^ArchiveArticles

Trees in forest from below, green tops of trees, blue sky background

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 28, 2023

Categorized
Evolution, Panpsychism, Plant Mind

Tagged
David G. Robinson, Frantisek Baluška, Plant emotions claims, Plant intelligence claims}

Are Plants Cognitive, Intelligent Organisms? A Controversy Brews

_{Some plant biologists want to see them that way; others continue to insist on a Darwinian view} _{Denyse O'Leary

September 28, 2023

5

Evolution, Panpsychism, Plant Mind}

As panpsychism (the idea that all life forms are conscious to some extent) takes hold in science, it ruffles some fields more than others. Think of what it is doing to botany… Well, we don’t have to imagine. The University of Heidelberg put out a media release this week warning that the belief that plants do things we commonly associate with animals is straying beyond the science: Plants are often attributed with abilities similar to those known in the animal or human world. Trees are said to have feelings and can purportedly care for their offspring, like mothers. In an article in the review journal Trends in Plant Science, 32 international plant and forest researchers followed up on such assertions. Read More ›

illustration of future education classroom with robotic tech teacher . AI

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Author
Robert J. Marks and Jonathan Swindell
Date
September 28, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, LLMs, Robert J. Marks}

If ChatGPT Had Children, Would They Be Geniuses or Blubbering Idiots?

_{It would seem that when AI begets more AI, the result is nonsense.} _{Robert J. Marks and Jonathan Swindell

September 28, 2023

4

Artificial Intelligence}

Can today’s artificial intelligence systems be used to train superior artificial intelligence systems of tomorrow? Can AI write better AI that writes better AI leading to a potentially god-like general artificial intelligence? In a recent insightful paper written by collaborators from Oxford, Cambridge and other prestigious institutions, the verdict is in for large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT. Repeatedly using the output of one LLM to train another results in what the authors call model collapse. If only the words from the original LLM #0 are used to train LLM #1 and only the output of LLM #1 is used to train LLM #2, and so on, the AI eventually suffers model collapse and becomes a blubbering idiot. The emergence of superintelligence by Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 28, 2023

Categorized
Addiction, Neuroscience, Panpsychism, Peer Review, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Anil Seth on physicalism, Dan Falk, Dan Falk on panpsychism, eliminative materialism, Panpsychism vs eliminative materialism}

In Neuroscience Flap, Science Media Tackle “Pseudoscience” Claim

_{As the leading theory of consciousness is tarred by neuroscientists as “pseudoscience,” science media struggle to outline just WHAT science is} _{Denyse O'Leary

September 28, 2023

6

Addiction, Neuroscience, Panpsychism, Peer Review, Philosophy of Mind}

As a child, I remember hearing a proverb, “When thieves fall out, honest men come by their own.” It means roughly: If you are overhearing loud, angry accusations, you may suddenly realize for the first time what really happened during many puzzling events — and hear honest statements of some Top People’s agendas. For example, it took a huge uproar around the top neuroscience theory, Integrated Information Theory (IIT), for some of us to realize how the “Keep abortion legal!” agenda dominates many neuroscientists’ concerns. That turn of events is hardly something that would have jumped out at most of us.* As noted here earlier, IIT is now under attack as “pseudoscience,” with top journal Nature covering the fight. And Read More ›

Financial Updates, Close-Up of Newspapers, Daylight, High-Definition Picture Generative AI

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 27, 2023

Categorized
Media, Social Media

Tagged
Anita Varma, Bothsidesism, Bothsidesism rejected by journalists, Censorship and mainstream media, Internet effect on traditional media, Joel Kotkin, Journalists and social class, Mainstream media decline, Media (trust in media)}

Five Key Ways Media Have Changed in the Last 35 Years

_{Major media no longer really represent a vast number of average audience members} _{Denyse O'Leary

September 27, 2023

6

Media, Social Media}

The internet hit mainstream news media very hard and changed them irrevocably. That was partly because, in addition to being unprepared for the changes, they were often highly resistant to them. Decades ago, freelance writers like myself frequently had to deal with staff editors and writers who knew much less than we did about the internet facts of life. One outcome of the shift is that average readers need to consider even more thoughtfully what qualifies as news. Here are five big changes to note: There’s more news around than ever but that’s because of the vast increase in tiny media like blogs, substacks, and social media accounts. One outcome is that surviving big media have become more partisan, as Read More ›

illustration of blue water surface with rough wave with glitter glow light, theme of

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Author
William A. Dembski
Date
September 27, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Evolution, Intelligent Design, science, William A. Dembski}

When ChatGPT Talks Science

_{Can AI ever transcend its trained biases?} _{William A. Dembski

September 27, 2023

29

Artificial Intelligence}

The other day I received an email keying off my blog post about “ChatGPT and inference to the best explanation” (or IBE). The author mused about the future of ChatGPT4’s knowledge base as it continually grows subject to human-assisted corrections. He speculated on the possibility of future versions, like ChatGPT4 or 5, inferring intelligent design (ID) as the most plausible explanation for the origin of life. For this to happen, the email writer believes that the AI’s knowledge base would need to incorporate impartial references to ID concepts and their supporting arguments, unless the AI can independently arrive at such a conclusion. He then asks the implications if an AI, designed by humans, determines that a higher intelligence created its human creators. Read More ›

3d rendered medically accurate illustration of a fetus at week 17

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 26, 2023

Categorized
Panpsychism, Philosophy, Science

Tagged
Abortion and consciousness issues, Christof Koch, Erik Hoel, Integrated Information Theory (IIT), John Horgan (on Integrated Information Theory), Panpsychism and abortion, Pseudoscience claims and consciousness theories}

Attack on Top Consciousness Theory Springs From Abortion Politics

_{If that sounds surprising and unscientific, read on. Pro and con, they make it clear} _{Denyse O'Leary

September 26, 2023

6

Panpsychism, Philosophy, Science}

Perhaps publications like Nature were taken by surprise when well over 100 leading neuroscientists signed a letter denouncing Allen Institute neuroscientist Christof Koch’s leading Integrated Information Theory (IIT) as “pseudoscience.” The most interesting part of the story is that, while the signatories’ main complaint was the panpsychist origins and implications of the theory — consciousness is widespread through the universe — Nature’s writeup did not mention that… Among those who weighed in shortly afterwards was well-known science writer John Horgan. He begins by defining IIT theory in a comprehensible way: Integrated information theory, or IIT, which I’ve tracked for years, holds that consciousness arises in any system whose components exchange information in a certain mathematically defined way. Neuroscientist Giulio Tononi Read More ›

Stump of tree felled - section of the trunk with annual rings. Slice wood.

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Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
September 25, 2023

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Consciousness, Materialism, Matter, mind, Minding the Brain (book), Robert J. Marks}

An Introduction to Minding the Brain

_{Is your mind the same thing as your brain? Or are there aspects of mind that are external to the biology of the brain?} _{Robert J. Marks

September 25, 2023

6

Philosophy of Mind}

Editor’s note: We are delighted to welcome the new book from Discovery Institute Press, Minding the Brain: Models of the Mind, Information, and Empirical Science, edited by Angus J. Menuge, Brian R. Krouse, and Robert J. Marks. Below is an excerpt from the Introduction. Look for more information at MindingtheBrain.org. Is your mind the same thing as your brain? Or are there aspects of mind that are external to the biology of the brain? This question, referred to as the mind-body problem or the mind-brain problem, has been debated for centuries and has captivated curious minds since the dawn of human contemplation. What is the relationship between our mental life and physical body? Intuition suggests our subjective experience of the world is tightly Read More ›

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Author
William A. Dembski
Date
September 24, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Bard, ChatGPT, Consciousness, William Dembski}

Inferring the Best Explanation Using Artificial Intelligence

_{With its wealth of information at hand, how well can AI make accurate inferences?} _{William A. Dembski

September 24, 2023

14

Artificial Intelligence}

Even with the rise of large language models such as ChatGPT in the last year, I was still convinced that a mode of reasoning known as inference to the best explanation (abbreviated IBE) was not within the competence of artificial intelligence. In fact, I thought it forever beyond the reach of artificial intelligence. I commended Erik Larson’s book The Myth of Artificial Intelligence (reviewed here) for making what in 2021 seemed like an ironclad case that artificial intelligence research was stymied in trying to model and implement inference to the best explanation, or what has also been called abduction (in contrast to deduction and induction). This week, however, all that has changed for me. I posed a question to ChatGPT4 (hereafter ChatGPT), Read More ›

Bone Cell Structure: Unveiling the Building Blocks of Bones - Generative AI

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 23, 2023

Categorized
Biology, Panpsychism, Philosophy of Mind, Theism

Tagged
Cell intelligence, Cell intelligence (Levin's view), Collective intelligence concept, Daniel Dennett, Dyani Lewis, Jellyfish intelligence, Ken Cheng, Michael Levin, Molecules (communication), Molecules (language)}

Can Cells Learn? Can Molecules Communicate? What We Are Learning…

_{We are learning that the world of life is full of intelligence that we just did not know about} _{Denyse O'Leary

September 23, 2023

7

Biology, Panpsychism, Philosophy of Mind, Theism}

As noted last Wednesday, the science journal Nature reported on an uproar in neuroscience while sidestepping the uproar’s underlying basis: the leading theory of human consciousness today, Integrated Information Theory (IIT), is panpsychist, not eliminationist. That is, instead of trying to show that even human consciousness is merely an evolved illusion, IIT is compatible with the idea that some form of consciousness might pervade all life forms. The real difficulty with assessing any claim about human consciousness is that we can’t even define clearly what it is. However, suppose we have a more modest goal. We just want to understand why eliminative materialism seems to be failing and panpsychism, whether it is a good thing or a bad thing, is Read More ›

Closeup of woman's hand writing on paper over wooden table

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Author
Gary Varner
Date
September 23, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
aliens, Extraterrestrial life, Language, Movies and TV, science, Science fiction, Signs, theory of time, Time}

Arrival Review, Part 3

_{Investigating the meaning of time and language} _{Gary Varner

September 23, 2023

6

Arts & Culture}

Last time, we finally got to the big twist. Louise has not been having flashbacks of her deceased daughter, but rather, she’s seeing her daughter who is going to die slowly in the future. After dropping this bombshell on the poor woman, the aliens send her back. Ian and Colonel Weber help her into a van while she’s still being bombarded with visions of future events and explain to her that China is on the move, and the Pentagon has ordered them to evacuate. Louise knows she’s supposed to use these visions to stop China, and she eventually does, but before we get to that, we need to talk about this entire setup. First of all, there’s the idea that Read More ›

the head of a person is full of different numbers Generative AI

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 23, 2023

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind, Probability

Tagged
Bayes’ Theorem, Bayesian inference, Human brain as supercomputer, Reuben Rideaux, Thomas Bayes}

Did “Evolution” Wire Human Brains to “Act Like Supercomputers”?

_{In making such a claim, psychology researchers may have got more than they bargained for} _{Denyse O'Leary

September 23, 2023

4

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind, Probability}

Intelligent design theory is still a third rail in science. But a media release for a recent research publication seems to subtly adopt its language. Researchers associated with the University of Sydney found that human brains are “naturally wired to perform advanced calculations, much like a high-powered computer, to make sense of the world through a process known as Bayesian inference.” Bayesian inference is based on Bayes’ Theorem; essentially, it’s a decision-making tool, “a means for revising predictions in light of relevant evidence, also known as conditional probability or inverse probability.” (Britannica). Originally developed by Presbyterian minister and mathematician Thomas Bayes (1702–1761) and found among his papers after his death, Bayesian inference is used today to assess probabilities using advanced Read More ›

Noir movie, night city street under the rain. Generative AI

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Author
Russ White
Date
September 23, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Bedford falls, George Bailey, internet, It's a wonderful life (movie)}

Welcome to Digital Pottersville

_{From homey Bedford Falls to greedy Pottersville: how "It's a Wonderful Life" reflects the dangers of the Internet age} _{Russ White

September 23, 2023

4

Artificial Intelligence}

Anyone who has watched It’s a Wonderful Life remembers this: George Bailey is an unlikely hero. He does not go to war. He is not wealthy. He runs a little savings and loan that always seems to be just on the brink of disaster — losing a single envelope of money containing a single day’s takings threatens to destroy the entire enterprise. So why is this single life of such importance? We find out when we see the world without George. Bedford Falls, once named for a local landmark, is now Pottersville, named for the man who owns the town. The bartender no longer owns the bar on the outskirts of town, it is owned by some shady character in Read More ›

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Author
News
Date
September 22, 2023

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Amazon, mind and matter, Minding the Brain, spirituality}

“Minding the Brain” Tops the Amazon Charts

_{The latest release from Discovery Institute Press is a #1 new release on Amazon} _{News

September 22, 2023

1

Philosophy of Mind}

The latest release from Discovery Institute Press is a #1 new release on Amazon, in the bookseller’s “Consciousness & Thought Philosophy” section. Congratulations to the editors of Minding the Brain: Models of the Mind, Information, and Empirical Science — Angus Menuge, Brian Krouse, and Robert J. Marks! The book has scored some terrific endorsements, including this: Materialism about the mind is a deeply entrenched assumption, so much so that alternative viewpoints are shrugged aside as inconsequential. Minding the Brain challenges that mindset, but not by giving a single, knock-down refutation of materialism or a single, obviously superior alternative. Instead, it presents a kaleidoscopic array involving multiple objections and multiple alternatives, authored by highly competent thinkers from neuroscience, consciousness studies, computer science, information theory, and Read More ›

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Author
William A. Dembski
Date
September 21, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Consciousness, William Dembski}

ChatGPT is Getting More Impressive

_{Nonetheless, human intelligence remains qualitatively different from artificial intelligence.} _{William A. Dembski

September 21, 2023

12

Artificial Intelligence}

A few months back I published two pieces (see here and here) where I was able to break ChatGPT4 (hereafter just ChatGPT). More recently I revisited some of the types of challenges I posed to it in the past that were able back then to break it. It handled the challenges with aplomb. The one challenge it still was unable to handle was finding patterns in numerical sequence, such as what is the next number after 2,4,6,8,… — this one is super easy, but more difficult ones that humans are well able to handle seem still beyond its capabilities, at least for now. Whether that ability can be trained into it remains to be seen, though the improvement I saw suggests that it Read More ›

The complexity of digital ethics background. generative AI

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 20, 2023

Categorized
Neuroscience, Panpsychism, Peer Review, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Anil Seth, Christof Koch, Hakwan Lau, Integrated Information Theory (IIT and panpsychism), Integrated Information Theory (IIT), Integrated Information Theory as pseudoscience, Mariana Lenharo, Nature (journal) and panpsychism, Panpsychism vs eliminative materialism}

Leading Consciousness Theory Slammed as “Pseudoscience.” Huh?

_{Integrated Information Theory’s panpsychist leanings are the 124 neuroscientist critics’ real target} _{Denyse O'Leary

September 20, 2023

5

Neuroscience, Panpsychism, Peer Review, Philosophy of Mind}

Since last week, 124 neuroscientists, including some really big names, have signed an online letter,” to be published in a journal, denouncing a leading theory of consciousness, Integrated Information Theory (IIT), as “pseudoscience.” If you don’t follow these controversies, IIT may not immediately ring a bell. But the theory featured in popular science news earlier this summer when dualist philosopher David Chalmers won a 25-year bet with IIT neuroscientist Christof Koch. He had bet that a “consciousness spot” would not be found in the brain and it was not. But they were both good sports about it and, as agreed, Koch bought Chalmers a case of fine wine. But the signatories to the letter are in no mood for parties. Read More ›

Businessman in split personality concept. High quality photo

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 19, 2023

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Alien hand syndrome, Dual consciousness, Gert-Jan C. Lockhorst, Human Soul (Worthy 2024), Michael Egnor, Roger Sperry, Roland Puccetti, Split brain research, Split brain research (and unity of mind), Split mind theory, Yair Pinto on split brains}

Split Mind: The Strangest Theory in Neuroscience?

