Monthly Archive October 2025
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
Can an AI Really Develop a Mind of Its Own?
Specifically, can an AI develop a mind with its own goals and desires, capable of plans and strategies — as the authors of If Anyone Builds It believe?
NYU Law School Clinic Attempting to Obtain Copyright for a Forest
The claim is that the forest is the co-creator of a song in which nature sounds are used