Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

Monthly Archive July 2022

abstract-computer-generated-fractal-design-3d-illustration-of-a-beautiful-infinite-mathematical-mandelbrot-set-fractal-stockpack-adobe-stock
Abstract Computer generated Fractal design. 3D Illustration of a Beautiful infinite mathematical mandelbrot set fractal.
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post
Author
News
Date
July 17, 2022
Categorized
Mathematics, Philosophy
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Recent Research: Imaginary Numbers Are Part of the Real World

If we try to leave them out of quantum mechanics, our description of nature becomes faulty
News
July 17, 2022
5
Mathematics, Philosophy

Imaginary numbers, beginning with the square roots of minus numbers, are part of the world in which we live, even though we can’t quite picture them. Try it. The square root of 1 is 1 (1 × 1 = 1). But what’s the square root of -1? It can’t be -1 because if we multiply -1 × -1, we still get 1. The two minus numbers cancel each other out. That’s why the square root of -1 is written as i. Now, here’s the odd part: Imaginary numbers are not just a conundrum; they are part of a science description of the world in which we live in: Though imaginary numbers have been integral to quantum theory since its very Read More ›

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総務省　検察庁　国家公安委員会
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post
Author
News
Date
July 17, 2022
Categorized
Medicine and Health, Philosophy, Science
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Why Many Now Reject Science… Do You Really Want To Know? Part 1

COVID demonstrated — as nothing else could — that the “science” was all over the map and didn’t help people avoid panic
News
July 17, 2022
5
Medicine and Health, Philosophy, Science

A recent science news media release is an excellent and mercifully short illustration of what’s wrong with science today. That can’t have been what the study authors were trying to do but never mind. From ScienceAlert, we learn that distrust in science is a “massive problem” and that it has four sources. Here, let’s deal with their first source: First, they say, we have grown to distrust the information source: “Pro-science messages can acknowledge that there are valid concerns on the other side, but explain why the scientific position is preferable,” says Philipp-Muller. Tessa Koumondoros, “These 4 Factors Can Explain Why So Many People Are Rejecting Science” at ScienceAlert (July 16, 2022) The paper requires a fee or subscription. What? Read More ›

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businessman and technology
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post
Author
News
Date
July 16, 2022
Categorized
Global Technology, Physics, Science Fiction
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Sci-Fi Predictions for the Future That Really Happened

The 1950s was often right too. It may depend on how badly we need something to happen
News
July 16, 2022
4
Global Technology, Physics, Science Fiction

Last week, we looked at a 1964 prediction of life in the 2020s that definitely did not happen: chimpanzees driving cars and doing housework. Back then, people who recognized that chimpanzees were intelligent seem to have known little about their natural characteristics. But in fairness, many predictions did come to pass, including the pocket-sized phone that could relay facial images, predicted in a 1956 magazine article: The journalist, Robert Beason, wrote about features such as touchtone dialing, video calling, voice recognition and small colour screens capable of being used as tiny televisions, built into compact devices. His interviewee, Harold Osborne, the retiring chief engineer of American Telephone & Telegraph also foresaw other common features of modern smartphones, such as quick Read More ›

planets-and-exoplanets-of-unexplored-galaxies-sci-fi-new-worlds-to-discover-colonization-and-exploration-of-nebulae-and-galaxies-stockpack-adobe-stock
Planets and exoplanets of unexplored galaxies. Sci-Fi. New worlds to discover. Colonization and exploration of nebulae and galaxies
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Author
News
Date
July 16, 2022
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Some Cold Giant Planets May Be Habitable, Researchers Say

Life could exist outside the expected habitable zone if a massive planet can hang onto insulating gases in its atmosphere
News
July 16, 2022
4

Rocky exoplanets with an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium gases could have liquid water on the surface, like Jupiter’s moon Europa, and could thus host life. The question is whether the surface water sticks around long on “cold super-Earths,” that are ten times the mass of our planet: Now, new calculations described in a paper published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy suggest that the surface conditions of these worlds could have been temperate for more than enough time for life—for 5 billion to 8 billion years. Earth is only about 4.5 billion years old, by comparison, and life emerged here about 3.7 billion years ago. Eva Botkin-Kowacki, “We may be underestimating how many cold, giant planets are habitable” at Read More ›

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Doctor Strange is Coming
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post
Author
Gary Varner
Date
July 16, 2022
Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction
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Do Life History or Moral Choices Matter in a Multiverse?