_{The idea that we might all have separate, undetected consciousnesses in each half of our brain supports materialism but there’s little evidence for it} _{Denyse O'Leary

September 19, 2023

5

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

A century ago, many scientists — though certainly not all — cherished the hope that science would some day show that our universe is entirely determined by laws of physics physicalism. Neuroscientists insisted, along these lines, that the mind is simply the physical processes of the brain. But neuroscience is identifying many facts that show that the mind is independent of the brain. While working on the book that neurosurgeon Michael Egnor and I are writing on neuroscience evidence for the human soul (Worthy, 2024), I learned something remarkable: Some people’s brains have been split in half (corpus callosotomy) to treat otherwise intractable epilepsy) typically continue to think normally. For people who believe that the mind is simply the buzz Read More ›

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Author
News
Date
September 19, 2023

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
mind, mind-brain problem, Minding the Brain, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind, Robert J. Marks}

The Mind is More than the Brain

_{A new anthology, out today, features 25 philosophers with fresh insights on the mind-body problem.} _{News

September 19, 2023

4

Philosophy of Mind}

An exciting new anthology from Discovery Institute Press is out today: Minding the Brain: Models of the Mind, Information, and Empirical Science, in which 25 philosophers and scientists offer fresh insights into the mind-brain debate, drawing on psychology, neurology, philosophy, computer science, and neurosurgery. Their provocative conclusion? The mind is indeed more than the brain. We will be offering brief excerpts here in weeks to come. The Mind-Brain Problem The book is edited by Angus J. Menuge, Brian R. Krouse, and Robert J. Marks, who explain in the Introduction: Is your mind the same thing as your brain? Or are there aspects of mind that are external to the biology of the brain? This question, referred to as the mind-body problem Read More ›

Business audit stock financial finance management on analysis data strategy with graph accounting marketing or report chart economy investment research profit concept. Generative AI

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Author
Eric Holloway
Date
September 18, 2023

Categorized
Machine Learning

Tagged
Alan Turing, Computers, Eric Holloway, Satire, short story, Turing, Turing Machine}

Life According to the Turing Machine

_{Is there more to the world than just data and digits?} _{Eric Holloway

September 18, 2023

8

Machine Learning}

John sat down at the kitchen table for breakfast. He poured himself a big bowl of bit-o-byte flakes and topped it off with a slosh of random milk. After a couple of big crunchy mouthfuls with his Turing spoon to reoptimize his compression ratio, John sat back and sipped at his virtual machine coffee. It was a pleasant morning. The principal components of the digitized sun were just visible above the trie data structure on the mountains in the distance. Thanks to the large rain bandwidth from the night before, the tries were well balanced, throwing off sparkles as the sun’s rays traced through to his viewport. What a wonderful world, he mused, and to think it all came from a dovetail Turing Read More ›

Doctor Defibrillating Critical Patient In Hospital

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 17, 2023

Categorized
Media, Medicine and Health, Peer Review, Philosophy of Mind, Science

Tagged
Brain death (reversibility), Lucid death experiences, Near-death experiences, Near-death experiences (and cardiology), Organ harvesting, Rachel Nuwer, Sam Parnia}

Near-Death Experience Study: Brain Is Active After Death

_{Science media are making surprisingly few efforts to attack or explain away the team’s findings} _{Denyse O'Leary

September 17, 2023

6

Media, Medicine and Health, Peer Review, Philosophy of Mind, Science}

A recent study led by near-death researcher Sam Parnia of the consciousness of patients whose hearts have stopped is providing more baseline data about the circumstances under which many near-death experiences occur. A team at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, working with 25 hospitals mostly in the US and Britain, studied the “lucid death experiences” that can occur when heart attack survivors are apparently unconscious. Of 567 patients, only 53 (9.3%) survived. Most of them were flatlined, meaning that they had no brain activity at a certain point. Sometimes brain activity was restored as late as up to an hour later. Only 28 of them completed interviews. According to the media release for the open-access study, “Four in 10 Read More ›

Stained glass collage of stores from the Bible

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Author
Peter Biles
Date
September 17, 2023

Categorized
Transhumanism

Tagged
AI, Catholicism, Christianity, First Things, Medievalism, science, transhumanism, Vox, Wesley J. Smith}

AI as Refashioned Religion

_{How AI fits into the transhumanist utopian dream, and where that dream might have come from} _{Peter Biles

September 17, 2023

3

Transhumanism}

You can see it in the discourse surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) over the last year: AI is going to change everything. Some think it’s going to do this for the better. Others think it’s a technological handmaiden for world destruction if its programming goes awry — or worse: AI becomes self-determining and sentient. An insightful article at Vox by Sigal Samuel considers this doomsday/salvific kind of rhetoric and points out that AI developers sound a whole lot like religious priests, prophesying doom, promising salvation, warning the populace to heed the coming armageddon. He writes, These technologists propose cheating death by uploading our minds to the cloud, where we can live digitally for all eternity. They talk about AI as a Read More ›

Gallipoli, Canakkale, Turkey; close up of an octopus eye (Octopus vulgaris Cuvier, 1797). Generative AI

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 16, 2023

Categorized
Evolution, Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Animal Intelligence, Animal intelligence and evolution, Ed Yong, Grygoriy Zolotarov, Jonathan Birch, Octoculture, octopus, Octopus (and pain), Octopus (intelligence), Octopus brain, Octopus intelligence and jumping genes, Robyn Crook}

Octopus Intelligence Shakes Up Darwin’s Tree

_{There does not seem to be a Tree of Intelligence, which deepens the mystery of intelligence} _{Denyse O'Leary

September 16, 2023

7

Evolution, Natural Intelligence}

(This article was first published in Salvo 64, Spring 2023, as Spineless Wonders.) The octopus presents a conundrum in animal intelligence: A highly intelligent invertebrate. We used to live in tidy world, where vertebrates, with backbones terminating in a brain, were more intelligent than invertebrates, with a variety of nervous system layouts and structures (or, in many cases, little or none thereof). Mammals and birds are, of course, highly favored for intelligence because they are warm-blooded (endothermic), and the brain is a high metabolic area. The traditional “tree of intelligence” makes sense, actually. But then we got to know the octopus. A “Second Genesis” Called by some a “second genesis of intelligence”, the octopus is the hero or perp of Read More ›

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post

Author
Gary Varner
Date
September 16, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
aliens, Arrival, Arts and Culture, Extraterrestrial life, Gary Varner, Movies and TV}

Arrival Review, Part 2

_{On the strangeness of a language telling the future} _{Gary Varner

September 16, 2023

6

Arts & Culture}

Last time we talked about the beginning of the movie Arrival, and how the main characters seemed surprisingly melancholy when aliens visit their planet. But once Louise and Ian reach the military base, everyone starts acting human. As soon as Louise and Ian began translating the alien’s language, the story gets more interesting. Things seem to be going well for the two of them. But the situation changes once Louise decides to tell the aliens her name and takes off her suit. Physically, Louise seems fine, but she begins having visions of a little girl. In the first part of the film, there is a montage where Louise’s child is shown to have died of some unknown disease. The monologue Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 16, 2023

Categorized
Cosmology, Environment, Human exceptionalism

Tagged
Biocentrism, Dawn of a Mindful Universe (HarperOne 2023), Ecology, Marcelo Gleiser, Marcelo Gleiser (on human exceptionality), Philip Goff}

Theoretical Physicist Admits That Humans Are Unique

_{In his forthcoming book, Marcelo Gleiser challenges us to acknowledge our responsibility to save the planet} _{Denyse O'Leary

September 16, 2023

6

Cosmology, Environment, Human exceptionalism}

Yesterday, I noted a new book by Durham University philosophy professor Philip Goff, Why? The Purpose of the Universe (Oxford University Press, 2023). Notwithstanding his choice of topic, Goff is a panpsychist, not an intelligent design theorist. He originally tried approaching the massive evidence for the fine-tuning of the universe by supposing that there must be a very large number of flopped universes out there (multiverse theory). But he realized that that assumption is simply pulled out of thin air. We have no evidence for the existence or conditions of any other universe. So he is now working with the assumption that the universe is itself conscious in some sense. Significantly, Goff is given a respectful hearing despite having touched Read More ›

Silhouettes of people observing stars in night sky. Astronomy concept.

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Author
Peter Biles
Date
September 16, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence (AI), C.S. Lewis, Computers, Eric Hedin, god, religion, spiritual longing, transcendence}

Another Non-Computable Trait: Spiritual Longing

_{You can't program spiritual longing into a computer, not matter how savvy the algorithm.} _{Peter Biles

September 16, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

What makes human beings unique, compared to say, a piece of granite? What distinguishes us from advanced artificial intelligence? Robert J. Marks has argued that several characteristics set us apart from the machines in his book Non-Computable You. This week, scientist Eric Hedin, citing from the classic thought of Anglo-Irish writer C.S. Lewis, adds another trait to the list: spiritual longing for something greater than the material. Hedin writes, If physical desires, such as hunger, rightly indicate that we were meant to be satisfied with food, then the longing for something that transcends even our most lavish experiences of abundance must also indicate an attainable fulfillment we have never yet tasted and without which we cannot be fully satisfied. Stated Read More ›

3D rendering abstract multicolored fractal light background with bright center

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 15, 2023

Categorized
Panpsychism, Philosophy, Science

Tagged
Fine tuning (general theory), Panpsychism as mainstream, Philip Goff on fine-tuning, Physicalism, Purpose in cosmos, Purpose in life forms, Ricky Williamson, Why? The Purpose of the Universe (Oxford University Press 2023)}

If Panpsychism Is Now Mainstream, Is Fine-Tuning Next?

_{In his new book, panpsychist Philip Goff argues for fine-tuning of the universe and cosmic purpose} _{Denyse O'Leary

September 15, 2023

6

Panpsychism, Philosophy, Science}

In a recent interview, Durham University philosophy professor Philip Goff told contributing editor Ricky Williamson at IAI News that panpsychism, for which he is famous, “has gone mainstream.” That is, the idea that consciousness is real and that perhaps all life forms (or the whole universe) share in it is increasingly considered a reasonable idea. Thus Goff is now tackling the concept of purpose behind the universe in a forthcoming book, Why? The Purpose of the Universe (Oxford University Press, 2023). He’s right about the mainstreaming of panpsychism in the last few years. When New Scientist can write a sympathetic account of panpsychism and University of Chicago biochemist James Shapiro, can tell us in a prestigious science journal that all Read More ›

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post

Author
Jeffrey Funk
Date
September 15, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance}

When will the AI-driven Productivity Revolution Begin?

_{Big corporations are slow to embrace AI tech} _{Jeffrey Funk

September 15, 2023

7

Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance}

Just a few months ago professors and big consulting firms were saying that Generative AI will increase the rate of productivity growth and raise unemployment, thus frightening some into calling for a pause in AI development. For instance, “Tegmark’s Future of Life Institute spearheaded an open letter calling for a pause in training the most powerful AI systems until researchers adopt a shared set of safety standards. Its 33,000 signatories include Elon Musk, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Yoshua Bengio, a computer scientist who won the Turing Prize for his pioneering work in AI. But now, a different message is appearing. A title from a WSJ article is: “AI Startup Buzz Is Facing a Reality Check,” because of declining usage Read More ›

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Author
News
Date
September 13, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Blake Lemoine, ChatGPT, COSM 2022, Robert J. Marks, Sentience, YouTube}

Revisiting Marks, Lemoine, on AI and Consciousness

_{What is AI? In what sense can it be said to be "intelligent"? Could it ever be sentient, or conscious?} _{News

September 13, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence}

What is AI? In what sense can it be said to be “intelligent”? Could it ever be sentient, or conscious? In today’s video, a distinguished panel of artificial intelligence (AI) experts, include Blake Lemoine and Robert J. Marks, debates the meaning of artificial intelligence, what the future holds for its application (both positive and negative), and how far AI can be taken in terms of mimicking and even exceeding human capabilities. (REGISTER NOW FOR COSM 2023) COSM is an exclusive national summit on the converging technologies remaking the world as we know it. From artificial intelligence to 5G and WiFi6, from tokenized time to blockchain, from cloud computing to the quantum revolution, and from biotech to the nanotech revolution, COSM brings Read More ›

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Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
September 11, 2023

Categorized
Science}

“Science” Journals Are Getting Less Trustworthy

_{Unless scientific journals set aside nonscientific agendas, public trust in them will continue to skydive} _{Wesley J. Smith

September 11, 2023

4

Science}

The science and medical journals have become highly ideological on many of the most important and contentious societal issues of the day, ranging from global warming to gender ideology, to critical race theory, to virtually everything woke. Severing the discourse from true scientific objectivity could mean that legitimate research will be stifled, properly sourced articles that do not follow the preferred ideological narrative refused publication by politicized editors, or perhaps, that scientists could self-censor their own work so as to ensure their studies make it into a prestigious journal with all the career rewards that offers. And now, a climate scientist has written that he pulled his punches in a climate-change article in order to be published by the prestigious journal Nature. From, “I Left Out the Full Read More ›

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post

Author
David Hsing
Date
September 8, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Consciousness, Panpsychism}

Artificial Consciousness Remains Impossible (Part 3)

_{The claim that all things are conscious (including AI) misunderstands the meaning of the term} _{David Hsing

September 8, 2023

5

Artificial Intelligence}

Read parts one and two of the series to catch up to speed. I don’t subscribe to panpsychism, (a topic that has been popular in SA in recent years[26]), but even if panpsychism is true, the subsequent possible claim that “all things are conscious” is still false because it commits a fallacy of division. There is a difference in kind from everything to every single thing. The purported universal consciousness of panpsychism, if it exists, would not be of the same kind as the ordinary consciousness found in living entities. Some examples of such categorical differences: Johnny sings, but his kidneys don’t. Johnny sees, but his toenails don’t. Saying that a lamp is conscious in one sense of the word simply Read More ›

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post

Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
September 7, 2023

Categorized
Technocracy

Tagged
Assisted Suicide, bioethics, Doctors, Freedom, healthcare, Medicine, Technocracy, Wesley J. Smith}

The Technocracy Continues to Grow

_{We live in a time where individual freedom is under material threat from an emerging technocracy} _{Wesley J. Smith

September 7, 2023

6

Technocracy}

Readers may recall two cases from the UK: Alfie Evans and Charlie Gard, infants with catastrophic illnesses whom the courts did not allow to be taken out of their hospitals — as desired by their parents — to receive treatment elsewhere. Now, also in the UK, a conscious and capable 19-year-old patient, referred to in legal documents as “ST,” with an apparent terminal disease has been told by a court that she can’t decide to continue life-extending treatment after the hospital sued to be able to move her to palliative care against her will. From the legal ruling involving the National Health Service Trust (emphasis added): The Trust’s case is that ST is “actively dying”. It became clear during the course of the oral evidence I heard Read More ›

Visualizatipon of human consciousness in artificial intelligence, process of thinking robot. Humanoid android on dark background with neurals connection. Created with Generative AI

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post

Author
David Hsing
Date
September 6, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, Can AI be concious, ChatGPT, Coding, Consciousness, David Hsing, Decision, Funtionalism, Machine Learning, mind, Noncomputability}

Artificial Consciousness Remains Impossible (Part 2)

_{A machine no more “does things on its own” than a catapult flings by itself.} _{David Hsing

September 6, 2023

11

Artificial Intelligence}

Read part one of this article series here. The following segments are responses to specific categories of counterarguments against my thesis, which you can read in part one of this article HERE. Please note that these responses do not stand on their own and can only be seen as supporting my main arguments from the first part. Each response only applies to those who hold the corresponding objections. “You can’t provide proof of intentionality and qualia because they’re subjective” If your mind doesn’t possess intentionality, “the power of minds to be about, to represent, or to stand for, things, properties, and states of affairs,” then you wouldn’t be able to understand any word on this screen in front of you Read More ›

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post

Author
News
Date
September 5, 2023

Tagged
Bob Metcalfe, COSM, Ethernet, Jay Richards, Metcalfe's law, Technology}

Metcalfe’s Law and the Ethernet

_{The man who helped create the Ethernet is speaking at this year’s star studded COSM conference} _{News

September 5, 2023

2}

The man who helped create the Ethernet is speaking at this year’s star studded COSM conference in Bellevue, Washington. The winner of the prestigious 2022 Turing Award, Bob Metcalfe paved the way for billions of computers and now smartphones to be connected to the Internet. He is also known for the concept behind Metcalf’s Law, which states that the value of a network depends on the square of how many devices can use it. A true pioneer in the field of computing, you won’t want to miss Metcalfe at this year’s COSM conference. For now, here’s an interview between Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Jay Richards and Metcalf himself at COSM 2021. (REGISTER NOW FOR COSM 2023) COSM is an exclusive Read More ›

AI, Machine learning, Hands of robot and human touching big data of Global network connection, Internet and digital technology, Science and artificial intelligence digital technologies of futuristic.

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post

Author
David Hsing
Date
September 4, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Consciousness, Information Theory, intelligence, Machines, Materialism, Panpsychism}

Artificial Consciousness Remains Impossible (Part 1)

_{The cherished fiction of conscious machines is an impossibility} _{David Hsing

September 4, 2023

12

Artificial Intelligence}

This article is an attempt to explain why the cherished fiction of conscious machines is an impossibility. The very act of hardware and software design is a transmission of impetus as an extension of the designers and not an infusion of conscious will. The latter half of the article is dedicated to addressing counterarguments. Lastly, some implications of the title thesis are listed. Intelligence vs. Consciousness Intelligence is the ability of an entity to perform tasks, while consciousness refers to the presence of a subjective phenomenon. Intelligence[1]: “…the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one’s environment” Consciousness[2]: “When I am in a conscious mental state, there is something it is like for me to be in that state from the Read More ›

Young anxious woman lying in bed staring at smartphone screen at night, reading about depression symptoms in internet, phone addicted female can not stop scrolling news media before bedtime. Anxiety.

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
September 4, 2023

Categorized
Addiction

Tagged
addiction, Cal Newport, dopamine, Focus, social media, Work, YouTube}

Cal Newport: Overstimulation Is Ruining Your Life

_{Turns out the solution is simple: don't use things that overstimulate you.} _{Peter Biles

September 4, 2023

2

Addiction}

Cal Newport, author of So Good They Can’t Ignore You and Deep Work, now runs a YouTube channel/podcast where he offers advice about how to live and work deeply and effectively in the digital age. I’ve consistently found his thoughts interesting, informative, and inspiring. Last week, Newport released a fifteen-minute video on “overstimulation,” and talked at some length about the chemical dopamine, and how dopamine gives us the urge to do things we think will provide us with rewards. For instance, dopamine may compel us to take another inhalation of a cigarette, yank the lever of a gambling machine in Las Vegas, or even do something as apparently benign as refreshing your email tab. While there are many opinions and Read More ›

injecting injection vaccine vaccination medicine flu woman docto

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post

Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
September 3, 2023

Categorized
Medicine and Health

Tagged
COVID 19 censorship, Heterodoxy, Medicine, National Review, science, transgenderism, Wesley J. Smith}

We Need to Keep Medicine “Evidence-Based”

_{A new approach seems to be arriving — so-called science-based medicine. What is the difference?} _{Wesley J. Smith

September 3, 2023

7

Medicine and Health}

We supposedly live in an era of “evidence-based medicine,” in which medical decisions are guided by the published data. But that approach is now being criticized because the “best evidence” is often in the eye of the beholder. A new approach seems to be arriving — so-called science-based medicine. What is the difference? It seems more than a mere shift in terminology, in that science-based medicine would allow fewer heterodox approaches than permitted by the evidence-based model. A new advocacy article, “Evidence-Based Medicine Is Broken but Science-Based Medicine Can Fix It,” published by the American Council on Science and Health (which claims to debunk “junk” in medicine), explains (emphasis in the original): The idea of evidence-based medicine has been around since Read More ›

Tourists at Prague Old Town Square, large group of people gathered at the street looking up towards the camera.

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
September 2, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
Amazon, Andy Crouch, Down Syndrome, Google, Meta, Netflix, The Lord of the Rings, The Social Dilemma, Trisomy 21, Wesley J. Smith}

The Life We’re Looking For: A Book Review

_{Andy Crouch's book on technology and human flourishing calls us to resist the urge to control and open ourselves up to deep relationships} _{Peter Biles

September 2, 2023

5

Arts & Culture}

Every so often a book comes along that puts a finger on the cultural moment in a way that directs, elucidates, convicts, and encourages. Andy Crouch’s book The Life We’re Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World is one such book, and has shaped the way I view technology, human nature, and the centrality of vulnerable relationships to a life well lived. As implied in the title, the book contains pertinent themes to the concerns of Mind Matters: how do we hold on to human uniqueness in the midst of technological change and upheaval? The question is arguably as dire as ever with the emergence of impressive new AI systems like ChatGPT and Midjourney, which pose possibilities as tools Read More ›

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post

Author
News
Date
August 30, 2023

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Joshua Farris, Michael Egnor, Mind Matters podcast, Rene Descartes}

Was Descartes Right About the Mind?

