seems to be written to actually inform the reader rather than to enlist the reader against the topic
Large Language Models: Inconsistent Because They’re Unintelligent
Here’s what happened when I tested popular LLMs on student exercise questions I have been using for over fifty years
Monday Micro Softy 50: Cutting Through the Cornbread
How did Yuri Senior cut the cornbread into eight identical portions using only three straight cuts?
Totalitarian ‘Nature Rights’ Legislation in U.K. House of Lords
This is the most draconian and potentially tyrannical “nature rights” proposal I have yet seen
Pure Unlimited Love: Faith, Freedom, and the Path to Peace
To illustrate the nature of the qualities needed, Dr. Post shared with Dr. Egnor a moving story from his time working in a geriatric psychiatric hospital in Mount Vernon, Ohio
Wall Street Journal Takes On Science and the Existence of God
In an interview, first author of the new book out of France, Michel-Yves Bolloré, tells a WSJ editor, “We are now in a century where science is the best ally of God.” That’s news
Assisted-Suicide Slippery Slope Keeps Slip-Sliding Away
“Strengthen safety,” and “fairer and more compassionate,” really just means more people can become dead much sooner
Will Reliance on AI Mean a Vast Drop in New Knowledge Production?
Dependence on AI assistants, for example, was found to greatly reduce discussion among peers, where new ideas are offered and evaluated
The Pluses and the Perils of Time Travel in Science Fiction
Time travel can be treated as a form or hard or soft “magic” but it is important not to confuse the two
Medical Journal Screed Decries All Fetal Personhood Laws
The authors imply that laws that protect unborn children are racist. But pro-lifers want more black babies born and protected from harm, not fewer
The Real Threat AI Poses to Us Is Created by Widespread Abuse
In If Anyone Builds It, Yudkowsky and Soares are not really grappling with this problem
The Enduring Relevance of The Brothers Karamazov
Dostoevsky opposed materialism and pointed readers to beauty and mystery
Briefs
The death spiral of trust in legacy media
Researchers: There can be memory outside the brain
Journals refuse to correct record on teen “gender” treatments
Search engine chatbots may be killing Wikipedia
Is “emergence” — materialism’s bandaid — bad science?
Young men are losing faith in science? — Yes, but who can blame them?
The more we study our ancestors, the smarter they turn out to be
Top accounting firm tries to get AI to do the writing and… splat!
The “War on Science” as a Punch-and-Judy show
Elon Musk promises Grokipedia — a new version of Wikipedia
Videos
Science Uprising 10: Asking the Impolite Questions About AI
Is It Really the End for Silicon Valley or Just a Reboot?
COSM 2021: Kai-Fu Lee Tries His Hand at Future Casting
