Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

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Illuminated cityscape on digital network, futuristic scene

The Last Humanist: What the Digital Age Can’t Replace

My review of Superbloom by Nicholas Carr, perhaps the last critic standing, with thoughts on some of his earlier books
Unlike the surveillance capitalism crowd, Carr doesn’t just rail against Big Tech’s designs; he interrogates our willing participation. Read More ›
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Cloud scape above carpathian mountains shot at sunset

AI Ascends — But Not Above Its Teachers

LLMs are tools, able to augment human accomplishment in extraordinary ways. But to call them intelligent in the same way we describe human minds is a mistake
The uniquely human capacity to transform knowledge into something new lives above the shoulders of giants where the creative mind takes flight. Read More ›
blueprint-of-a-futuristic-smart-city-with-interconnected-bui-1015024509-stockpack-adobestock
Blueprint of a futuristic smart city with interconnected buildings and sustainable energy systems

Why Smart Cities Are a Dumb Idea

Seattle, in its current state, feels like the ghost of a promise — an uncanny blend of technological optimism and visible collapse
Seattle’s streets pulse with data. But walk those same streets and it becomes clear: the life has drained out of the space between the data points. Read More ›
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Supernova Galaxy 8k hype realistic. spiral galaxy in space background. background of supernova nebula and stars, glowing mysterious universe. Space texture illustration. Generative ai

Physicist: “Bad Philosophy” May Spur Search for New Physics

Carlo Rovelli points out that revolutions’ in the history of fundamental physics are more conservative than they are often depicted
It may not just be bad philosophy. It may also be a determination to believe in a universe that the evidence does not support. Read More ›
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Lone figure falls through dark clouds, asteroids

Terminator: Dark Fate: Welcome to the New Future

Which turns out to be the same as the old one. Here’s Part 2 of my review
The writers seem to have run out of ideas for new Terminators. They’re recycling the concept and adding new abilities — without thinking them through. Read More ›
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Thinking Machine. Clipping path included.

Why the Human Mind Is Not and Cannot Be a Meat Computer

On this week’s podcast, Robert J. Marks and Eric Holloway explain why that claim — sometimes called computationalism — is not even mathematically possible
f minds cannot be reduced to computers, then AI will never replicate human cognition in full. Realizing this fact  will affect how we approach education, governance, and economics. Read More ›
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Assorted natural herbal and vitamin supplements carefully placed on vibrant green leaves, surrounded by wildflowers, embodying a holistic approach to health and wellness.

How Google Search Rank Disrupted the Alternative Health Industry

Part 6: Google’s bias is as real as ever, but the firm has deflected it to an impersonal policy that gives an air of objectivity
Having a Wikipedia entry gets you instant credibility even though so much of Wikipedia is substandard and politically biased. Read More ›
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Syringe with anaesthetic drug - Propofol, ready for infusion.

The Lies in New York’s Assisted Suicide Bill

New York is close to passing a bill to legalize assisted suicide. Having passed the assembly, it is currently being considered in the senate
Falsifying death certificates, for example, prevents transparency. Investigators will be unable to access the information they need to conduct independent studies. Read More ›
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American cash money and yellow paper note with text Google with question mark

Google’s Power Over Online Business: Monopolistic and Extravagant

Part 5: To help people understand Google’s power over online businesses, I ask. What if the road on which the local Walmart is located suddenly became a dirt trail?
It’s as though Google is doing everything in its power to throttle organic traffic, driving that traffic to their sponsored ads, increasing its bottom line. Read More ›
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Technology Library Student Learning Concept

Does AI Expose Colleges’ Underlying Problem?

AI could be a symptom of a deeper issue in higher education
The tragedy about AI is that those who depend on it to "think" for them won't have the work ethic, skill, or wisdom to offer value to the world. Read More ›
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A business team with raised fists celebrating a milestone, highlighting workplace enthusiasm and achievement

Group Founded by Francis Collins Starts PR Campaign for “Science”

The answer to lack of public trust in science does not lie in PR. It lies rather in addressing the attitudes and practices that lead to loss of trust
The growing crisis of confidence in science isn’t because people believe “science” is bad. It’s because they believe the current scientific elite is untrustworthy. Read More ›
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Search engine optimization, SEO, background cover, the concept of optimization to raise the position of the site, the search engine for user queries, network traffic in the search engine.

Becoming a Slave to Google: How It Happens

Part 4: After an update, you always have to second guess what Google did. You become a reverse engineer who never sees under the hood
This leads to a mentality that always tries to second guess whether Google will favor some piece of content or way of expressing it. Read More ›
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Businessman using smartphone to chatting by use chat Bot program for Artificial intelligence or AI technology concept.

Companies Spending A Lot on AI Are Not Seeing A Big Return

Target and WalMart are reversing course, cutting back on self-checkout
Perhaps it is worth keeping in mind that bots not only don’t buy things themselves but may be chasing away humans who do. Read More ›
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Multiracial team of professional medical surgeons performs the surgical operation in a modern hospital. Doctors are working to save the patient. Medicine, health and neurosurgery.

How a Split Brain Enables a Unified Mind Still Baffles Us

In the comments following Sean McDowell’s interview with neurosurgeon Michael Egnor, a viewer asked, are the parts of a split brain still really connected?
We are learning new things about the mind–brain complex every day and not everything is what we expected to find. Read More ›
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Deepfake illustration background. AI machine learning generated fake pictures. Human image and audio speech synthesis.

Dead Man “Returns” via Deepfake to Testify Against Killer

An eerie deepfake video was allowed to impersonate a manslaughter victim talking about his thoughts and feelings in the courtroom 
Bringing a deceased crime victim back to deliver a victim impact statement via deepfake video, ratchets up the reign of emotions over reason in the courtroom. Read More ›
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This includes visuals for digital marketing, social media, advertising campaigns, market research, and consumer behavior

A Potential Chink in Google’s Armor: Loss of Legal Immunity

Part 3: Currently, Google is legally protected from the consequences of frequent copyright violation
One outcome of the resulting ad clutter is that, unless you are top of the search, you’re likely wasting time trying to make money off organic search. Read More ›
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Interlocking triangles in primary colors layered with precision

Monday Micro Softy 26: Arguing with Pythagoras

Will the diagonal of a triangle with sides of 3 and 4 feet be 5 feet or, as a visiting mathematician suggests, 7 feet?
The answer to last week’s puzzle lies in remembering what happens when you put a rod on a diagonal inside a square box. Read More ›
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Bioethics And The Law

Bioethics: Just Another Social-Justice Political Movement Now?

A new survey shows how the movement has swung toward pushing woke “social justice” initiatives as its primary purpose
Respondents overwhelmingly wanted an even more monolithic approach to social justice through what could be argued as an indoctrinating approach to education. Read More ›
cosmic-eye-macro-photo-of-a-hazel-eye-in-space-stockpack-ado-378633993-stockpack-adobestock
Cosmic Eye. Macro Photo of a Hazel Eye in Space

Philosopher: There Is No Mystery of Consciousness

Galen Strawson points out at even young children a completely general conception of what consciousness is
People offer different accounts of how it comes to exist but that is a different matter. Read More ›
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Spaceship flies near the amazing blue planet earth, view from the window. Travel and tourists in space, concept. Beautiful space view of the Earth with cloud formation. Hotel in space

A Challenge to Pale Blue Dot-ology: Earth Is Significant

The “pale blue dot lost in space” view of Earth seems to brand science as an intellectual property of materialist atheism. And evidence isn’t what keeps it going
Perhaps more of us should start calling out these assumptions that arise not from observing nature but from the intellectual commitments of those who make them. Read More ›