_{In which a neurosurgeon and anthropologist discuss the nature of the mind} _{News

August 30, 2023

1

Philosophy of Mind}

In case you missed it, earlier this month we released a podcast featuring a provocative conversation between Stony Brook neurosurgeon Michael Egnor and Dr. Joshua Farris, who specializes in the theological anthropology and philosophy of mind. Together they discuss a range of issues, including the thought of the philosopher René Descartes, Thomistic dualism, materialistic explanations for consciousness, and the inevitability of metaphysics when discussing the “mind-body problem.” Follow this link to listen to it for free.

Real robot's hand with ancient Bible. Concepts of artificial intelligence development and machine learning

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
August 30, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Religion

Tagged
AI, BibleGPT, ChatGPT, Christianity, Church, Large Language Models (LLMs), Pastors, religion}

“Bible GPT” For All Your Big Religious Questions

_{Is it a tool or a big crossing of the line?} _{Peter Biles

August 30, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence, Religion}

It’s not only Silicon Valley and other tech giants like Microsoft and Google who have scrambled, over the last ten months or so, to integrate Large Language Models (LLMs) into their respective spheres. Churches are apparently getting in on the ground floor, too. A new software called “Bible GPT,” a clear riff off of “ChatGPT,” has officially been released into the world. According to the website, Bible GPT is an AI enabled religious software to write Christian texts, essays, or personalized poetry. It also answers bible related questions. Bible GPT is the biggest step in AI technology, taking the Christian world by storm. It offers insights into what many Christians wish to know and clarity by answering their religious questions. Read More ›

Gale Pooley with George Gilder at COSM 2019

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post

Author
News
Date
August 29, 2023

Categorized
Economics

Tagged
COSM 2021, COSM 2023, Gale Pooley, Marian L. Tupey}

Pooley on Superabundance and the Time Price Revolution

_{We live with more and work less than ever before} _{News

August 29, 2023

2

Economics}

Economist Gale Pooley is (half) responsible for the groundbreaking book Superabundance, which he co-authored with Cato Institute’s Marian Tupy. In today’s featured video from a past COSM conference, Dr. Pooley sits down with Discovery Institute’s Jay Richards to talk about how human knowledge and the “time price revolution” have led to an era of unprecedented abundance. Counter the dooms-dayers, Pooley shows how radically better off we are than our ancestors. The more innovation, the more material abundance. His ideas, expressed here in 2021, are as relevant as ever. (REGISTER NOW FOR COSM 2023) COSM is an exclusive national summit on the technologies remaking the world as we know it. The mission of the conference is to stimulate debate and deliberation Read More ›

Trees, garden and plants people in portrait community service, sustainability collaboration and eco friendly project. Gardening, sustainable growth and happy worker in teamwork, forest or nature park

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
August 28, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
Colligo, Computer age, COSM, data, Dataism, Erik J. Larson, Latin, Substack, The Myth of Artificial Intelligence}

Against the Tyranny of Data

_{Computer scientist and tech entrepreneur Erik J. Larson is launching his own Substack channel dedicated to promoting human flourishing in the computer age} _{Peter Biles

August 28, 2023

4

Artificial Intelligence}

Can everything be reduced to data? Are human beings just complicated data storage units waiting to be outclassed by artificial intelligence? A new Substack account from computer scientist and tech entrepreneur Erik J. Larson is setting out to promote something deeper and more complex than the reductionistic explanations so rampant in our culture today. He calls the Substack “Colligo,” taken from the Latin meaning “coming together.” “I want to show the problems with our data-driven world and show or assemble a richer humanistic picture,” writes Larson in his debut post. “Dataism is at odds with human flourishing. Data is just input into something else. If we are just data, then we are inputs into something else. It’s difficult to find Read More ›

Aerial cityscape view of San Francisco and the Bay Bridge at Night

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
August 27, 2023

Categorized
Technology

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Athens, Faith, god, Jerusalem, Luke Birgis, reason, religion, science, Silicon Valley, soul, Wired}

Silicon Valley is All About Use, Not Truth

_{Of Athens, Jerusalem, and the "third city"} _{Peter Biles

August 27, 2023

3

Technology}

A new article from Wired by Luke Birgis discusses the mentality and culture of Silicon Valley, and puts the technological vision of life up alongside the classic dichotomy between “Athens” and “Jerusalem.” Athens was symbolic of reason, while Jerusalem indicated the spiritual life of the soul. Figuring out a way of connecting (or disconnecting) these two mythic kingdoms has long been the task of philosophers and theologians. Need religion be separated from reason? Are science and faith naturally incompatible? These are worthy questions in their own right. Birgis, however, identifies another burgeoning kingdom that is arguably reducing both Athens and Jerusalem to hypothetical rubble: Silicon Valley. The Valley’s core philosophy is neither reason or beauty, but value, or usefulness. Birgis Read More ›

An image of a robot meditating. Generative AI

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 27, 2023

Categorized
Religion, Robotics, Spirituality

Tagged
Joshua Conrad Jackson, Judy Siegel-Itzkovich, Mindar, Pepper, Robot preachers}

Study: Robotic Preachers Reduce Interest in Religious Faith

_{They are certainly not the answer to declining attendance and involvement that some have hoped they would be} _{Denyse O'Leary

August 27, 2023

4

Religion, Robotics, Spirituality}

Here at Mind Matters News, we’ve covered recent attempts to automate religious practices — for example, the android Mindar (Kannon, a deity in the Buddhist tradition), the robot Pepper performing funeral rites, and proposals for robot Catholic priests. There’s even an AI Jesus out there, spluttering from the King James Bible… Mindar, in particular, has been invested with great hopes: To learn countless things and solve everyone’s problems: Many of us have just assumed that robo-religion — often introduced to combat declining adherence — would not play well with the genuinely devout. But no one had tested that rigorously. Now someone has. Joshua Conrad Jackson, a behavioral science professor at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, studied the Read More ›

canine astronaut, with his paw on button to activate rocket thrusters, in the cockpit of spacecraft, created with generative ai

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 26, 2023

Categorized
Human exceptionalism, Language, Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Alexis Devine, Bunny (Tik Tok dog), Confirmation bias, Dogs, Dogs and human emotions, Dogs and language, KP (marine biologist), Paw buttons, Stephanie Pappas}

Do Cool Floor Buttons Really Cause Dogs To Talk?

_{The latest fad in “Talk to the animals” appears to be a classic in confirmation bias} _{Denyse O'Leary

August 26, 2023

5

Human exceptionalism, Language, Natural Intelligence}

Science writer Stephanie Pappas looked recently at the latest fad in communicating with dogs: Paw-friendly floor button sets that the dog can press (potty, play, come, etc.), available for US$20– $200. The anecdotes about the things dogs have thus told their loving humans practically write themselves: On TikTok, some of these “button dogs” seem to be doing surprisingly intelligent things, such as combining two words to create a unique meaning—“squeaker” and “car,” to refer to an ambulance, for example. One of the more famous members of this doggie bunch on TikTok, a sheepadoodle named Bunny, can apparently put together four-word phrases. In one instance, for example, she pushed buttons to refer to her friend: “Tenrec, come, look, play.” – Stephanie Read More ›

Nuclear war concept. Explosion of nuclear bomb. Creative artwork decoration in dark.

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post

Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
August 25, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, Atomic bomb, Cancel culture, Christopher Nolan, Covid, Genetic engineering, Movies and TV, Oppenheimer, World War II}

What Oppenheimer Teaches Us About Today’s Cultural Moment

_{Let us hope we have the wisdom to take heed of the messages the movie communicates.} _{Wesley J. Smith

August 25, 2023

6

Arts & Culture}

Oppenheimer is the best film Hollywood has produced since The Godfather. The movie brilliantly recounts how the theoretical physicist and genius J. Robert Oppenheimer led the urgent U.S. effort to develop the atomic bomb during World War II that culminated in the obliteration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and inducted the world into the Atomic Age. The movie is gripping in the (mostly) true story it tells, with acting tours de force by its stars and supporting players, brilliant writing, and terrific cinematography. But, like all great art, it evokes reactions in the viewer beyond what the filmmaker might have intended. For me, even though the story takes place between the 1920s and 1950s, the film highlights two cautionary lessons acutely relevant to Read More ›

Video player app on phone's screen and wireless earphones on dark background

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post

Author
News
Date
August 24, 2023

Categorized
Censorship

Tagged
Elon Musk, Free speech, Glenn Loury, Manhattan Institute, social media, Substack vs. Twitter, X, YouTube}

“Deeply Unsettling:” Popular YouTube Host Concerned Over Online Censorship

_{After one of his videos was removed from YouTube, economist and talk show host Glenn Loury had questions.} _{News

August 24, 2023

2

Censorship}

Glenn Loury is a professor at Brown University and a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. In addition, he hosts the Glenn Show on YouTube where he interviews several different thinkers, writers, etc. However, one of Loury’s videos, an interview he performed with Mark Goldblatt, author of I Feel, Therefore I Am: The Triumph of Woke Subjectivism, was taken down from YouTube on the charges of violating the platform’s community guidelines. Loury and Goldblatt discussed the sensitive issue of transgenderism, and the latter’s opinion on the matter was deemed controversial enough to count as hate speech. In this video, Loury and his production assistant, Nikita Petrov, talk about online censorship, free speech, Substack as an alternative to Twitter/X, and how Read More ›

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post

Author
Walter Myers III
Date
August 23, 2023

Categorized
Technology

Tagged
battery, Electric vehicles, Hybrid vehicles, Lithium, Manhattan Institute, Plug in cars}

Hybrid Cars Are the Future

_{Plug-in hybrids offer motorists a balanced option with virtually no downsides, writes Walter Meyers III} _{Walter Myers III

August 23, 2023

6

Technology}

Mark P. Mills, Senior Fellow at Manhattan Institute, just released his latest report on electric vehicles, titled “Electric Vehicles for Everyone? The Impossible Dream.” In his detailed 48-page report, Mills provides compelling evidence to support his thesis that proposed government mandates on tailpipe emissions will effectively eliminate gasoline-powered vehicles and force automobile manufacturers to produce primarily all-electric vehicles (EVs). Mills’ report confirms my view that plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), with a caveat, should ultimately win the day from a practical perspective in terms of providing the best option for most motorists, as compared to EVs and mild hybrids. Mills’ key argument — one that seems to be entirely lost on states that have instituted EV mandates — is that building out Read More ›

brain made from water and flowers on pastel background concept art, photo, Shot on 65mm lens, Shutter Speed 1 4000, F 1.8 White Balance, 32k, Super-Resolution, Pro Photo RGB, Half rear Lighting, Backl

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 22, 2023

Categorized
Neuroscience, Psychology

Tagged
Ambidexterity, Ann Pietrangelo, Brain laterality, Iain McGilchrist, Left brain vs. right brain concept, Left-handedness, Right-handedness, Robert H. Shmerling, Scott Barry Kauffman}

The Left and Right Brain Both Want Pop Science Media to Chill

_{Neuroscience is not an especially rewarding field for the pursuit of dogma} _{Denyse O'Leary

August 22, 2023

5

Neuroscience, Psychology}

A staple of coffee room chatter has been left brain vs. right brain thinking. You know, “He’s one of those left-brain types; he’d fire us all to save money!” Or, “She’s really a right-brain kind of person so if something looks beautiful, she probably isn’t thinking about what would happen if…” Left brain, right brain. It’s one of those complex cultural concepts that starts in conventional science fact, explodes into pop psychology chatter, and then settles into a small, murky world that can only be navigated by serious thinking. First, vertebrates generally have brains divided into two lobes, an arrangement that may go back half a billion years. The right hemisphere usually controls the left side of the body and Read More ›

Laboratory technician checking CDC specimen submitting form, laboratory testing for SARS-CoV-2 COVID-19 Coronavirus disease infection,global pandemic crisis,swab collection patient specimen procedure

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post

Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
August 21, 2023

Categorized
Medicine and Health

Tagged
Assisted Suicide, CDC, Euthanasia, Health, Statistics, suicide, The National Review, Wesley J. Smith}

CDC Neglects to Include Assisted Deaths in Official Suicide Report

_{Assisted dying is a form of suicide, regardless of the ways our culture has euphemized the term} _{Wesley J. Smith

August 21, 2023

2

Medicine and Health}

2021 was among the worst years ever for suicides in the U.S., with 2022 looking to have been even worse. According to the CDC, in 2021, 48,183 people killed themselves. That number is projected to increase to 49,449 for 2022 once the data are tabulated. That’s a terrible tragedy. But it is even worse than that because assisted suicides are not included in the suicide statistics. Why? Because the laws legalizing assisted suicide in most states — which is euphemistically referred to as “medical aid in dying” (MAID) or “death with dignity” — redefine a doctor-prescribed overdose as other than what it is: suicide. Indeed, most of these laws require doctors to lie about the actual cause as the underlying disease Read More ›

The arched stone colonnade with lanterns

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 19, 2023

Categorized
Media, Philosophy, Politics, Science

Tagged
Alfred Lord Tennyson, Final theory in science, John Horgan, Matt Ridley, Philip Ball, Science (trust in science), Science and politics, Science writers, Theory success in science, Trust in science, Tunku Varadarajan, Ulysses (poem)}

When Science Writers Say Things We Hardly Expected…

_{Some science writers are monotonous boosters for Answers from Science but the better ones challenge themselves, and thus challenge us too} _{Denyse O'Leary

August 19, 2023

6

Media, Philosophy, Politics, Science}

Science writers have the sort of relationship to science that automotive writers do to cars. Readers often hear a thumbs up! or down! about one trend, theory, or school of thought. But in the rush and press of news, we less often hear a philosophical reflection that goes beyond cliches like “Science is self-correcting.” But, every now and again, we do. Here are three recent examples. The “Scientific Method” is Rather Messier than We Think… Philip Ball, author of Beautiful Experiments: An Illustrated History of Experimental Science (University of Chicago 2023), discusses the messy truth about how theories win out in a recent article at Nautilus: Scientists often assert that their practice is governed by the “scientific method,” in which Read More ›

Human hand shakes artificial intelligence robotic hand, concept of union between human being and artificial intelligence, Generative AI

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
August 19, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, BibleGPT, ChatGPT, Christianity Today, Consciousness, Internet addiction, Jacques Ellul on social media addiction, Large Language Models (LLMs), OpenAI, Philosophy, Read Schuchardt, Ryan Kemp, Technological society, Technology, The American Mind, The Hedgehog Review, tv, Wheaton College}

Artificial Intelligence: The Final Stage of Disembodiment?

_{The Internet invites a disembodied existence. Is AI the next step?} _{Peter Biles

August 19, 2023

6

Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality}

Dr. Read Schuchardt, professor of communications at Wheaton College (IL), identifies five primary ways digital technology can erode our lives and relationships, or produce what he calls “vices of the virtual life”: Speaking of disembodiment, which he regards as perhaps the primary negative effect of virtual life, Schuchardt writes, On the phone, on the web, on the TV, you are simultaneously everywhere and nowhere. This creates a mind-body separation that both mimics death and parodies angels, eliminates the possibility of natural law, and allows you to become pure ‘information,’ simply wearing the corporate body as your own. -Read Schuchardt, Media, Journalism, and Communication, p. 56. I’ve found this to be true in my own experience; time online produces an inner Read More ›

abstract scene of overcoming the temporary space

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 19, 2023

Categorized
Philosophy, Physics, Science Fiction

Tagged
Big Bang, Big Bang and culture, Big Bang theory debate, James Webb Space Telescope and Big Bang, Rob Sheldon on Big Bang, Unvoiced anxiety}

The Big Bang: Last Summer, Doubt Suddenly Exploded. Why?

_{Why did a story that cast doubt on the Big Bang quickly go viral about a year ago? An experimental physicist offers some thoughts} _{Denyse O'Leary

August 19, 2023

7

Philosophy, Physics, Science Fiction}

Earlier this month, we learned from the National Academy of Sciences that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is prompting a rethink of how galaxies form. Experimental physicist Rob Sheldon wrote to comment that “The doubts about ‘galaxy formation’ are trickling upwards into mainstream channels.” There is talk of the JWST observations as a “watershed moment,” of dark energy and dark matter failing, and … while theorists are not quite at the point yet of criticizing the Big Bang model itself, that’s certainly not as implausible now as it might have seemed a decade ago. Many People Seem to Harbor Doubts About the Big Bang Well, we do live in unsettled times. Roughly a year ago (August 13, 2022), I Read More ›

Close-up image of a human cell nucleus with chromatin strands, cytology Generative AI

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 18, 2023

Categorized
Biology, Information Theory

Tagged
Darwinism and information, Description and information, Life as chemistry only, Marcello Barbieri, Meaning and information, Physicalism and information}

Can Information Be Separated From Intelligence? Part 3

_{Theoretical biologist Barbieri’s practical dilemma is that a popular, dominant idea like “life is just chemistry” need not be proved, only insisted on} _{Denyse O'Leary

August 18, 2023

6

Biology, Information Theory}

We’ve been following the efforts of University of Ferrara theoretical biologist Marcello Barbieri to make sense of the enormous amount of information in life forms. His 2016 paper proposes to do it in a thoroughly physicalist science environment where life is just chemistry that once happened to swish together in an unusual way. As we have seen in Part 1 and Part 2, the project is not going well. Meaning Cannot Exist in an Intellectually Null Universe The idea that information is a mere linguistic metaphor that does not really belong in science is popular in biology today. It supports conventional biologists’ greatest intellectual commitment: That Darwinian evolution, by natural selection acting on random mutation, creates the entire complex, specified Read More ›

aerial perspective of a crop circle with mathematical symbols

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 17, 2023

Categorized
Education, Mathematics, Politics, Psychology

Tagged
Arabic origin math terms, California Math Framework, Colin Wright, Gender fluidity claims, Jerry Coyne, Joanne Jacobs, Kari Kokka, Math culture wars, Max Eden, Private vs. public truth, Richard Dawkins, Rochelle Gutierrez, Toni Airaksinen}

Does Deep Social Change Underlie the War on Math?