In this third part of my extended review of Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, I look at how characters suddenly alter with no accounting
Gary Varner
July 16, 2022
9
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction

Last week we covered the first scene of Multiverse of Madness (2022). This week, we’ll try to move a little faster. After a travesty of an opening scene, Doctor Strange wakes up from his dream about the multiverse just in time for his former girlfriend Christine’s wedding. Strange tries to be happy for her but it’s clear he’s not in a good humor. However, he doesn’t get to brood for long because a sudden attack from a random monster occurs in the city, and he flies off to save the day. During this fight, he discovers America Chavez. With some help from Wong, they manage to slay the monster and lead her to safety at a local restaurant… because, apparently, Read More ›

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Joyful little girl smelling self made croissants with mom
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post
Author
News
Date
July 15, 2022
Categorized
Human exceptionalism, Medicine and Health, Natural Intelligence
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The Nose Really Does Know, It Turns Out…

But we usually don’t notice. Our sense of smell may have declined in recent millennia but it is sharper than we think
News
July 15, 2022
5
Human exceptionalism, Medicine and Health, Natural Intelligence

Anthropologist Sarah Ives reflects on the experiences of people whose sense of smell fell victim to COVID-19: Melissa, a New York–based podcaster, realized how crucial scent is for safety when she lost her sense of smell. “I kept burning stuff on the stove,” she says. “I’ve sent rotten turkey to school with my kid. I have thought, What if I end up dying because I can’t smell something dangerous, like knowing whether you are going to burn the house down? I’ve literally almost done it three times. There are flames, and I’m just sitting in the other room.” Sarah Ives, “What the Anthropology of Smell Reveals About Humanity” at Sapiens (June 30, 2022) Anosmia, the loss of a sense of Read More ›

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One round power on and off button
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post
Author
News
Date
July 15, 2022
Categorized
Addiction, Social Media, Spirituality
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Taking Our Lives Back from Big Tech, a Step at a Time

If we don’t have the time to stop and reflect because we are too busy checking our social media…
News
July 15, 2022
13
Addiction, Social Media, Spirituality

In a recent podcast, “Weaving the Technology of Our Lives” (July 14, 2022), Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks interviewed tech and culture writer Andrew McDiarmid on the deep ways Big Tech governs our lives — ways of which we are often unaware — and concrete steps for taking control back: https://mindmatters.ai/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/07/Mind-Matters-195-Andrew-McDiarmid.mp3 Here’s a partial transcript and notes. Additional Resources follow: Robert J. Marks: We have been talking about Jacques Ellul’s concept of technique… Andrew McDiarmid: Well, Jacques Ellul was a French sociologist, theologian, and philosopher of technology … Ellul’s lifetime spanned almost the entire 20th century, 1911 to 1994. He wrote books and articles throughout his career on how he saw technology impacting the “human adventure,” as he Read More ›

chinese-fortune-cookies-cookies-with-empty-blank-inside-for-prediction-words-blue-background-stockpack-adobe-stock
Chinese fortune cookies. Cookies with empty blank inside for prediction words. Blue background.
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post
Author
Gary Smith
Date
July 15, 2022
Categorized
Probability, Sports
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We Love Baseball Because of — Not Despite — Lady Luck

With a big game approaching, emotions run high so let’s heed some statistical realities
Gary Smith
July 15, 2022
5
Probability, Sports

As we approach the MLB All-Star Game in Los Angeles on July 19, we can be confident of one thing — most current league leaders will not do as well after the break as they did before it. Baseball broadcaster and National Sportswriter of the Year Peter Gammons was among the first to notice this. He wrote in 1989 that, of those baseball players who hit more than 20 home runs before the All-Star break, 90 percent pegged fewer than 20 after the break. Gammons concluded that there was a “second-half power outage,” perhaps because the sluggers got nervous about the possibility of breaking a home run record. More recently, sports forecaster Max Kaplan made a similar observation, which he Read More ›

group-of-cute-smart-dolphins-in-the-ocean-stockpack-adobe-stock
Group of cute smart dolphins in the ocean
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post
Author
News
Date
July 14, 2022
Categorized
Biology, Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience
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Why Some Life Forms Are Smarter Than Others Is Still a Mystery

