Mind Matters
Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis
Monday Micro Softy 3: The Wolverton Mountain Puzzle
AI Adoption is Slowing Amidst the “Biggest Gamble in Business History”
Latest Articles
Can the Soul Be Defined Out of Existence?
Berkeley cognitive linguist George Lakoff argues that the soul could not really amount to much without a physical brain
Practicing Gratitude: The Antidote to Anxiety
Gratitude reminds us that we are interdependent persons, not isolated machines
Terminator 2, Part 3: John Meets the Robots
At this point, John is on his own because his mother has been placed in a mental institution
Debanking May Be More Common Than We Realize
Sometimes the motive seems political — unrelated to concerns about creditworthiness or suspicion about illegal activities
Can Neuralink’s Brain Implant Control a Robotic Arm?
Controlling a robotic arm via thoughts might help people with quadriplegia to do daily tasks
Study: Great Apes Point to How Human Language May Have Evolved
What’s revealing in these types of studies is not what the researchers find but what the science media choose to make of them
Why Laws Against “Misinformation” Just Can’t Work
Australia has had to back down from fining social media companies for users' alleged misinformation
Is Physicalism Dead? And Is Psychology Today Here to Bury It?
Physicalism argues that the mind is simply the activities of neurons in the brain and consciousness is an illusion that they generate
The Media Still Can’t Get Facts about Terri Schiavo Right
The Terri Schiavo case tipped this country’s morality. Before her death, people couldn’t believe we dehydrate cognitively disabled people to death. Afterward, a majority supported it
Monday Micro Softy 2: The Dead Presidents’ Club
The answer to Monday Micro Softy 1: The Round Trip is here too
Want to Talk to Jesus? Consult a Bot
Is AI changing the way people pray?
Researchers: Did Neanderthal Children Collect “Stuff”?
The items that raise the question are small marine shells found in caves. They were carefully preserved but have no known function. A baby tooth was found in the same area
New Zealand Study: ‘Dearth’ of Evidence for Puberty Blockers
Studies claiming that puberty blockers helped ease depression were found to be of very poor quality
Why Do Science and Tech Writers Hate Elon Musk?
It's partly because he encourages bottom-up media but also he encourages a sort of vision that is now largely lost
Terminator 2: The Terminator Becomes the Protector
The transition is uneven and there are hints that James Cameron was subtly mocking his 1984 film
Machine Intelligence and Reasoning: We Are Not on a Path to AGI
AI guru François Chollet’s Abstraction and Reasoning Corpus (ARC) proves we’re not on a path to AGI
In Memoriam: Two Prophets and a President Died This Day
The prophetic artists of the past still speak
Woke SciAm Editor Resigns in Post-US Election Uproar
Michael Shermer, founding publisher of Skeptic Magazine and former Scientific American columnist, offers a thoughtful response
From Data to Thoughts: Why Language Models Hallucinate
The limits of today’s language models and paths to real cognition
Why Do We Have So Many Live-Action Remakes?
Whether a cartoon or live-action, what we really want is a good story
Briefs
Oxford prof resigns from Royal Society because Musk is a member
The day the AI boyfriend went psycho…
Major Canadian media are suing OpenAI for copyright violation
X competitor BlueSky quadruples moderation team
AI: Gary Marcus on driving the cost of bullshit to zero
Philosopher warns of social conflict over AI consciousness
Vast decline in traditional TV viewership led by Gen Z
Study: Over half of LinkedIn posts now AI-generated
Neuroscientist: Silicon Valley transhumanism is a false religion
We are all the media now, whether we like it or not
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