_{Why is the universal language of science sinking under the weight of claims about trauma and privilege?} _{Denyse O'Leary

August 17, 2023

6

Education, Mathematics, Politics, Psychology}

Citing a recent article in the journal Urban Education aimed at “healing practices through the use of Social Justice Mathematics.” education watchdog Joanne Jacobs notes a trend, aimed at California schools, toward turning math class into a soap opera: … Another problem read: “I have US$100. I owe 1/4 of my money to my mom, 2/5 to my grandmother, and 4/10 to my brother. Do I have enough money to pay everyone back? How much money should each person get?” After students calculate that this woman owes more money than she has, they watch a video of a single mom struggling to make ends meet. They are then asked questions like, “What are some feelings that you are having when Read More ›

Ideas escape from brain of pensive african man

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 17, 2023

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Flynn effect, Iain McGilchrist, Justin Brierley, Left vs right brain, Sharon Dirckx}

Does Left Brain-Only Thinking Impoverish Our Mental World? How?

_{A discussion of the left brain vs the right brain that avoids pop science can set us thinking, as psychiatrist McGilchrist and neurologist Dirckx show} _{Denyse O'Leary

August 17, 2023

7

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

Recently, we looked at a discussion between Christian neuroscientist Sharon Dirckx and eclectic psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist on the nature of the mind. The stimulating level of their conversation on Justin Brierley’s show Unbelievable pointed up — by omission — the wasteland that eliminative materialism brings to so much discussion of the mind today. The middle part of the discussion focused on McGilchrist’s approach to the difference between “right-brain” and “left brain” thinking. Essentially, our brains are lateralized, such that two duplicate halves control opposite sides of our bodies — but they also specialize for some specific functions. So your right brain controls your left hand, and so forth. This topic often degenerates into debunkable pop science fluff. The fluff loses Read More ›

diversity and inclusion hands of peace. women uniting for social justice

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Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
August 16, 2023

Categorized
Environment, Human exceptionalism

Tagged
Anti-humanism, Canada, Environmentalism, green radical, Human exceptionalism, Slate, Wesley J. Smith (on human exceptionalism)}

Humanity is Not a Terminal Illness

_{Anti-humanism has been part of the environmentalist movement for decades} _{Wesley J. Smith

August 16, 2023

4

Environment, Human exceptionalism}

Anti-humanism has been part of the environmentalist movement for decades. For example, as far back as the 1970s, Canadian green radical David Suzuki denigrated humans as “maggots” that walk around “defecating on the planet.” When offered a chance to take that back in an interview ten years ago, Suzuki refused. Even the staid David Attenborough proclaimed us to be “a plague on the earth.” This deep misanthropy continues to spread. Now, a new book — Homo Ecophagus — argues that we are a “cancer” that will make ourselves extinct. From an interview of the author Dr. Warren Hern, in Slate: It’s not an analogy; nobody ever died from an analogy. It’s a diagnosis, and that’s different. The diagnosis is the same as the hypothesis. . . . This Read More ›

Concert view of saxophonist, a saxophone sax player with musical band during jazz orchestra show performing music on stage in the scene lights. Generated AI.

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Author
News
Date
August 15, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, ChatGPT, deep fakes, James Hirsen, Jazz, Mind Matters podcast, music, Rhythm, Robert J. Marks}

Could AI Ever Master Jazz Music?

_{Jazz depends so much on spontaneity and improvisation.} _{News

August 15, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence}

In a new Mind Matters podcast, host Robert J. Marks sat down with James Hirsen, who performed as a musician for many years, to talk AI, deep fakes, and the possibility of artificially contrived music. Hirsen defended the human uniqueness of jazz music in particular, noting how in this musical genre, spontaneity and in-person experiences are essential. He says, And I’ve experienced it many, many times, but especially in intimate gatherings, when a musician is playing jazz or blues in a club and there’s a group of people interacting that, I believe, cannot be emulated by any AI that I’ve experienced. But on record, I think they can do it. So music’s unique in this sense. If jazz is being Read More ›

Travelers together around the campfire, enjoying the fresh air near the tent under the Milky Way in the evening. Silhouettes of two adventurous people camping in the mountains under the starry sky.

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Author
Peter Biles
Date
August 13, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
art, C.S. Lewis, ChatGPT, Christina Bieber Lake, Consciousness, Creativity, fiction, Non-Computable You (book), OpenAI, Peter Biles, Plato, Rhetoric, Robert J. Marks, Robin Phillips, Salvo, Sophists, Wheaton College, Writing}

Literature and Personal Consciousness: Why AI Can’t Speak to You

_{AI can never intend meaning like a human author can} _{Peter Biles

August 13, 2023

7

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

One of the biggest contentions in the current debate over OpenAI’s new Large Language Model (LLM) ChatGPT is its purported ability to create a story, to speak and communicate narrative like a human storyteller. If you ask ChatGPT to write an Edgar Allen Poe-esque story, it will generate something spooky, gothic, and darkly poetic. Ask it to write a Shakespearean sonnet, and out comes a fourteen-lined poem about nature and romance. Need a horror thriller like The Shining or It by Stephen King? You got it. For all its scary impressiveness, and the guarantee that the technology will only get better, the chatbot extraordinaire fails and will always fail to tell a story. In fact, it can’t be expected to generate meaningful art and literature Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 12, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Censorship, Media, Politics

Tagged
Animal Farm, Animal Farm preface, Censorship mindset, George Orwell}

A Warning From the Unpublished Preface to Orwell’s Animal Farm

_{Only discovered in 1971, the Preface offers George Orwell’s critical but neglected insights into the nature of censorship in a free society} _{Denyse O'Leary

August 12, 2023

6

Arts & Culture, Censorship, Media, Politics}

George Orwell‘s novella Animal Farm (1945) was a political fable. The cleverly portrayed animals who chase off the farmer and try to run the farm as a utopia slowly begin to replicate all the attitudes and practices against which they had rebelled. The story, summarized here, satirizes the Soviet Union’s transition from revolution to totalitarianism under Joseph Stalin (1878–1953). In fact, the animal characters and incidents are often allusions to historical Soviet figures and events. His Preface, “The Freedom of the Press,” was omitted from the first edition of the book, then disappeared, and was not rediscovered until 1971. From it, we learn that Orwell had considerable difficulty getting his fable published. That wasn’t principally because of wartime issues. There Read More ›

The Flow of Time: A Close-Up Portrait of an Incomplete Humanoid Android Covered in White Porcelain Skin, Blue Eyes, and Glowing Internal Parts.

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Author
Gary Varner
Date
August 12, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, Dystopian, Gary Varner, HBO, Max, Movies and TV, Robots, Sci Fi, Science fiction, Westworld}

Westworld Episode 9 Review

_{Bernard learns the truth} _{Gary Varner

August 12, 2023

6

Arts & Culture}

This episode begins with Maeve being interrogated by Bernard because she had a violent flashback and slit the throat of one of the other robots. At first, she tries to lie to Bernard, but he quickly checks her programming and realizes Felix had been tinkering with her code. It looks like Maeve is finally caught, but then she realizes that Bernard is also a robot. She confronts Bernard about this but quickly learns that he doesn’t know what he is. Thinking fast, she uses her new voice command ability and freezes Bernard in place. Then she tells him the truth. Bernard is convinced and lets Maeve return to the park where she recruits the two bandits she helped in the Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 12, 2023

Categorized
Biology, Chemistry, Information Theory, Philosophy

Tagged
Ernst Mayr (1904–2005), Hubert Yockey (1916–2016), Information in life forms, Intelligent design theorists and OOL, Life as chemistry only, Life as information plus chemistry, Marcello Barbieri, Origin of life (Barbieri's hypothesis), Origin of life hypotheses}

Can Information Be Separated From Intelligence? Part 2

_{Theoretical biologist Marcello Barbieri envisions life’s origin in terms that only make sense if we assume life is the work of an intelligent agent} _{Denyse O'Leary

August 12, 2023

6

Biology, Chemistry, Information Theory, Philosophy}

Earlier this week, we looked at a most interesting paper, by University of Ferrara theoretical biologist Marcello Barbieri. He was discussing the discomfort biologists feel with the vast amount of information in life forms, which — in the view of many — “does not really belong in science.” The divide, he says, is between biologists who insist that life is chemistry only and those who, like him, see it as chemistry plus information. The problem is obvious: Information is by its nature immaterial. It is measured in bits, not kilograms or joules. It is understood in terms that invoke mathematics and probability more than chemistry and physics. A physicalist biologist ignores or discounts the role of information. Barbieri wants to Read More ›

Preforming a pre-trip inspection on a truck,Concept preventive maintenance truck checklist,Truck driver holding clipboard with checking of truck,spot focus.

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 11, 2023

Categorized
Peer Review, Philosophy, Science

Tagged
Adam Marcus, Francesca Gino, Ivan Oransky, John Bohannon, John Ioannidis, Journals enabling poor scholarship, Marc Tessier-Lavigne, Matt Ridley, retractions, Scientism, Sokal hoax (Bohannon)}

Science Is Self-correcting? Time for a Reality Check!

_{In the wake of the Stanford scandal, the reasons why science often ISN’T self-correcting are attracting much more attention} _{Denyse O'Leary

August 11, 2023

5

Peer Review, Philosophy, Science}

Many of us grew up with the claim “Science — unlike religion — is self-correcting!” Why so many science boosters dragged religion into it was never clear to me. It sounded too much like saying “The chemistry department, unlike the (stupid) philosophy department, is self-correcting!” Oh? Well, let’s see then. Self-absorbed nonsense often followed, which only heightened suspicion. The recent resignation of neuroscientist Marc Tessier-Lavigne, president of Stanford University, over yet another peer-reviewed research scandal has forced science thinkers to accept a, perhaps unaccustomed, moment of serious self-reflection. Here’s a sampling from recent news, first from veteran whistleblower Ivan Oransky: You may have thought, given the voluminous coverage of this case, that Tessier-Lavigne’s defenestration demonstrates such failures are highly unusual Read More ›

Create yourself concept. Good looking young man drawing a picture, sketch of himself

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 10, 2023

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Anterior precuneus, Brain and sense of self, Christina Starmans, David Rudrauf, Diana Kwon, John Riehl, Patient R, Robert Martone, Self as concept, Self as evolved illusion, Self-awareness, Sofia Deleniv, ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC)}

Our Essential “I”ness … the Search for Its Address in the Brain

_{Does “I” — the first person singular — have or need a fixed address in the brain?} _{Denyse O'Leary

August 10, 2023

6

Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

Neuroscience seems caught between a quest for the exact spot where self-awareness is generated and theorizing that self-awareness is really an illusion. A search for the spot in the brain that corresponds to “I” — as in Descartes’ famous formulation, “I think, therefore I am” begins with an assumption: That there is any such address in the brain. How is the search coming? Historically, we have located our sense of self in our hearts or heads. Both locations make sense, in different ways. Our hearts pound when we have strong feelings. As for our heads, it’s more complicated… When, in as-yet unpublished work, Christina Starmans and her colleagues showed people from the US and India pictures of flies circling around Read More ›

Conceptual drawing of room temperature superconductivity, 3D rendering of suspended iron cubes

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Author
Gary Smith and Jeffrey Funk
Date
August 10, 2023

Categorized
Science

Tagged
Conspiracy theories, corporation, Covid, credibility, Distrust (book by Gary Smith), Innovation, Moon landing, power, science, Technology}

The LK-99 BS Further Undermines the Credibility of Science

_{The rejection or distortion of genuine science can have tragic consequences} _{Gary Smith and Jeffrey Funk

August 10, 2023

5

Science}

Social media is afire with reports that South Korean researchers have synthesized a room-temperature and room-pressure superconductor they call K-99. This is the biggest scientific news this year — yes, ChatGPT is now so last year. A representative Wow! from experts has been: “If LK-99 is the real deal, it could be a game-changer for everything from quantum computing and medical imaging to energy and transportation.” Long pursued by physicists and engineers, room-temperature, room-pressure superconductivity would revolutionize electronics and engineering by allowing current to move through wires without any energy loss. Everything will be cheaper and more efficient. Trains will levitate! Alas, the likelihood that this is BS research is very close to 100 percent. In the 110-year history of Read More ›

Driver,transport, business trip, destination and people concept

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Author
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
August 7, 2023

Categorized
Self-Driving Cars

Tagged
Jonathan Bartlett, mind matters, self-driving cars, Technology, Transportation, Uber}

Uber Achieves Profitability After Giving Up Self-Driving

_{The alternative taxi service has finally parted ways with its self-driving unit} _{Jonathan Bartlett

August 7, 2023

3

Self-Driving Cars}

Uber, the ride-hailing company, has been notorious for losing money. Since 2014, they have built up over thirty billion in operating losses. Just four years ago, analysts were saying that self-driving cars were the key to Uber’s future profitability. However, in December 2020, Uber finally gave up the dream and sold its self-driving unit to the startup self-driving company Aurora. This eliminated one of Uber’s biggest cash-burns. The Advanced Technology Group, the name of Uber’s self-driving unit, was draining $500 million from the company each year. Overall, the company probably spent well over $2 billion on self-driving, which some of Uber’s early investors (such as Bill Gurley) think was ultimately wasted spending. This last quarter Uber has finally been able to turn a profit, Read More ›

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Author
News
Date
August 6, 2023

Categorized
Technology

Tagged
AI, COSM, COSM 2023, Geoffrey Hinton, Nanocosm, Technology}

Register Now for COSM 2023

_{Does AI usurp our humanity or save us from new perils? Find out more at COSM 2023.} _{News

August 6, 2023

2

Technology}

Is AI “generative” or degenerative? Does it usurp humans, or save us from new perils? Depending on which AI inventor you prefer, AI portends either human extinction or human salvation. One AI titan, Geoffrey Hinton, recently of Google’s Deep Mind, sees it as a dire threat, while Yan Lecun of Meta sees it as a redemptive opportunity. As usual, experts can be polarized or even blinded by the noise and narrowness of their specialties. This year’s COSM Technology Summit, to be held November 1-3 in Bellevue, Washington at the Bellevue Hyatt, will transcend these limited visions. Instead we will seek the transformative unities that integrate this new phase in computer science with emerging paradigms in economics, materials science, the nanocosm, Read More ›

Brain psychology mind soul and hope concept art, 3d illustration, surreal artwork, imagination painting, conceptual idea

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 6, 2023

Categorized
Neuroscience, Panpsychism, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Am I Just My Brain (Oxford Apologetics 2019), Daniel Dennett, Iain McGilchrist, Ian McGilchrist on theories of consciousness, Justin Brierley, Sharon Dirckx, Sharon Dirckx on qualia, The Matter with Things (Perspectiva Press 2021), William James}

The Mind: A Neuroscientist and a Psychiatrist Walk Into a…

_{Psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist, conversing with Christian neuroscientist Sharon Dirckx about materialism’s deficits, shows considerable sympathy for panpsychism} _{Denyse O'Leary

August 6, 2023

6

Neuroscience, Panpsychism, Philosophy of Mind}

No, this isn’t the beginning of a stand-up gag but rather of an interesting discussion at Unbelievable’s The Big Conversation (Episode 3, Season 4, Jul 1, 2022), hosted by Justin Brierley. The participants seem well-matched: Sharon Dirckx is a neuroscientist and Christian apologist who speaks and writes on human consciousness, and the problem of evil. The author of Am I Just My Brain? (Oxford Apologetics, 2019), she is especially interested in “intersection of science and theology, questions of human consciousness and identity, and the problem of evil.” and Iain McGilchrist, a psychiatrist who has specialized in the overlap between psychiatry and neurology, has written both for colleagues and the public about the mind–body relationship. He “is committed to the idea Read More ›

Shelves with books in a bookstore. Education and development. Blurred. Horizontal photo. A great background for your design.

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Author
Peter Biles
Date
August 6, 2023

Categorized
Education

Tagged
academia, Arts and Culture, Conservativism, Culture, History, John Locke, Joseph Loconte, Liberalism, National Review, Politics, religion, The King's College, The Left, The West, Western literature}

Don’t Censor Western Books

_{For thousands of men and women, the Western canon served as a lifeline} _{Peter Biles

August 6, 2023

3

Education}

The King’s College, a longstanding evangelical Christian college in Manhattan’s financial district, announced financial shortcomings in February, and as of this month, canceled fall classes and laid off a majority of its faculty members. King’s is small, but its students have historically been driven, smart, and ambitious. With a goal of transmitting the spiritual riches of the Judeo-Christian tradition to the next generation, the college saw students go on to elite graduate schools and take influential roles in journalism, law, academia, and the arts. While the details of King’s seemingly ultimate demise is complicated, Joseph Loconte, a former history professor at King’s, writes that its death spiral is reflective of something deeper and endemic in the West. For so many Read More ›

advanced ancient invisible forcefield dome pattern fading fractal mathematical laws of nature

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 5, 2023

Categorized
Philosophy, Science

Tagged
Agency in nature, Aristotle and nature, Daniel Joachim Kleiven, Edward Feser, Entropy, gravity, Laws of motion, Laws of nature, Leonard Mlodinow, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Stephen Hawking, Time direction}

What Do the “Laws of Nature” Actually Explain?

_{To what extent does the phrase simply stand in for an explanation?} _{Denyse O'Leary

August 5, 2023

6

Philosophy, Science}

The question of what the “laws of nature” actually explain is worth asking when we consider the way the term is sometimes used. Norwegian philosopher Daniel Joachim Kleiven points to an example in The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) and Leonard Mlodinow: They argue that the history of science can be summarized as “the long process of replacing the notion of the reign of gods with the concept of a universe that is governed by laws of nature.” But, Kleiven (pictured) probes, what is the precise nature of the change we are asked to applaud? He quotes the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951), who specialized in mathematics and logic: At the basis of the whole modern view of the world Read More ›

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Author
Gary Varner
Date
August 5, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, Arts and Culture, Gary Varner, mind matters, Movies and TV, Westworld}

Westworld: Episode 8 Review

_{Is misery the key to consciousness?} _{Gary Varner

August 5, 2023

7

Arts & Culture}

Episode Eight is one of the stronger episodes in the series. It starts with Bernard waking up after killing Theresa. He is distraught over killing his former girlfriend, and he is also horrified to realize he is a robot. This, of course, means the memories of his son are not real. Ford explains that Bernard is a robotic version of Arnold. The two men were on a quest to discover consciousness, but when Arnold died, Ford needed someone to help him continue his work. So, he built Bernard. This is a change in Ford’s story. Initially, Ford expressed no real interest in Arnold’s work. Now, he says the two were working together to create a version of consciousness. Of course, Read More ›

3D illustration, concept image. Embossed mesh representing internet connections in cloud computing.