Brains are not simple so many “just common sense” theories have fallen by the wayside
News
July 14, 2022
5
Biology, Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience

As biologist John Timmer notes at Ars Technica, some life forms appear much more intelligent than others despite having brains of roughly the same size: Animals with very different brains from ours—a species of octopus and various birds—engage with tools, to give just one example. It seems intuitive that a brain needs a certain level of size and sophistication to enable intelligence. But figuring out why some species seem to have intelligence while closely related ones don’t has proven difficult—so difficult that we don’t really understand it. John Timmer, “Brain size vs. body size and the roots of intelligence” at Ars Technica (July 12, 2022) As he points out, some things we might expect to be true — puzzlingly — Read More ›

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3D Rendering of binary tunnel with led leading light. Concept for data mining, big data visualization, machine learning, data discovery technology, customer product analysis.
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post
Author
News
Date
July 14, 2022
Categorized
Computer Security, Crime, Data Privacy
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Deep Web? Dark Web? What’s Dangerous? What’s to Know?

The Deep Web hosts information like bank statements and health records so a search on your name won't turn them up
News
July 14, 2022
4
Computer Security, Crime, Data Privacy

The terms deep and dark sound glamorous and forbidding, maybe criminal. Both terms just mean that we can’t reach a site on that portion of the web via a conventional search engine. The Surface Web, the part that we can reach via a conventional search engine like Google, DuckDuckGo, or Brave, is estimated roughly to be 0.03% of the internet (Britannica). The Deep Web contains email accounts, bank statements, health records, and other services that can only be accessed by passwords. It’s the main reason that our private business can’t be accessed just by searching on our names. Both the Surface Web and the Deep Web are growing as more people go online. Now, about the Dark Web: By comparison, Read More ›

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A classy and gorgeous mestiza woman in a student uniform with bow tie. Serious pensive look in her eyes. Outdoor scene.
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post
Author
News
Date
July 14, 2022
Categorized
Neuroscience
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Neuroscientists: Our Brains May Detect Deepfakes When Minds Don’t

Using electroencephalography, researchers found that brains may be spotting something that minds miss
News
July 14, 2022
2
Neuroscience

In an interesting series of experiments using electroencephalography (EEG), University of Sydney neuroscientists found that our brains are sometimes alerted to computer-generated fakes when our minds really don’t know: When looking at participants’ brain activity, the University of Sydney researchers found deepfakes could be identified 54 percent of the time. However, when participants were asked to verbally identify the deepfakes, they could only do this 37 percent of the time. “Although the brain accuracy rate in this study is low – 54 percent – it is statistically reliable,” said senior researcher Associate Professor Thomas Carlson, from the University of Sydney’s School of Psychology. “That tells us the brain can spot the difference between deepfakes and authentic images.” University of Sydney, Read More ›

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Hacking and malware concept
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post
Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
July 13, 2022
Categorized
Computer Security, Crime, Data Privacy, Surveillance
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Largest Data Grab Ever Stole Shanghai’s Mass State Surveillance

The police, dutiful in monitoring everyone, flunked data security. Now it’s all for sale on the Dark Web
Heather Zeiger
July 13, 2022
8
Computer Security, Crime, Data Privacy, Surveillance

Beijing wants to create a centralized database with personal information on everyone living in China. To do that, the government saves massive amounts of data acquired through surveillance technologies such facial and voice recognition and cell phone monitoring. In a previous article, we saw that the Chinese government’s surveillance network is much more extensive than once thought. However, while the Chinese government has prioritized collecting massive amounts of data, it has not prioritized protecting it. Thus, a hacker has acquired police data files on 1 billion Chinese residents (approximately 23 terabytes of data) from the Shanghai National Police database. The files include name, national ID number, cell phone number, birthdate, birthplace, ethnicity, education level, marital status, and delivery records. They Read More ›

black-male-person-in-warm-denim-jacket-uses-smartphone-to-pay-for-purchase-at-self-checkout-point-in-supermarket-close-view-stockpack-adobe-stock
Black male person in warm denim jacket uses smartphone to pay for purchase at self-checkout point in supermarket close view
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post
Author
News
Date
July 13, 2022
Categorized
Business and Finance, Crime, Law
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Could the Self-Checkout Ruin Your Reputation?

