Mind Matters
Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis
Monday Micro Softy 52: Elon Musk Parody Asks: Are You a Genius?
Science on Near-Death Experiences: Explaining vs Explaining Away
Latest Articles
Should Christians Harness AI Chatbots As a Force For Good? Part 2
The claims being made for what these bots can do for ministry would lead us into dangerous territory
Extraterrestrial Life: The Discipline Without a Subject
It’s fascinating but several rhetorical tricks help keep it in the forefront of news
Time Travel: The Threat of Escalation in the Terminator Series
Part 3: The Terminator series writers never new whether there would be a sequel, and that had implications for how they plotted time travel
What We Can Learn About Schooling From Baseball
In Part 3, drawing on my experience as a baseball coach, I offer a somewhat different approach to using AI in education
When the Big Bang Cost Physicists Their Lives
A new book from France tells the astonishing story of how governments murdered or drove out scientists to hush up the reality that our universe has a beginning
How AI Could Create Vast Increases in Learning Efficiency
Part 2: Artificial intelligence is promising to fundamentally transform education, leading to vast increases in efficiency of learning
Denial? Science seeks trust but avoids the need for inner reform
Current science seems to be going full steam ahead to Cancel the means by which it formerly advanced knowledge of the world
Tech Addiction is Reaching a Frightening New Level
Young people are spending endless time online seeking drug-like states of mind
Human Tools Found From a Tumultuous Period 2.7 Million Years Ago
The authors talk much about “evolutionary” and “evolution.” But actually, it doesn’t sound as if there was much evolution at all. It sounds more like one enduring insight
A Non-Transhumanist Vision for AI in Education
Bill Dembski describes this new approach as amounting to edification rather than enhancement
This Is New: Top Thinkers Debate Terminal Lucidity
Steven Pinker tells Charles Murray at the Wall Street Journal that people are merely imagining a sudden gain in awareness before dying
Monday Micro Softy 51: A Tale of Two Auto Mechanics
I recognized the two mechanics when I went to the garage…
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
Briefs
Neuroscience: Brain genes behave differently in men vs. women
At Fast Company: AI is not the cause of current job loss
Today in science journals: “Accuracy” in data takes a back seat
Could Neanderthals create art or were they not evolved enough?
At tech mag: Silicon Valley’s belief in AGI is conspiracy theory
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?
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