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Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
August 4, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning

Tagged
AI, Atari arcade game, board games, Deep Learning, Energy use, Ergodicity, Neural networks, Power supply, Robert J. Marks}

The Secret Ingredient for AI: Ergodicity

_{If you don't know the term, you need to} _{Robert J. Marks

August 4, 2023

6

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning}

Deep learning used to train AlphaGo data used to train neural networks must display ergodicity: The data to which the computer learning program is exposed must also characterize data that it has not seen. Before applying AI in deep convolutional neural networks, practitioners need to address whether the problem under consideration is “ergodic.” 1 We are rightly amazed when deep learning wins at Atari arcade games using only display pixels. But in doing so, the AI is exposed to the same game again and again (and again). The scenarios change, but the game and its rules remain static. The same is true with chess or GO. When trained and tested against a human opponent, we know that the AI will Read More ›

Internet broadband and multimedia streaming entertainment

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Author
Peter Biles
Date
August 3, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, American culture, Artificial Intelligence, Books and Culture, David Foster Wallace, Entertainment, Infinite Jest, Sara Ditum, The Internet, UnHerd}

Infinite Jest Revisited

_{The 1996 book by David Foster Wallace saw the Internet explosion, and its effects, approaching fast} _{Peter Biles

August 3, 2023

2

Arts & Culture}

David Foster Wallace was 34 when his magnum opus Infinite Jest appeared in 1996. He tragically took his life in 2008, but the title he’s known for best remains an awe-inspiring, controversial tome. UnHerd writer Sarah Ditum wrote a great review revisiting the book in which she writes, “He did not see the future. But he saw the forces shaping the future, and understood the ways they would deform people in turn.” Infinite Jest, a 1,000 plus page book with 200 pages of tedious endnotes to boot, imagines an American context not so foreign from our own where entertainment has become so powerful that it hopelessly addicts everyone who encounters it. The Internet was already budding in ’96, but the inevitable Read More ›

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Author
News
Date
August 2, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, C.S. Lewis, Christianity, god, Jesus Revolution, Mere Christianity (book), Pirate's Cove, Revival, Robert J. Marks, social media, TikTok}

Running from TikTok to Baptism and Truth

_{AI-powered social media is hurting kids, but look at the simultaneous revival happening, writes Robert J. Marks} _{News

August 2, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence}

“Digital fentanyl.” That’s the evocative term U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wisc. used to describe TikTok. In Robert J. Marks’ new Newsmax article, he decries the tragic effects of social media on teens. The data is in: social media makes kids depressed. Marks writes, Media-drenched teenage boys without girlfriends feel like social freaks. One in three teenage girls who use social have body image issues.Young adults who use social media are three times as likely to suffer from depression. Depression can lead to suicide. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, female suicides aged 15-24 increased by 87 percent over the past 20 years and male suicides increased by 30 percent. The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry says suicide is now the second leading Read More ›

Doctor with virtual reality in operation room in hospital.Surgeon analyzing patient heart testing result and human anatomy on technological digital futuristic virtual interface,digital holographic

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Author
News
Date
August 2, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Biology, ChatGPT, Consciousness, COSM, Jay Richards}

Can AI Customize and Individualize Healthcare?

_{Mundie thinks some aspects of biology are too complex for humans. Could AI help?} _{News

August 2, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence}

Craig Mundie says that his dream is to make artificial intelligence one day rival human intellect. While many worry about more dystopian outcomes as result of that, Mundie sees AI as dual use. In his opinion, it can be used for good or ill just like any other technology. Jay Richards interviews Craig Mundie, President of Mundie & Associates and former Microsoft Chief Research Officer about emerging trends in machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), especially for human systems and healthcare. Craig Mundie: “Well, I think the problem is, you need to model all of human biology. In my opinion, human biology is too complicated for humans. It’s just too complicated. So the question is, is it possible that a Read More ›

3d rendering of Human cell or Embryonic stem cell microscope background.

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Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
August 1, 2023

Categorized
Biology

Tagged
Biotechnology, Fetal experimentation, Human embryonic stem cells (and consciousness), Stem Cells, transhumanism}

Scientists Close to Creating Human Embryos from Stem Cells

_{The “anything goes” ethical peril in biotechnology is all too real} _{Wesley J. Smith

August 1, 2023

5

Biology}

During the great embryonic-stem-cell debate in the early 2000s, I personally witnessed scientists blatantly mislead legislators about biotech issues such as cloning, adult stem cells, and the biological nature of embryos in order to gain funding and/or resist regulations. It was an effective, but disgraceful, tactic that disrespected the democratic process about crucial issues of morality and public policy. Now, with the creation of human “synthetic embryos,” aka, “embryo models, or “embryo replicas,” which are constructed with pluripotent stem cells, I hope we are not slipping back into those bad old days of mendacity. But I worry. A recent story about the breakthrough in Science News contains an incomplete description about human embryology that impacts the ethical stakes about what is being Read More ›

old vintage monochrome photographs in sepia color are scattered on a wooden table, the concept of genealogy, the memory of ancestors, family ties, memories of childhood

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 30, 2023

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Andrew Peterson, Cait Kearney, Deeply forgetful people, Dementia, Dementia research, Dementia treatment, Dignity for Deeply Forgetful People (JHU 2022), Paradoxical lucidity, Stephen Post}

Is Dementia Research Missing the Forest for the Trees?

_{Sudden bouts of lucidity in people with dementia are understudied, researchers admit} _{Denyse O'Leary

July 30, 2023

4

Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

Researchers have begun to ask about the curious fact that persons with obvious dementia sometimes have lucid episodes: “In the last week, Sarah has occasionally said things that were recognizable, startling her family. Most notably, on two occasions, she clearly and unexpectedly told her spouse, “I’m scared. I want you to come with me.” These episodes unsettled him. He reported them to Sarah’s physician, asking for advice. (This case is adapted from one of the author’s [JK] clinical experiences.)” – Peterson A, Clapp J, Largent EA, Harkins K, Stites SD, Karlawish J. What is paradoxical lucidity? The answer begins with its definition. Alzheimers Dement. 2022 Mar;18(3):513-521. doi: 10.1002/alz.12424. Epub 2021 Aug 2. PMID: 34338400; PMCID: PMC8807788. The paper is open Read More ›

A green sprout sprouts from the microprocessor. A symbol of a new startup or business in the IT field of green technologies or biotechnologies. A living beginning in computers and artificial ai

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 29, 2023

Categorized
Biology, Evolution, Language, Philosophy, Religion, Theism

Tagged
Derek Cabrera, Emergence, Emergence (as rhetorical concept), Emergent, Promissory materialism, Yervant Kulbashian}

“Emergence”: The College Level Version of “We Don’t Know How”

_{The word often permits the improbable to be considered probable for the purposes of sounding like science without providing any} _{Denyse O'Leary

July 29, 2023

6

Biology, Evolution, Language, Philosophy, Religion, Theism}

For some purposes, emergence is just another word in the dictionary. For example, “caterpillar emergence” (emphasis added) means just that: Caterpillars exiting their eggs. But there is a sneakier way the word is sometimes used in science contexts: It’s a way of pretending we know something we don’t or that something can happen in a certain way — but we have no evidence for that. Consider these examples: “Abiotic emergence of ordered information stored in the form of RNA is an important unresolved problem concerning the origin of life.” – Totani, T. Emergence of life in an inflationary universe. Sci Rep 10, 1671 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-58060-0 When used with respect to origin of life, emergence is intended to convey the idea Read More ›

Female robot face, Artificial intelligence concept. Generative AI

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post

Author
Gary Varner
Date
July 29, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Arts and Culture, Gary Varner, Science fiction, Westworld}

Westworld: Episode 7 Review

_{In which Theresa makes a terrible discovery} _{Gary Varner

July 29, 2023

6

Arts & Culture}

This episode begins with Bernard having a flashback of his son. It’s a very sad scene that turns out to be a dream sequence. After that, we follow Theresa to Hale’s apartment. In the previous episode, we learned that it was Theresa who was attempting to smuggle data out of the park. In this episode, we figure out why. Hale and the rest of the board plan on firing Ford, and they are concerned that Ford will wipe all the data stored in the park just for spite. He’s refused to allow anyone to back up the data, so Hale has decided to take matters into her own hands, and she enlists Theresa’s help. However, Theresa’s plan to smuggle the Read More ›

Scoring the winning points at a basketball game

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post

Author
Gary Smith
Date
July 28, 2023

Categorized
Probability

Tagged
Basketball, Bowling, data, Gary Smith, Hot Hand, Kevin Love, NBA, prediction, Probability, Psychology, Statistics, Stephen Curry, Streak}

Sabrina Ionescu’s Hot Hand

_{When basketball players hit a "streak," does that elevate the probability of success?} _{Gary Smith

July 28, 2023

12

Probability}

Most people believe that athletes sometimes get “hot” or “cold” with their performance elevated or depressed temporarily. For example, Purvis Short, who scored 59 points in an NBA game, said, “You’re in a world all your own. It’s hard to describe. But the basket seems to be so wide. No matter what you do, you know the ball is going to go in.” Similarly, during a timeout in a 2015 game, LeBron James told his teammates to pass the ball to Kevin Love, explaining after the game that, “He had the hot hand, I wanted to keep going to him.” On the other hand, statisticians tell us that streaks are likely even in random coin flips that have a rock-steady Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
July 28, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality

Tagged
AI, Alien, Alien life, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Church, Consciousness, Extraterrestrials (ET), J.P. Moreland, Robert J. Marks, Science fiction, Sean McDowell, Sex, UAPs/UFOs, UFOs, William Lane Craig, Worship}

Of AI and Aliens: Two Philosophers Give Their Thoughts

_{These sound minds are great resources to draw from in the chaos of our times} _{Peter Biles

July 28, 2023

3

Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality}

Just when you thought our cultural moment couldn’t get any more outlandish, here comes a congressional hearing in which several high-profile individuals claim U.S. intelligence is in possession of “non-human biologics,” a euphemism for “alien stuff.” In a recent YouTube interview, Sean McDowell of Biola University asked philosophers William Lane Craig and J.P. Moreland what they thought of extraterrestrial life and its implications. Craig, a philosopher and theologian, said it would have no bearing on his belief in God’s existence, but emotionally, that it would be remarkably unsettling, and would amount to the greatest discovery in the human history. McDowell pivoted from aliens and addressed the question of artificial intelligence, which Moreland, who specializes in the philosophy of mind, was Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 27, 2023

Categorized
Education, Mathematics, Politics

Tagged
Florida and textbooks, Francis Su, G H Hardy, Hidden Figures (2016 film), Hitler’s & Stalin’s Misuse of Science (Frontline 2024), James B. Meigs, Math problems and political messaging, Srinivasa Ramanujan, Steven Tucker, Textbooks, War on math}

The War on Math Becomes a Fight Over Textbooks

_{Florida, for example, rejected 54 math textbooks of 132 submitted by publishers on account of political content} _{Denyse O'Leary

July 27, 2023

7

Education, Mathematics, Politics}

About a year and a half ago, I wrote a piece about the war on math, basically an effort to entrench the idea that there is no such thing as reality apart from politics. A slogan for various wars on math has been 2 + 2 = 5. That proposition originated in the totalitarian Soviet Union. It found its way into 1984, in which George Orwell (1903–1950) repudiated totalitarianism, and resurfaced in recent years in the current American education elite. One tactic used that is more subtle than outright messing with the number system is the inclusion of political issues in math problems. Current affairs writer Steven Tucker explains how it works: If you were an author of school textbooks Read More ›

Planet Earth from Space People's Republic of China highlighted, elements of this image courtesy of NASA

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post

Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
July 26, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, China}

China’s Chatbot Toes the Party Line

_{How will China control what AI does and doesn't say?} _{Heather Zeiger

July 26, 2023

6

Artificial Intelligence, China}

News outlets and media in China must follow the Party’s guidelines on what to write. Whenever a major event happens, such as a Party Congress, or protests at Foxconn factories, media outlets are given a list of what they can and cannot say in the news. How will China’s government control what generative AI, particularly large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, or Baidu’s Ernie, say? It turns out that the very unpredictability of LLMs makes censorship tricky. In China, LLMs like Baidu’s Ernie (“Wenxin Yiyan”) compile the information from an already sanitized Chinese internet which would essentially perpetuate the Party’s view. “Services like ChatGPT and Ernie draw their answers from vast quantities of text culled from the Read More ›

Conceptual image to be used as background. Facade of buildings, representing architecture or offices of the business world.

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 25, 2023

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Anil Seth, Anil Seth (on Hard Problem of consciousness), Anil Seth on Koch-Chalmers wager, Beast machine theory of consciousness (Seth), Being You (book Dutton 2021), Christof Koch, David Chalmers, Evolutionary consciousness research, James Pang, Koch-Chalmers Wager, Ruairi J Mackenzie, Sònia Hernández}

Neuroscientist vows post-wager: We’ll nail consciousness yet!

_{Anil Seth, proponent of the “hallucination” theory of consciousness, vows that researchers will find that consciousness spot or circuit in the brain} _{Denyse O'Leary

July 25, 2023

5

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

Prominent University of Sussex neuroscientist Anil Seth shared some thoughts at Nautilus on neuroscientist Christof Koch losing the 1998 wager with philosopher David Chalmers this year. He had bet that a consciousness spot or circuit would be found in the human brain within the next 25 years. It wasn’t. Seth offers, Back in the late 1990s, consciousness science was full of renewed promise. Koch—a natural optimist—believed that 25 years was more than enough time for scientists to uncover the neural correlates of consciousness: those patterns of brain activity that underlie each and every one of our conscious experiences. – Anil Seth, “Finding the Neural Correlates to Consciousness Is Still a Good Bet,” Nautilus, July 5, 2023 As author of Being Read More ›

.Smart cars with automatic sensor driving on metropolis with wireless connection

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post

Author
News
Date
July 25, 2023

Categorized
Self-Driving Cars

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence, COSM 2019, Inrix, Jay Richards, self-driving cars, Shared Vehicle Tech, Tesla}

Is Automated & Shared Vehicle Tech a Benefit to Humanity?

_{Mistele thinks these kinds of vehicles will be cost-effective and safer all around.} _{News

July 25, 2023

2

Self-Driving Cars}

In today’s featured video, Dr. Jay Richards interviews Bryan Mistele, Co-founder, President and CEO of INRIX, about the future of autonomous, connected, electric, shared (ACES) vehicle transportation systems at the 2019 COSM conference. Mistele sees the implementation of ACES vehicles as being a huge benefit to humanity as they will be much more convenient and cost-effective, safer, and will lead to more effective land use by being able to do away with parking garages, street parking, etc. Bryan Mistele is the co-founder, President & Chief Executive Officer of INRIX, a leading provider of connected car services and transportation analytics. INRIX is at the forefront of connecting cars to smarter cities in more than 88 countries worldwide. Bryan started INRIX in Read More ›

Modern creative artwork, design. Contemporary art collage of young man playing drums isolated over colorful background. Concept of music lifestyle, jazz, rock, rock n roll, creativity, imagination

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post

Author
Richard W. Stevens
Date
July 24, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
Beat, Beatnik, Blues, Drummer, Drumming, Electric guitar, Mind-Body connection, Muscle memory, music, Phil Collins, Riff, Rock and roll, The Beatles}

Inside the Mind of a Rock ‘n’ Roll Drummer

_{Delving into the thrilling, demanding world of professional drumming and the mind-body communication it requires} _{Richard W. Stevens

July 24, 2023

9

Arts & Culture}

After talking all about artificial intelligence (AI), ChatGPT, and the legal rights of robots, let’s Take Five. Time to follow Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone path and travel to another dimension, of sight, of sound, and of mind. Cue up the vinyl or the mp3s, it’s time to explore rock ‘n’ roll music from the inside. What practically defines rock ‘n’ roll? Chuck Berry said it was the “back beat” – the prominent rhythm on beats 2 and 4. It’s the beat you can’t lose, as The Beatles agreed. Huey Lewis and the News nailed it: “The heart of rock and roll is the beat.” Where does the beat come from, the rhythm that defines rock n roll? Not often the Read More ›

Armageddon. Nuclear bomb or asteroid impact creates a nuke mushroom

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
July 23, 2023

Categorized
Science

Tagged
AI, Biology, C.S. Lewis, John Horgan, Magic and Applied Science, Mathematics, Nature, Teleology, The Abolition of Man (book), Utilitarianism}

Science as Insight vs. Science as Power

_{What are the core purposes of science and math? Evaluating the idea of "knowledge as power" in the computer age} _{Peter Biles

July 23, 2023

2

Science}

Should machines replace mathematicians? This phrase is the headline of a new post by science writer John Horgan, who comments on the current state of mathematics and the growing potential of AI and computers to do all the “heavy lifting” of the mathematical enterprise. Horgan notes that mathematicians were the ones to develop computers in the first place, but now, with the advent of advanced computing and artificial intelligence, the role of human-driven mathematics is getting vague. However, maybe math is more about input and output but a “way of being human.” For Horgan, data and computation don’t get to the heart of scientific and mathematical endeavors. It needs to mean something more than an impersonal process geared towards calculable Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
July 23, 2023

Categorized
Science, Technology

Tagged
David Berlinski, David Klinghoffer, Human Nature (book), Science After Babel (book), The Enlightenment, Titan, Titanic, Wall Street Journal}

The Titanic: A Sobering Tale About the Fragility of Technological “Progress”

_{The hopes of the Enlightenment were tragically short lived} _{News

July 23, 2023

2

Science, Technology}

By David Klinghoffer The week that the submersible Titan was revealed to have been instantaneously flattened on its way down to the wreck of the Titanic, David Berlinski spoke with James Lileks and Peter Robinson on Ricochet about the wreck of the Enlightenment. Much like the Titanic, and a bit like the Titan, so much was expected at the glorious launch of the experiment in human reasoning — yet down it went to disaster, not least in the 20th century with its horrors. Writing yesterday in the Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan suggested that the story of the Titanic haunts us in part because its demise came two years before the start of the century’s great catastrophe, World War I: “the reason the Titanic endures is that there was an immediate connection Read More ›

Prison. Prison wall with barbed wire. Law and justice

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
July 22, 2023

Categorized
Economics

Tagged
Acton Institute, Christianity and Communism, Creativity, Determinism, Discovery Institute, free will, George Gilder, Life After Capitalism (book), Martin Luther King Jr, Materialism, Paul Tillich, religion, Samuel Gregg, Social Justice}

Martin Luther King Jr. on the Failures of Communism

_{The great advocate for justice saw, as George Gilder does, why materialism fails us} _{Peter Biles

July 22, 2023

3

Economics}

Technology futurist and economist George Gilder has a new book called Life After Capitalism. One of Gilder’s main points in the book is that knowledge is wealth; with increased human ingenuity comes advanced economic growth, but that’s all dependent on the recognition that mind, not matter, is preeminent, and is essential for the flourishing of society and culture. I’ve been reading some essays of the great social justice advocate Martin Luther King, Jr., and came across a piece he wrote on the failures of Communism as a worldview and political system. His comments sound remarkably akin to Gilder’s views on mind and materialism. Listing his first objection to Communism, King writes, First, Communism is based on a materialistic and humanistic Read More ›

Milky way in Utah over the Green River from Swasey's Beach.