As Big Retail’s war on shoplifting goes digital, honest customers risk getting nabbed for goofs — and then facing a shakedown
News
July 13, 2022
6
Business and Finance, Crime, Law

In 2018, it was noted at The Atlantic that shoplifting via self-serve checkouts was common. How does it work? Self-checkout theft has become so widespread that a whole lingo has sprung up to describe its tactics. Ringing up a T-bone ($13.99/lb) with a code for a cheap ($0.49/lb) variety of produce is “the banana trick.” If a can of Illy espresso leaves the conveyor belt without being scanned, that’s called “the pass around.” “The switcheroo” is more labor-intensive: Peel the sticker off something inexpensive and place it over the bar code of something pricey. Just make sure both items are about the same weight, to avoid triggering that pesky “unexpected item” alert in the bagging area. Rene Chun, “The Banana Read More ›

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Fresh uncut octopus on the market. Seafood counter in Sri Lanka.
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post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 13, 2022
Categorized
Ethics, Law, Natural Intelligence
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If Octopuses Are Really Smart, Should We Eat Them?

Proposals to farm octopuses are meeting with opposition on grounds of animal cruelty
Denyse O'Leary
July 13, 2022
7
Ethics, Law, Natural Intelligence

Extraordinary recent science discoveries re octopus intelligence have created an ethical dilemma: Octopus arms (tentacles) are gourmet delicacies in Korea, Japan, and the Mediterranean countries and many poor people make a living providing them. Factory farming is of octopuses is slowly becoming practical. But should we do to them what we wouldn’t do to dogs? Octopuses present something of a puzzle. As Canadian investigative journalist Erin Anderssen pointed out earlier this month, “The octopus has already challenged our theories on evolution, intelligence and consciousness.” Evolution? We have tended to assume that intelligence rose with the development of a spinal cord and brain (vertebrates), and warmbloodedness (mammals and birds). So invertebrates like octopuses were expected to be “naturally” less intelligent than, Read More ›

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Girl before a doors
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post
Author
News
Date
July 12, 2022
Categorized
Ethics, Law, Philosophy of Mind
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Michael Egnor: If Evil Exists, So Must Good — and Real Choices!

In the podcast, he explains, denial of free will doesn’t mean that there is no guilt but rather that there is no innocence
News
July 12, 2022
9
Ethics, Law, Philosophy of Mind

In a podcast aired July 8, 2022, geoscientist Casey Luskin and neurosurgeon Michael Egnor explore “Evolution and the disturbing consequences of denying free will.” One consequence they look at is pre-crime, that is, treating people who are thought likely to commit an offence as if they had already done so. A partial transcript and notes follows. The podcast is here. Casey Luskin: In the previous podcast, Dr. Egnor, you mentioned how, once somebody denies free will, they really lose the ability to condemn any action that a human takes as morally evil. Everything we did in their view is determined by the forces of nature, and really nobody ought to be at fault for having done anything. These arguments have, Read More ›

3d-render-beautiful-woman-computer-generated-photo-realistic-to-to-illustrate-the-uncanny-valley-effect-stockpack-adobe-stock
3D render beautiful woman computer generated photo realistic to to illustrate the uncanny valley effect
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post
Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
July 12, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Psychology, Robotics
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AI: The Shadow of Frankenstein Lurks in the Uncanny Valley

The fifth and final excerpt from Non-Computable You (2022), from Chapter 6, focuses on the scarier AI hype
Robert J. Marks
July 12, 2022
8
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Psychology, Robotics