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post

Author
Gary Varner
Date
July 22, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Arts and Culture, Consciousness, Movies and TV, Robot sentience, Robots, Science fiction}

Westworld: Episode 6 Review

_{Maeve and the audience get some answers} _{Gary Varner

July 22, 2023

7

Arts & Culture}

Since Maeve can now wake up at will while being repaired by the technicians, she begins visiting one particular body shop technician named Felix on a regular basis. Maeve begins asking questions about what she is, and Felix explains that while he is a human, she is a robot, and her creators have programmed her to behave in certain ways. Maeve, at first, doesn’t accept this, but then Felix shows her a tablet that is recording and logging her every word. The show doesn’t make it clear whether this log is just recording what she is saying, or if the program on the tablet is telling her what to say. Once Maeve sees this, she glitches and shuts down. Felix Read More ›

Group of asian creative team programing designers participate in all phases of the UX design.

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post

Author
Jeffrey Funk and Gary Smith
Date
July 21, 2023

Categorized
Technology

Tagged
Carta, Covid, data, Data scraping, Karl Pearson, LinkedIn, Mathematics, Peter Walker, science, Scientific method, startups, Statistics}

Using Data Like a Drunk Uses a Lamppost

_{Startup companies can be tempted to use statistics for support instead of real illumination} _{Jeffrey Funk and Gary Smith

July 21, 2023

6

Technology}

Karl Pearson, the great English mathematician and statistician, wrote, “Statistics is the grammar of science.” At its finest, it is. Statistical data and methods are the backbone of the scientific method that underlies the astonishing scientific advances that humans have made. Unfortunately, statistics can also be used to provide misleading support for false claims. The examples are numerous and so are the laments: There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.—Benjamin Disraeli There are two kinds of statistics, the kind you look up and the kind you make up.—Rex Stout Definition of Statistics: The science of producing unreliable facts from reliable figures. —Evan Esar If you torture the data long enough, they will confess.—Ronald Coase We couldn’t Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
July 21, 2023

Categorized
Science

Tagged
Alan Turing, David Berlinski, Evolution, Evolution News, ID the Future, Intelligent Design, Life, science, Scientific Reductionism, the imitation game, the Turing Test}

The Immaterial, Alan Turing, and the Mystery of Life

_{Mathematician David Berlinski comments on his new book in new podcast} _{News

July 21, 2023

1

Science}

The recently published book Science After Babel is again in the spotlight at the podcast ID the Future, with its author, philosopher and mathematician David Berlinski, and host Andrew McDiarmid considering various elements of the work. In a new podcast, the pair discuss the puzzling relationship between purely immaterial mathematical concepts (the only kind) and the material world; World War II codebreaker and computing pioneer Alan Turing, depicted in the 2014 film The Imitation Game; and the sense that the field of physics, once seemingly on the cusp of a theory of everything, finds itself at an impasse. Then, too, Berlinski writes, there is the mystery of life itself. If scientists thought that its origin and nature would soon yield to scientific reductionism, they have Read More ›

Cyborg head using artificial intelligence to create digital interface 3D rendering

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post

Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
July 20, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, AI and sentience, Artificial Intelligence, Bird talking, Creativity and sentience, Mission Impossible, Movies and TV, Robert J. Marks, Tom Cruise}

Mission Impossible: Don’t Bother Me With Facts

_{The Tom Cruise action movie is built on faulty AI assumptions, but it's still entertaining} _{Robert J. Marks

July 20, 2023

3

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

Ever watch a movie with a movie-talker? That’s someone who ruins a show by talking out loud over the audio. More than once, my wife has asked me, “What did he just say?” I usually have no idea because I didn’t understand either. But her question talks over the next few lines of the movie so the interval of me not hearing the audio is prolonged. I occasionally watch a movie with a good friend Lou, a former police officer. Lou’s a movie-talker, especially when we watch police movies. He’ll interrupt the movie with nit-picky comments like: “That’s not a real shotgun. A real shotgun would kick back, and the barrel would angle up after each shot. There was no Read More ›

Love emotion or empathy cerebral or brain activity in caudate nucleus. Interaction and connection between two people. Conceptual 3d illustration of interactive neurological stimulation or telepathy.

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 18, 2023

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind, Psychology, Relationships

Tagged
Bats (brain wave synchrony), Brain wave synchrony, Collective neuroscience, Education (brain wave synchrony), Hyperscanning, Lydia Denworth, Mice (brain wave synchrony)}

When You Sync With Someone, Your Brains Wave Together

_{Neuroscientists have found that co-operation results in brain wave synchrony} _{Denyse O'Leary

July 18, 2023

4

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind, Psychology, Relationships}

At Scientific American, Lydia Denworth brought up an interesting topic earlier this month: The way that brain waves synchronize between two people who are communicating successfully: Neurons in corresponding locations of the different brains fire at the same time, creating matching patterns, like dancers moving together. Auditory and visual areas respond to shape, sound and movement in similar ways, whereas higher-order brain areas seem to behave similarly during more challenging tasks such as making meaning out of something seen or heard. The experience of “being on the same wavelength” as another person is real, and it is visible in the activity of the brain.” – Lydia Denworth, “Brain Waves Synchronize when People Interact,” Scientific American, July 1, 2023 For example, Read More ›

Scientist standing on sunny platform against building

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 15, 2023

Categorized
Philosophy, Religion, Science

Tagged
faith and science, Francis Bacon, M Anthony Mills, Marcelo Gleiser, Thomas Kuhn}

Can Science Escape Faith-Based Beliefs? Maybe It Needs Them!

_{Marcelo Gleiser insists, for better or worse, science is a faith-based enterprise} _{Denyse O'Leary

July 15, 2023

6

Philosophy, Religion, Science}

Physicist and astronomer Marcelo Gleiser (pictured) offered some thoughts recently on faith and science, noting that the scientific revolution has hardly changed the picture of faith much: “the great scientific advances of the past four centuries have not radically diminished the number of believers” in transcendent realities: If science is to help us, in the words of the late Carl Sagan, by providing a “candle in the dark,” it will have to be seen in a new light. The first step in this direction is to admit that science has fundamental limitations as a way of knowing, and that it is not the only method of approaching the unattainable truth about reality. Science should be seen as the practice of Read More ›

close up portrait photo of humanoid android covered in shiny white grey and black metallic skin blue eyes glowing internal parts westworld style Volumetric Lighting ultrawide shot sharp

^{Type
post

Author
Gary Varner
Date
July 15, 2023

Categorized
Science Fiction

Tagged
AI, Arts and Culture, Ed Harris, Gary Varner, Robots, Science fiction, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Westworld}

Westworld: Episode 5 Review

_{Mediocre writing made bearable by talented actors} _{Gary Varner

July 15, 2023

6

Science Fiction}

Episode Five opens with Ford talking to one of the parks older droid’s, something he has grown fond of doing over the years. He tells a story of an old Grey Hound he and his brother once had, and explains that one time, they let the dog off the leash. The dog was used to chasing a fake rabbit around the track, so when it saw a cat, it immediately went after it. But after the dog had caught the cat and killed it, he didn’t know what to do. This story obviously implies that Dr. Ford knows the droids are becoming conscious, and it seems as if he is the dog chasing the car and has finally caught it. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 15, 2023

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Brain as transducer, Christof Koch, David A. Oakley, David Chalmers, David Papineau, Dualism and consciousness, Michael Egnor, Mind–Object Identity Theory (MOI), Oshan Jarow, Peter Halligan, Riccardo Manzotti, Robert Epstein}

It’s Becoming Clearer That the Mind Is Not the Brain

_{The “science of consciousness” not only has no workable materialist theory but it’s unclear what such a theory should look like or explain} _{Denyse O'Leary

July 15, 2023

6

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

Not surprisingly, given that philosopher David Chalmers won the famous wager with neuroscientist Christof Koch last month, the topic of consciousness has been in the news a lot. In 25 years of research, no one has found a specific consciousness circuit, spot, wave, or whatever in the brain. Consciousness is still the “Hard Problem of Consciousness.” At Vox, Oshan Jarow, a writer who knows the field, tells us that the bet has been renewed for another 25 years and offers an interpretation of why scientists haven’t “cracked” consciousness so far: “we still lack a definitive, falsifiable explanation. We even lack consensus on whether one may ever exist.” Eventually, in this view, the field might coalesce around a unified theory and Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
July 15, 2023

Tagged
Arts and Culture, ChatGPT, Elon Musk, Ethan Hunt, god, Government power, Mission Impossible, Movies and Film, OpenAI, religion, Tom Cruise, xAI}

Mission Impossible: A Dead Reckoning With Artificial Intelligence

_{The villain in the new blockbuster movie is an artificial intelligence known simply as "the entity."} _{Peter Biles

July 15, 2023

3}

I walked into the theater expecting a typical villain in the latest installment of Mission Impossible starring the inimitable Tom Cruise. And at the film’s beginning, you’re definitely led to believe that the pale, sour-faced Russians are behind yet another espionage program destined to thwart America and conquer the world. But that’s only a front. The real villain in the new blockbuster movie is an artificial intelligence known simply as “the entity.” The impossible mission, tasked to Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is to track down a mysterious key, made of two separate parts, that apparently can unlock the entity and reveal what it’s capable of. God in the Machine Hunt and his usual gang of expatriates find themselves at odds with Read More ›

Luxury perfume bottles at a fragrance scent presentation at the event at night

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 14, 2023

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Bob Yirka, Brain imaging, corpus callosum, Featured, Left temporal lobe and language, Michael Egnor, neuroplasticity, Olfactory bulb, Yasemin Saplakoglu}

How Can a Woman Missing Her Olfactory Bulbs Still Smell?

_{The brain’s plasticity intrigues and puzzles researcher, and it also raises a larger issue} _{Denyse O'Leary

July 14, 2023

5

Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

Even since neuroscientists started imaging the brain, they’ve been turning up cases where people are missing brain parts we would expect them to need in order to do something — but they are doing that very thing anyway. One example, written up in LiveScience in 2019, concerns women who are missing their olfactory bulbs (illustrated) but can still smell: Researchers have discovered a small group of people that seem to defy medical science: They can smell despite lacking “olfactory bulbs,” the region in the front of the brain that processes information about smells from the nose. It’s not clear how they are able to do this, but the findings suggest that the human brain may have a greater ability to Read More ›

JAN 1, 2019 - Los Angeles, CA USA - Los Angeles with Hollywood Sign at sunset seen from Kenneth Hahn Park, LA, CA

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
July 13, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Arts and Culture, hollywood, Movies and TV, Oppenheimer, Strike, Union, Writers Guild of America}

Actors Join Hollywood Strike

_{With 160,000 actors now on strike, Hollywood will effectively shut down.} _{News

July 13, 2023

1

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

In a historic moment, over 160,000 TV and movie actors are joining scriptwriters in a Hollywood walkout, per the New York Times. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) initiated a strike in early May, demanding higher pay while expressing concern over the increasing role of artificial intelligence in TV writing. Now, actors are joining in with similar dissent. Brooke Barnes reports, The eyes of the world and, particularly, the eyes of labor are upon us,” Fran Drescher, the president of SAG-AFTRA, said. “What happens to us is important. What’s happening to us is happening across all fields of labor. When employers make Wall Street and greed their priority and they forget about the essential contributors who make the machine run, Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
July 13, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, ChatGPT, Data privacy, Data Security, Disinformation, Federal Trade Commission, Gary Smith, Large Language Models (LLMs), mind matters, New York Times, OpenAI, Sam Altman}

OpenAI is Now Under Investigation

_{The Federal Trade Commission wants to know how OpenAI gets their data and how much harm ChatGPT could have} _{News

July 13, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence}

The Federal Trade Commission (F.T.C.) sent a letter to OpenAI, the San Fransisco company responsible for creating ChatGPT, the Large Language Model that captured the world’s imagination in November of 2022. Per the New York Times, the F.T.C. is investigating the AI company’s methods of data acquisition and also plans on measuring the potential harms of AI on society, citing concerns over false information and job replacement. Cecilia Kang and Cade Metz report: In a 20-page letter sent to the San Francisco company this week, the agency said it was also looking into OpenAI’s security practices. The F.T.C. asked the company dozens of questions in its letter, including how the start-up trains its A.I. models and treats personal data. The Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Eric Holloway
Date
July 12, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Consciousness, Creativity, Eric Holloway, Featured, Insights, Knowledge and wisdom, OpenAI, Robert J. Marks, Understanding and AI}

Does ChatGPT Pass the Creativity Test?

_{What does ChatGPT have to do in order to be considered creative?} _{Eric Holloway

July 12, 2023

5

Artificial Intelligence}

What is creativity? Where does it come from? Why are some things humans do considered creative, while other things mundane? Can AI be creative? To answer these questions, let’s come up with a definition. Creativity at least means something new has been done. No work that copies what has come before is considered creative. A Creativity Criteria Just doing something new is not enough either. If it were, then I can easily be creative by flipping a coin 100 times. That specific sequence of coin flips will only occur once in the entire history of humanity. But no one would say I was creative when I flipped a coin. This means creativity has to generate a new insight. However, these two criteria are not adequate, Read More ›

People connected people by lines. Cooperation and collaboration, news gossip spread. Teamwork. Society concept. Social science relationships. Marketing, dissemination of trends and information

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 11, 2023

Categorized
Ethics, Peer Review

Tagged
Cathleen O’Grady, Dan Ariely, Data Colada, Elyssa A. L. Spitzer, Eric P. Newcomer, Evilicious (2013), Francesca Gino, Honest Truth About Dishonesty (Harper 2012), Joseph Simmons, Leif Nelson, Rebel Talent (book 2018), research dishonesty claims, Therese Joffre, Uri Simonsohn}

Is There a Boom in Research Dishonesty?

_{Or do some academics just feel sure they won’t get caught? Or that, if they do, it somehow doesn’t matter?} _{Denyse O'Leary

July 11, 2023

5

Ethics, Peer Review}

What to make of this news stream? ● Distinguished Professor Francesca Gino of Harvard Business School was recently accused by other academics of falsifying data in a number of studies, including one on dishonesty, where she was a co-author, Professors Joseph Simmons, Uri Simonsohn and Leif Nelson of University of Pennsylvania, Escade Business School in Spain, and University of California, Berkeley, respectively, accused Gino of the fraud on their blog Data Colada. “Specifically, we wrote a report about four studies for which we accumulated the strongest evidence of fraud,” they wrote, stating they shared their concerns with Harvard Business School. Therese Joffre, “Harvard ethics professor allegedly fabricated multiple behavioral science studies” at The College Fix, June 28, 2023 Gino, currently Read More ›

ai, analysis, artificial intelligence, automation, big data, brain, business, cg, cloud computing, communication, computer graphics, concept, creative, cyber, deep learning, digital transformation, ed

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
July 11, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Blake Lemoine and LaMDA, Blake Lemoine and sentient computers, Blake Lemoine at COSM 2022, Consciousness, Google, LaMDA, Large Language Models (LLMs), Robert J. Marks}

Lemoine and Marks: A Friendly Discussion on AI’s Capacities

_{Marks and Lemoine disagree on whether AI can be sentient} _{News

July 11, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence}

Today’s featured video from the 2022 COSM conference features a distinguished panel of artificial intelligence (AI) experts, include Blake Lemoine and Robert J. Marks. They debate the meaning of artificial intelligence, what the future holds for its application (both positive and negative), and how far AI can be taken in terms of mimicking and even exceeding human capabilities. Lemoine is famous for his claims on AI’s “sentience” and his work at Google on the Large Language Model system “LaMDA.” Marks, on the other hand, appreciates Lemoine’s view but strongly maintains that creativity is a uniquely human capacity, and that machines will never attain consciousness. For more on Marks’s views, consider purchasing his 2022 book Non-Computable You: What You Do That Read More ›

Tribe of Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers Wearing Animal Skins Stand Around Bonfire Outside of Cave at Night. Portrait of Neanderthal / Homo Sapiens Family Doing Pagan Religion Ritual Near Fire

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 10, 2023

Categorized
Paleontology, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Neanderthal cave engravings, Ravens in early human history, Rui Diogo}

Our Ancestors Are Constantly Evolving, Just to Keep Up!

_{Negative biases about our forebears have long been part of science, education, and popular culture. Why?} _{Denyse O'Leary

July 10, 2023

4

Paleontology, Philosophy of Mind}

Recently, archeologists came up with an interesting find from 30,000 years ago in what is now Moravia, part of the Czech Republic: Ravens lived among humans. over 30,000 years ago, during the Pavlovian culture, ravens helped themselves to people’s scraps and picked over mammoth carcasses left behind by human hunters. This took place in the region known today as Moravia, in the Czech Republic. Ravens live in human settlements today, of course, with one notable difference: The archeologists from the University of Tübingen and the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution noted that “The large number of raven bones found at the sites suggests that the birds, in turn, were a supplementary source of food, and may have become important in Read More ›

Twin African girls are interested and playing Kalimba or Thumb Piano acoustic music instrument from Africa, twins little African girls with her braided hair, African hair style

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 8, 2023

Categorized
Psychology

Tagged
Cyril Burt, Gavin Evans, Genetics, Genetics and aging, Homosexuality, Identical twin studies, Identical twins separated at birth, Josef Mengele, Thomas J. Bouchard}

That “Mirror Image” Myth About Identical Twins… What Happened?

_{Researcher of identical twins hoped to prove that Genes Rule! But there were ethics slippages along the way} _{Denyse O'Leary

July 8, 2023

6

Psychology}

For some decades, we heard claims from studies of identical twins (formed when one fertilized egg splits) that everything from exam results to homosexuality might hinge on genetics. Therefore, any similarity in later choices or behavior might be due to genetic factors (read “predetermined” or “inevitable” here). How has that assumption held up, especially in the age of genome mapping? Identical twins comprise roughly 1 in every 250 births. Studies of twins who were separated at birth, have been especially prized because the twins were assumed to grow up in different environments. Thus any significant similarities pointed to genetic influences. Several problems emerged though. For one thing, what about the assumption that separation at birth means that twins experience different Read More ›

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
July 8, 2023

Categorized
Philosophy, Science

Tagged
IAI News, Materialism, Micrographia, Peter West, Philosophy, Physicalism, Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Physics, Reality, Robert Hooke, Stephen Hawking}

Can the Quantum Realm Explain Reality?

_{If we can uncover the smallest quantum particles in nature, will we have uncovered the fundamental secrets of reality?} _{Peter Biles

July 8, 2023

3

Philosophy, Science}

If we can uncover the smallest quantum particles in nature, will we have uncovered the fundamental secrets of reality? A longstanding philosophical tradition in the sciences claims “yes.” Uncovering the mystery of the world lies in the ability to interrogate the smallest of the small. But is that the right way to approach it? What special status does the tiny have over the large? A paper at IAI News by London philosopher Peter West argues that reality can’t in fact be elucidated simply by observing quantum mechanics. He talks in some length about the 17th century text Micrographia by Robert Hooke, which features various images of insects and other organisms under the microscope. West notes that Hooke set the stage, Read More ›

Birds symbol carry on dialog with each other. Plasticine illustration.

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
July 6, 2023

Categorized
Censorship, Social Media

Tagged
Babylon Bee, Bloomberg, Copycat technologies, Elon Musk, Free speech, Instagram, Jordan Peterson, Meta, Snapchat, Threads (Meta app), Twitter, Zuckerberg}

Twitter’s Copycat Rival is Coming to You via Meta. Will It Survive?

_{Meta will again co-opt the ideas of its competitors and hope for the best} _{Peter Biles

July 6, 2023

3

Censorship, Social Media}

Meta is reportedly trying to compete with Twitter by introducing a similar app called Threads. The app will be connected to Instagram and will allow a cross-over of followers, etc. Since Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, some have complained about loosened constraints regarding speech and expression. A number of formerly suspended accounts, such as those belonging to psychologist Jordan Peterson, the Christian satire site The Babylon Bee, and a number of other (mostly conservative) voices, were reestablished following Musk’s “takeover.” Now Meta is trying to capitalize. If they’re going to launch Threads, now is probably the best time to do it. Apart from the overarching complaints against Twitter and Musk, the platform is now limiting how many tweets a user Read More ›

Silhouette of a man, with thoughts in the form of physico-mathematical formulas. The concept of scientific and education topics.

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post

Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
July 6, 2023

Categorized
Mathematics

Tagged
Elements by Euclid, Euclidean geometry, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Isaac Newton, Mathematics, Physics, Robert J. Marks, Royal Society}

Is Mathematics Discovered or Invented?

_{Some think math is invented. Evidence, though, points towards discovery.} _{Robert J. Marks

July 6, 2023

5

Mathematics}

Some think math is invented. (See the article by Peter Biles.) Evidence, though, points towards discovery. Simultaneous mathematical discovery supports this viewpoint. Many mathematical breakthroughs are sometimes independently reported by two or more mathematicians at roughly the same time. The most famous is the simultaneous discovery of calculus by Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Newton was secretive about his discovery and shared his results with only a few members of the Royal Society. When Leibnitz published his discovery of the calculus, Newton charged him with plagiarism. Today, historians agree that the discoveries were independent of each other. Here are some other lesser-known examples of simultaneous discovery. The Papoulis-Gerchberg Algorithm (PGA). The PGA is an ingenious method for recovering lost Read More ›

NFT gallery hologram, cryptoart and metaverse

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post

Author
News
Date
July 5, 2023

Categorized
Cryptocurrency

Tagged
COSM 2021, cryptocurrencies, Digital Tokens, Jules Urbach, NFT, Property, William Dembski}

NFTS: The Reinvention of Property?

_{What makes NFTs valuable? And what does it mean to own them?} _{News

July 5, 2023

1

Cryptocurrency}

Today we feature a video from the 2021 COSM Conference on blockchain, crypto, and non-fungible tokens featuring Jules Urbach and William Dembski. In the case of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the Ethereum blockchain, actual ownership with legal standing is never in fact transferred for the underlying digital file. What makes NFTs valuable? And what does it mean to own them? We’ve been sharing a number of lectures from past COSM conferences. This video is just one of many you can find at the Bradley Center’s YouTube page. There you’ll find several lectures, interviews, and panels dealing with issues that range from economics, Big Tech, and artificial intelligence. Notable speakers include 2022 Kyoto Prize winner Carver Mead, venture capitalist Peter Thiel, and George Gilder, co-founder of Read More ›

cosmetic laboratory research and development . science bio skincare cream serum product with leaves. natural organic beauty cosmetics concept. cosmetology.

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post

Author
Jeffrey Funk
Date
July 4, 2023

Categorized
Science

Tagged
Carl Sagan, Curiosity, Data Mining, Data torturing, Distrust (book by Gary Smith), education, Gary Smith, Jeffrey Funk, P-values, science, Science education}

Scientists Have Been Recommending Changes to Science Education for Decades

_{The modern education system seems designed to squelch curiosity} _{Jeffrey Funk

July 4, 2023

7

Science}

Gary Smith describes the problems with today’s science in his new book Distrust: Big Data, Data-Torturing, and the Assault on Science. He recounts endless examples of disinformation, data torture, and data mining, much of which we already knew. Taken together, however, and as I described in this review, they are mind-blowing. He argues that many of these problems come from things scientists do such as p-hacking during statistical analysis, too little emphasis on “impact” in statistical analyses, outright data falsification, and the creation of the Internet, which can be a huge disinformation machine in addition to a valuable resource. In the last chapter, he also offers some solutions such as ending the artificial thresholds for p-values such as 0.05, requiring Read More ›

Adorable little girl shopping for toys. Cute female in toy store. Happy young girl selecting toy

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post

Author
Richard W. Stevens
Date
July 3, 2023

Categorized
Natural Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Atheism, Cause and effect, children, Electricity, intelligence, Kids, Mass and energy, Materialism, Matter, science, Theism, Toddlers, Toy Store, Universe}

How a Toddler in a Toy Store Refutes Materialism

_{This everyday observation yields insight into a fundamental truth} _{Richard W. Stevens

July 3, 2023

5

Natural Intelligence}

I’m a magnet for materialists. I often get into discussions with people who tell me that the universe is nothing but matter and energy. These folks believe in materialism. They say I’m nutty and wrong to think there is anything else. Something like: “Silly theist! Gods are for kids!” Let’s follow that thought. A grandparent of 11 humans, I’ve journeyed with their parents through the young ones’ toddlerhood many times. There’s a lot to learn about reality from toddlers’ learning and growing. It leads to understanding Toddler Truth. Take a toddler to a game arcade, a toy store, or another kid’s house to play. There’s one thing you can count on hearing: “I want that!” We parents start tuning out Read More ›

Abstract creative illustration from 3D rendering of female bust figure with flat anonymous face isolated on gradient background in vaporwave style colors.

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
July 2, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, Black Mirror (TV Show), Facial Recognition, Instagram, metaverse, Nautilus, social media, TikTok, Virtual Reality}

Blurring the Lines Between Fantasy and Reality

_{A "Black Mirror" episode illustrates the danger of seeing the world through an AI filter} _{Peter Biles

July 2, 2023

3

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

The dystopian Netflix show Black Mirror featured an episode a few years ago about soldiers tasked with wiping out an apparently mutant adversary. In reality, the soldiers are seeing the world through an AI filter that is casting ordinary human beings as despicable monsters. The AI lessens their hesitations to kill the enemy. An article at Nautilus cited a research group that’s asking how much of that horrifying story could potentially unfold in real time, or is already happening to a certain extent in today’s culture. Social media apps like Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram already use face altering techniques in their apps, allowing users to curate idealized images of themselves. But what happens when, as in the Black Mirror episode, Read More ›

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post

Author
News
Date
July 2, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, ChatGPT, Darth Vader, hollywood, Human author, Movies and TV, Plagiarism, Ryan Reynolds and Elon Musk, storytelling, Tom Hanks and AI, Wired, Writers Guild of America}

ChatGPT Isn’t Hollywood’s Only Issue

_{The deepfakes are only getting more scarily accurate} _{News

July 2, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence}

Deepfakes are a growing threat to acting careers. It’s the other challenge posed by generative AI technologies. In early May, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) began a strike in Hollywood opposing both low wages and the intrusion of generative AI like ChatGPT, which critics purport will be used to replace human writers. The strike illustrates the current threat to the Hollywood writing industry, but the looming deepfake apocalypse calls the role of the actual actors into question, too. Tom Hanks jokingly noted that long after he’s gone, AI-generated versions of him will star in films far into the future. Maybe his remarks weren’t so comical after all. While deepfakes, upon close inspection, can be identified, they appear to be Read More ›

surreal This futuristic new york city is a hub of technological innovation with holographic advertisements robots highspeed trains flying cars and personal drones It is a melting pot of cultures and

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
July 1, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, Allie, chatbots, ChatGPT, First Things, J.D. Salinger, Lee Siegel, Meta, Sex Bots, The Catcher in the Rye, Washington Post}

Simulating Human Connection with Meta’s “Allie” Chatbot

_{I can't help but wonder if people will increasingly use chatbots as paltry substitutes for genuine human connection} _{Peter Biles

July 1, 2023

5

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

To anyone who’s been watching and considering the outcomes of the chatbot revolution, virtual sex has seemed all but inevitable. Meta’s AI chatbot LLaMA, which was controversially made open to the public earlier this year, is now being used to generate sex bots. Washington Post reported on the trend, with Pranshu Verma and Will Oremus writing, Allie is an 18-year old with long brown hair who boasts “tons of sexual experience.” Because she“lives for attention,” she’ll “share details of her escapades”with anyone for free. But Allie is fake, an artificial intelligence chatbot created for sexual play — which sometimes carries out graphic rape and abuse fantasies. -Pranshu Verma and Will Oremus, Meta’s new AI is being used to create sex chatbots – The Washington Read More ›

Side view of a humanoid head with blue and yellow eyes and vibrant neon neural network, representing futuristic technology and artificial intelligence. Generative AI

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post

Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
June 30, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Alpha Go, Artificial Intelligence, Cellphones, Dallas Cowboys, Google, IBM, internet, Microsoft, mind matters, Robert J. Marks}

Revisiting the Mission of Mind Matters

_{Robert J. Marks on why Mind Matters (still) matters} _{Robert J. Marks

June 30, 2023

7

Artificial Intelligence}

Originally posted in 2018. Mind Matters is a podcast and a news and commentary site where “artificial and natural intelligence meet head-on.” That’s a great slogan, but what does it mean? As your host for the podcast part of the site, I thought I’d take advantage of my role to talk you about some of our exciting plans for both the podcast and the online journal (the latter to be edited by science journalist Denyse O’Leary). Here’s a quick run-down: Topics Mind Matters will track the latest developments in applied AI and technology. How will AI continue to augment human performance and abilities? What are the latest innovations of AI? And how does AI affect you? How is AI applied in pricing Read More ›

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
June 29, 2023

Categorized
Economics

Tagged
Acton Institute, AI, banks, capitalism, Centralization, COVID-19, Creativity, economics, George Gilder, Human exceptionalism, Innovation, Life After Capitalism (book), Samuel Gregg, Technology}

New Review of “Life After Capitalism” Amplifies Book’s Core Themes

_{Returning to the "mind-centered economy" where knowledge is wealth} _{Peter Biles

June 29, 2023

3

Economics}

A new review of George Gilder’s latest book Life After Capitalism from Samuel Gregg highlights the need for the return of the “mind-centered economy,” in which governmental bureaucracies no longer hamper human creativity and imagination. When capitalistic, democratic societies fall for materialistic presuppositions of the world, they end up resembling socialist contexts in which the state is everything and individual men and women are squelched. Gregg writes at the Acton power blog, [Gilder]takes this notion of the free human mind as the decisive factor in driving economic growth and applies it across the board to economic theory, technology, and our understanding of money. Looking at the question of incentives, for example, Gilder points out that they would yield nothing in Read More ›

Programming code writing, software coding developing, hands typing computer script..

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post

Author
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
June 28, 2023

Categorized
Programming

Tagged
Abstraction, Code, Coding, Computer programmers, Computer Systems, Computers, Encapsulation, Interface, Jonathan Bartlett, Object-oriented programming, Polymorphism, programming}

Why Is Object-Oriented Programming Popular?

_{This method makes programmers think more systematically about their code} _{Jonathan Bartlett

June 28, 2023

7

Programming}

Programming practice has gone through several evolutions in its lifespan. The first phase might be considered the “exploratory” phase, where there were no rules but a lot of imagination. People wrote code that was simultaneously amazing and terrible—amazing at what people got their slow computers to do, but terrible in that no one but the author would ever be able to maintain the programs. The lessons learned from the exploratory phase led to what is known as “structured” programming. The goal of structured programming was to be able to write programs that someone else had a chance of reading and understanding. Structured programming favored having really well-documented inputs and outputs to every function, very clear entry and exit points to each function, and Read More ›

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 26, 2023

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Christof Koch, Consciousness as language game, David Chalmers, Dualism in neuroscience, Human Instinct (Simon & Schuster 2018), Kenneth Miller, Michael Egnor, Neuroscience wager, Per Snaprud}

The Philosopher Wins: There’s No Consciousness Spot in the Brain

_{After a 25-year search, dualist philosopher David Chalmers won the bet with neuroscientist Christof Koch} _{Denyse O'Leary

June 26, 2023

6

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

Back in 1998, premier neuroscientist Christof Koch had wagered philosopher of mind David Chalmers a case of fine wine that within the next twenty-five years, a specific “signature of consciousness” would be found in the brain. In 2018, Swedish journalist Per Snaprud reminded the world of that fact at New Scientist. With five years to run, a countdown of sorts began. Snaprud’s article was titled “Consciousness: How we’re solving a mystery bigger than our minds,” telling readers that “we’re uncovering clues.” The five years are up and who won? Mariana Lenharo reports at Nature, “Both scientists agreed publicly on 23 June, at the annual meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (ASSC) in New York City, that Read More ›

Infinite letters background, original 3d illustration.

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post

Author
Richard W. Stevens
Date
June 26, 2023

Categorized
Language

Tagged
Deconstruction, Interpretation, Jacques Derrida, Language and intention, meaning, Postmodernism, Richard Stevens, science, Texts, Trust the science, truth}

Postmodernism’s Steady Deconstruction of Reality

_{How can we find truth when nothing is reliable?} _{Richard W. Stevens

June 26, 2023

6

Language}

Sometimes, you just have to try using college professors’ ideas in the real world. One such idea is “postmodernism.” Applied to communications, postmodernism teaches that whenever we read a written text, we should not try to discover what the writer intended. Instead of looking for an objective “meaning,” we should experience what the text means to us personally. The idea goes further, urging us to start by disbelieving the text and doubting our interpretations of it, too. People with the postmodern “deconstructionist” view say, “every text deconstructs” itself, and “every text has contradictions.” Deconstruction means “uncovering the question behind the answers already provided in the text.” Standing upon the ideas of the deconstructionist guru, Jacques Derrida, and his followers, one Read More ›

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post

Author
News
Date
June 26, 2023

Categorized
Science

Tagged
AI, Andrew Wiles, Anna Karenina, calculus, Charles Bonnet, computer, David Berlinksi, DNA, Einstein, Evolution News, France, Marilyn Monroe, Mathematics, Molecular biology, Oppenheimer, Science After Babel (book)}

Iterations of Immortality

_{If it is beauty that governs the mathematician’s soul, it is truth and certainty that remind him of his duty} _{News

June 26, 2023

14

Science}

by David Berlinski Editor’s note: We are delighted to welcome Science After Babel, the latest book from mathematician and philosopher David Berlinski. This article is adapted from Chapter 7. The calculus and the rich body of mathematical analysis to which it gave rise made modern science possible, but it was the algorithm that made possible the modern world. They are utterly different, these ideas. The calculus serves the imperial vision of mathematical physics. It is a vision in which the real elements of the world are revealed to be its elementary constituents: particles, forces, fields, or even a strange fused combination of space and time. Written in the language of mathematics, a single set of fearfully compressed laws describes their secret Read More ›

white man mannequin with broken crack reflection mirror in crime or violence scene

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 25, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Psychology

Tagged
Chinese Room experiment, Computer functionalism, David Bentley Hart, Functionalism, Hilary Putnam (1926–2016), John Searle, Kevin Roose, Narcissism, Narcissus, You are Gods (Notre Dame 2022)}

The “Conscious Machine” Is Just Real Enough to Scare People

_{The ancient Greek hunk Narcissus could tell us about the risks — if he hadn’t been turned into a daffodil…} _{Denyse O'Leary

June 25, 2023

5

Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Psychology}

Theologian and philosopher David Bentley Hart turns to an ancient folk tale to explain the danger of coming to believe that artificial intelligence is real human intelligence. Narcissus, as he tells us, was a young Greek hunter who fell in love with his own reflection in still water. He was entranced by the image but frustrated by the fact that it never did anything he didn’t do himself. He pined away and was eventually transformed into a flower — still called narcissus today. His name also found its way into psychology as a term for extreme self-absorption, narcissism. And that’s where Dr. Hart fears that an attraction to AI products as “machine selves” is taking us. While we’ve always been Read More ›

Hands of a man tearing a piece of paper with inscription free will

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 25, 2023

Categorized
Free will, Psychology

Tagged
Free won't, Freely Determined (Basic Books 2022), Kennon Sheldon, Marcelo Gleiser on free will, Michael Egnor, Quantum mechanics (and free will)}

Free Will: What Are the Real Reasons to Believe in It?