Wrapping AI in an impressive physical package can magnify the perceived impact of new technology. Doing so uses seductive optics. The confusing of AI packaging with AI content was evident in media excitement about a Buddhist robot who delivers messages to the faithful. “The world’s first sutra-chanting android deity, modeled after Kannon the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy, was introduced to the public last week,” the report reads. The robot can “move its eyes, hands, and torso, make human-like gestures during its speech, and brings its hands together in prayer. A camera implanted in the left eye to focus on a subject gives the impression of eye contact.”1 Technologically speaking, nothing special is happening here. The messages from the Buddhist robot Read More ›

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Young woman having knee pain
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post
Author
News
Date
July 11, 2022
Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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Study: Brain Scans Show That Mindfulness Reduces Acute Pain

The volunteers who meditated during a controlled pain experiment reported a 32% reduction in severity
News
July 11, 2022
5
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Recently, neuroscientists at the University of California – San Diego studied whether mindfulness meditation can reduce the perception of pain. That, of course, meant actually causing the volunteers to experience pain. What’s at stake is a central claim of mindfulness meditation: “One of the central tenets of mindfulness is the principle that you are not your experiences,” said senior author Fadel Zeidan, PhD, associate professor of anesthesiology at UC San Diego School of Medicine. “You train yourself to experience thoughts and sensations without attaching your ego or sense of self to them, and we’re now finally seeing how this plays out in the brain during the experience of acute pain.” University of California – San Diego, “Mindfulness meditation reduces pain Read More ›

outpost-stockpack-adobe-stock
outpost
Type
post
Author
News
Date
July 11, 2022
Categorized
Computer Security, Global Technology, Language
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Three Simple Words Can Find Any Place on Earth

The “what3words system” of geolocation is easier to remember than many street addresses and may also work for passwords
News
July 11, 2022
5
Computer Security, Global Technology, Language

What3words is an app and web-based service that can convert practically any location within 3 × 3 meters (or 10 × 10 feet) — the size of a typical small bedroom or den — to just three short English words if you can give it an address. Don’t believe that? Try it. The address of the Library of Congress is person.hotels.canny The address of the Louvre Museum in France is started.pelting.pops And … bluffs.alas.skater? That’s the address of a Canadian Tire store somewhere in Ottawa. Clicking Bing Maps at the What3Words site will give you that store’s street address, satellite image and tell you how to get there. So why do this? Math prof Mary Lynn Reed explains: This new Read More ›

big-eye-watching-a-group-of-people-3d-rendering-stockpack-adobe-stock
Big eye watching a group of people 3D rendering
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post
Author
Gary Smith
Date
July 11, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Economics
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AI Would Run the World Better Than Humans, Google Research Claims

Don’t believe the headlines: Google’s inhouse game does not show that AI is ready to rule the world
Gary Smith
July 11, 2022
5
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Economics

Sixty years ago, conservative provocateur William F. Buckley wrote, “I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the telephone directory, than by the Harvard University faculty.” Buckley was a Yale man, but his barb was not intended to compare Harvard to Yale. He later explained: Not, heaven knows, because I hold lightly the brainpower or knowledge or generosity or even the affability of the Harvard faculty: but because I greatly fear intellectual arrogance, and that is a distinguishing characteristic of the university which refuses to accept any common premise. Now may be the time to update Buckley’s incendiary remarks: I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the telephone directory, than by a black Read More ›

terrariums-stockpack-adobe-stock.jpg
Terrariums
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post
Author
News
Date
July 10, 2022
Categorized
Philosophy, Physics, Science Fiction
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Dartmouth Physicist Slams Matrix Idea That Life Is an Aliens’ Sim

A number of prominent people have taken philosopher Nick Bostrom’s idea that our universe is a computer sim seriously
News
July 10, 2022
5
Philosophy, Physics, Science Fiction

Matrix fans, take heed: Dartmouth College physicist Marcelo Gleiser is not a fan of the idea that we are all living in a giant simulation created by intelligent aliens. He takes issue with it for ethical reasons as well as physics ones: “It is little more than a fancy excuse for escapist fantasizing.” Well, some prominent people in our world are escapists! That would include science broadcaster Neil deGrasse Tyson, driverless car entrepreneur Elon Musk, and former Astronomer Royal Martin Rees. Gleiser, author of The Island of Knowledge (2014), traces the idea that our universe is a computer simulation by advanced aliens to an influential 2003 paper by Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom, director of the Future of Humanity Institute and Read More ›