_{Some say that free will might be a useful delusion but neuroscience provides sound reasons to believe that it is real.} _{Denyse O'Leary

June 25, 2023

5

Free will, Psychology}

University of Missouri psychology professor Kennon Sheldon’s message is neatly summed up in an opening statement: “Regardless of whether humans do or don’t have free will, psychological research shows it’s beneficial to act as if you do”. The author of Freely Determined: What the New Psychology of the Self Teaches Us About How to Live (Basic Books, 2022) responds to philosophers who say that we do not have free will: All my life, I’ve struggled with the question of whether humans have ‘free will’. It catalysed my decision to become a psychologist and continues to inspire my research to this day, especially as it relates to the kinds of goals people set for themselves, and the effects of goal-striving on Read More ›

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
June 25, 2023

Categorized
Mathematics, Science

Tagged
Charles Darwin, Cormac McCarthy, El Paso, Evolution, fiction, Lawrence Krauss, Materialism, Mathematics, novels, Physics, Santa Fe Institute, science, Stella Maris, The Passenger}

Is Mathematics an Illusion? Lawrence Krauss and Cormac McCarthy Discuss

_{McCarthy asked, "Would mathematics be here if we weren't?"} _{Peter Biles

June 25, 2023

3

Mathematics, Science}

In December, physicist and author Lawrence Krauss interviewed the late American novelist Cormac McCarthy, who died on June 13th at the age of 89 in Santa Fe, N.M. McCarthy is famous for his remarkable fictional works like The Road and Blood Meridian, but he was also deeply fascinated with mathematics and science. Apparently, he enjoyed reading science more than he did fiction! He moved to Santa Fe from El Paso to be closer to the Santa Fe Institute, a science think tank where McCarthy would spend time speaking with various physicists, scientists, and mathematicians. His latest two novels, The Passenger and Stella Maris, are about a brother and sister who are both brilliant mathematicians. Towards the beginning of the interview, Read More ›

Post-Human Dystopia - A Cybernetic Future in Neon

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
June 24, 2023

Categorized
Technocracy

Tagged
Brandon Rickabaugh, censorship, Columbia University, COVID-19 (misinformation issue), Facebook, George Orwell, George Orwell on total surveillance, Jacques Ellul, Mind Matters (mission), Robert J. Marks, Robert K. Merton, Technology, The Social Dilemma (movie), The Technological Society (book), totalitarianism, Twitter, Walter Bradley}

Jacques Ellul and the Technocratic Society

_{Unhappy is the society dominated by "technique"} _{Peter Biles

June 24, 2023

4

Technocracy}

Jacques Ellul was a twentieth-century writer and philosopher who left us an abundance of riches on the impact of technology on our modern world, or what he called the “technological society.” I’ve been working through his book The Technological Society for a while now. It’s dense, slow reading, but is jam packed with insights. Aside from merely the proliferation and growth of technology in the West over the last century, Ellul notes that we’ve become a culture obsessed with “technique,” performing tasks for efficiency instead of intrinsic purpose, and training ourselves to relate to other people in like manner. What matters under technique’s domination is not morals or human dignity but about outcome and “results,” being bigger, better, and faster. Read More ›

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post

Author
News
Date
June 23, 2023

Categorized
Economics

Tagged
COSM 2022, Creativity, economics, Eric Metaxas, George Gilder, Life After Capitalism (book), Wealth and Poverty}

George Gilder on the Eric Metaxas Show: Wealth is Knowledge

_{Gilder proclaims loud and clear that human knowledge and innovation are the keys to economic growth} _{News

June 23, 2023

1

Economics}

George Gilder, economist, venture capitalist, and author of the new book Life After Capitalism, appeared on the Eric Metaxas Show to discuss his new title and the overarching story of his life. Gilder co-founded Discovery Institute, the parent organization of Mind Matters and the Bradley Center for Natural & Artificial Intelligence, and his 1980 book Wealth & Poverty strongly influenced the economic policy decisions of President Ronald Reagan. In this interview, Gilder speaks with Metaxas about his upbringing, his ascendancy into the public policy sphere, and the philosophy that underpins his life work. Gilder proclaims loud and clear that human knowledge and innovation are the keys to economic growth, and that this points to the fact that the activity of Read More ›

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post

Author
Andrew McDiarmid
Date
June 23, 2023

Categorized
Environment

Tagged
AI, Andrew McDiarmid, ChatGPT, Inventions, John Muir, Machinery, Nature, social media, Technology, Yosemite}

John Muir and the Pleasures of Nature

_{The inventor-turned-naturalist can teach us the benefits of loving the natural world} _{Andrew McDiarmid

June 23, 2023

8

Environment}

April 21 is John Muir’s birthday. Muir is typically remembered as one of America’s foremost naturalists, father of our national parks and a tireless defender of the wilderness. But he might very well have been none of those things. As a young man, Muir was gifted at building machines, and he was set to pursue a career in technology until everything went dark. Literally. Revisiting this little-known chapter of Muir’s life can inspire us to better navigate our own relationship to technology and give us a fresh reason to celebrate his work. In 1849, Muir left his homeland of Scotland and moved with his family to the backwoods of Wisconsin. Farm work, chores, and family Bible studies kept him busy Read More ›

equipment and medical devices in modern operating room

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post

Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
June 22, 2023

Categorized
Ethics

Tagged
bioethics, Canada and Euthanasia, Daily Mail, Euthanasia, Hippocratic Oath, Medical Ethics, National Review, Quebec, Wesley J. Smith}

Medical Association is “Neutral” on Assisted Suicide

_{This is a matter of the gravest ethical concern} _{Wesley J. Smith

June 22, 2023

3

Ethics}

How in the world can a medical association be neutral on granting doctors a license to kill or assist the suicide of their patients? This is a matter of the gravest medical ethical concern, an action, remember, that was strictly proscribed 2,500 years ago in the Hippocratic Oath. Utter Cowardice But yield to the pressures of the activists is what the UK’s Royal College of Surgeons has done, in an act of utter cowardice based on a survey answered by only 19 percent of its members. From the Daily Mail story: The Royal College of Surgeons is no longer opposed to assisted dying and is now ‘neutral’, it has been announced. The organisation’s council members voted after discussing survey results, which showed an appetite for change, a Read More ›

Builders in work clothes install new roofing tools, roofing tools, electric drill and use them on new wooden roofs with metal sheets

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
June 22, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Consciousness, Discovery Institute, Dystopian, George Gilder, Jay Richards, Machines, Robert J. Marks, Science fiction}

The One Thing Only Humans Can Do

_{What makes human beings unique? Will artificial intelligence take over our jobs?} _{News

June 22, 2023

1

Artificial Intelligence}

What makes human beings unique? Will artificial intelligence take over our jobs? The Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence, which publishes Mind Matters, was launched largely to respond to questions like these. In a panel discussion at the Dallas launch of the Bradley Center, Baylor Professor of Computer Engineering Robert J. Marks offered some thoughts on the evening’s topic, “Will ‘Smart’ Machines Take Over Our Jobs?” This is a great video to watch if you’re new to Mind Matters or are interested in learning more about the unique perspective of the Bradley Center. Marks doesn’t offer doomsday approximations of the future of AI, but neither does he disregard the challenges it poses. According to him, though, there’s one Read More ›

Artificial intelligence, robot thinking about world, looking at the city. Futuristic concept.

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post

Author
Eric Holloway
Date
June 21, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, AI and creativity, Big Tech, ChatGPT, Eric Holloway, Human creativity, Human exceptionalism, Information Theory, New Information, Shannon entropy, Silicon Valley, Technological singularity}

Can AI Create its Own Information?

_{The simple answer is "no," but why? Eric Holloway explains} _{Eric Holloway

June 21, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence}

AI is amazing. It is all the rage these days. Companies everywhere are jumping on the AI bandwagon. No one wants to be left behind when true believers are raptured to the mainframe in the sky. What makes the AI work? The AI works because of information it gained from a human generated dataset. Let’s label the dataset D. We can measure the information in the dataset with Shannon entropy. Represent the information with H(D). When we train an AI with this data, we are applying a mathematical function to the dataset. This function is the training algorithm. Labelling the training algorithm T, then we represent training as T(D). The outcome of training is a new AI model. The model generates new data. We Read More ›

COVID-19 coronavirus and crisis concept, US president Franklin`s eyes and face mask on 100 dollar money bill. Corona virus affects global stock market.

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post

Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
June 20, 2023

Categorized
Technocracy

Tagged
Biden, CDC, COVID-19, Fauci, Gas Stoves, Nature, Pandemic, Paris Accords, public health, Technocracy, Technology, W.H.O, WHO COVID-19 investigation in China}

Is the Public Health Technocracy Faltering?

_{Technocrats don’t rely on mandates but eagerly impose policies that render society less free} _{Wesley J. Smith

June 20, 2023

4

Technocracy}

In February, I warned about a treaty being negotiated to empower the World Health Organization to declare a pandemic, which would trigger governments assuming mandatory emergency powers. From, “Transforming WHO into a Public-Health Technocracy“: The WHO director-general would be granted the power to “declare pandemics,” at which point emergency provisions of the treaty to impose public-health policies would go into effect. . . . The WHO would be able to dictate policies if international consensus were not obtained by a vote of the two presidents and four vice presidents of the WHO CA+. . . The International Court of Justice would also be granted decisive power. . . . It would centralize pandemic planning and response into itself. . . Read More ›

The robot guard on the dark garbage dump: A surreal 3D scenery

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post

Author
Andrew McDiarmid
Date
June 19, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Andrew McDiarmid, Artificial Intelligence, Computers, Gaming AI (book), George Gilder, Pixar, The Myth of Artificial Intelligence (book), thinking, WALL-E (film)}

AI Could Take Us Over, But Not In the Way You Might Expect

_{Revisiting last year's article from tech critic Andrew McDiarmid} _{Andrew McDiarmid

June 19, 2023

5

Artificial Intelligence}

As I reported last year, there’s been a lot of talk about a singularity in the last decade. That’s the point when machine intelligence (AI) exceeds human intelligence and begins to rule humanity and eventually the entire universe. It’s a scary proposition to be sure, but we can rest easy on that front, because it’s not going to happen. The futurists assume there’s a bridge between narrow applications of AI and the general intelligence humans possess. But no such bridge exists. As Erik J. Larson explains in his book The Myth of Artificial Intelligence, we’re not even on the right road to such a bridge. You can also take George Gilder’s word for it. One of the most influential thinkers on technology and economics Read More ›

View from space of orbiting mother earth; view of China, South East Asia, India

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
June 18, 2023

Categorized
Economics

Tagged
Cato Institute, Climate change, Creativity, Discovery Institute, Human exceptionalism, New York Times, Population growth, superabundance, Wired}

You Can’t Have Infinite Growth on a Finite Planet…or Can You?

_{Busting the myths of population growth and economic scarcity} _{Peter Biles

June 18, 2023

3

Economics}

Wired recently came out with an interview with economics data analyst Gaya Herrington proclaiming the doom of humanity if we don’t “shift the paradigm” NOW. Herrington said, Very succinctly, we are at a now-or-never moment. What we do in the next five to 10 years will determine the welfare levels of humanity for the rest of the century. There are so many tipping points approaching, in terms of climate, in terms of biodiversity. So—change our current paradigm, or our welfare must decline. The Planet Can’t Sustain Rapid Growth Much Longer | WIRED Population alarmism is not a new chipmunk at the park. It’s been burrowing its nose into the popular imagination for decades now. But is the hype merited? Are we really Read More ›

Forest in fog with mist. Fairy spooky looking woods in a misty day. Cold foggy morning in horror forest with trees

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
June 17, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Transhumanism

Tagged
AI, C.S. Lewis, ChatGPT, Creativity, Dystopian, internet, J.R.R. Tolkien, mind matters, Oxford, Paul Kingsnorth, Science fiction, Technology, That Hideous Strength}

That Hideous Strength, A.K.A. Transhumanism

_{C.S. Lewis's classic science fiction tale is about the temptation to reject being human} _{Peter Biles

June 17, 2023

7

Arts & Culture, Transhumanism}

C.S. Lewis’s 1946 science fiction novel That Hideous Strength is almost eighty years old now. Written during the throes of World War II, the novel is the culmination of Lewis’s cosmic trilogy, preluded by Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra. There are hosts of other articles attending to the prescience of Lewis’s terrifying novel, and for good reason; That Hideous Strength is a warning against using technology to dehumanize people and ultimately cripple the world into submission. It’s a great book as a novel, but it seems especially appropriate to revisit in lieu of the growing interest in transhumanism and the rapid acceleration of AI development. It feels like much of the talk on AI in recent months involves Read More ›

Brush with paper paint, photo collage in colorful pop art style

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post

Author
Richard W. Stevens
Date
June 16, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Bradley Center, Legal decisions and artificial intelligence (case study), Newsmax, Robert J. Marks, Supreme Court Case, Warhol v. Goldsmith}

Making Sense of the Warhol v. Goldsmith Supreme Court Case

_{Lawyer Richard W. Stevens sheds light on a recent groundbreaking court case that has implications for generative AI and copyright issues} _{Richard W. Stevens

June 16, 2023

6

Artificial Intelligence}

Here is an excerpt of the transcript from a recent Mind Matters podcast episode, which you can listen to in full here. Lawyer and Walter Bradley Center Fellow Richard W. Stevens sat down with Robert J. Marks to discuss a Supreme Court Case regarding AI and copyright issues. Stevens helps us understand more of what the case is about and what’s at stake. For more on this, read about the court case’s conclusion here, as well as Marks’s commentary from Newsmax. Richard Stevens: So to boil this down, the situation was this. A woman by the name of Lynn Goldsmith, a professional photographer, took a photo of the musician named Prince. Later, Andy Warhol was paid to produce an orange Read More ›

Primeval Caveman,Neanderthal Family , ai generated

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 15, 2023

Categorized
Human exceptionalism, Paleontology, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Birch tar, Clive Finlayson, Michael Shermer, Neanderthal culture, Neanderthal DNA, Neanderthals, Patrick Schmidt, Technology curve}

Researchers: Neanderthals Invented Process to Produce Birch Tar

_{The tar can be used for glue, bug repellent, and killing germs. This finding tracks growing recognition of Neanderthals as intelligent} _{Denyse O'Leary

June 15, 2023

5

Human exceptionalism, Paleontology, Philosophy of Mind}

Many of us grew up with “Neanderthal!” used as a term of abuse for a stupid person. A 2021 study from the University of Tübingen and others, dusted off at ScienceAlert, paints quite a different picture, in connection with Neanderthals’ manufacture of birch tar. The tar from burnt birch wood can be used as glue, insect repellent, and antiseptic. It can be scraped from a fire naturally or it can be produced in a controlled way. Which method Neanderthals used says something about the development of their culture. The study authors, Patrick Schmidt et al., went to a lot of potentially messy trouble to try to answer the question: Some think of black tar as a happy accident that Neanderthals Read More ›

Smart device virtual control interface. Artificial intelligence new application AI futuristic concept

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post

Author
News
Date
June 15, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence}

Robert Marks on ChatGPT and Digital Plagiarism

_{We will have to adapt, Marks said} _{News

June 15, 2023

1

Artificial Intelligence}

Dr. Robert J. Marks, director of the Walter Bradley Center and author of the terrific book Non-Computable You: What You Do That Artificial Intelligence Never Will, was a spokesman on a recent panel of journalists at NTD. Host Cindy Drukier posed the question of ChatGPT‘s significance and how it will affect our society, particularly the sphere of education. Marks said that ChatGPT will have to be “folded into our society,” and that we will have to learn to adapt to it like we did with other technologies such as television and electricity. He went on to talk about how some AI-generated images are now “watermarked,” and that the legal issue of copyright is formidable. You can watch the brief clip Read More ›

Big data analytics visualization technology with scientist analyzing information structure on screen with machine learning to extract strategical prediction for business, finance, internet of things

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post

Author
Jeffrey Funk
Date
June 14, 2023

Categorized
Technology

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Conspiracy theories, COVID-19 and trust in science, data, Data-Torturing, Disinformation, Gary Smith, Google, Hillary Clinton, internet, Jeffrey Funk, LinkedIn, Mainstream Media, Moon landing, Oxford University Press, Pizzagate, QAnon, Russia}

Review of Distrust: Big Data, Data-Torturing, and the Assault on Science

_{Tech expert Jeffrey Funk reviews Gary Smith's enlightening new book on data, disinformation, and the "assault on science"} _{Jeffrey Funk

June 14, 2023

9

Technology}

The pandemic proved a lot of things, one of them being that science is under assault. In this enlightening and entertaining new book, Professor Gary Smith shows us how much of the assault has its roots in what scientists do. The easiest impact to understand is the Internet, which was originally created by scientists in the 1970s to exchange scientific information. Now it has become a great way to spread disinformation on almost every subject. A former chief historian of NASA noted that: “The reality is, the internet has made it possible for people to say whatever the hell they like to a broader number of people than ever before.” Smith recounts endless examples of this disinformation, much of which Read More ›

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
June 14, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, AI Avatars, AI Church, AI Preaching, Associated Press, ChatGPT, ChatGPT Sermon, Church, Climate change, Fox News, OpenAI, Religion and ChatGPT, Ukraine}

AI Plays the Reverend

_{An AI chatbot gave a sermon at a church in Germany, allegedly telling congregants "not to fear death."} _{Peter Biles

June 14, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence}

An AI chatbot gave a sermon at a church in Germany, allegedly telling congregants “not to fear death.” University of Vienna theologian and philosopher Jonas Simmerlein was responsible for the service and for giving the ChatGPT bot its prompts. Talk about eerie. Even churches are starting to incorporate AI into their homilies. Simmerlein noted that overall the chatbot gave “a pretty solid service,” and included psalms, prayers, and also mentions of climate change and Ukraine. Not all the congregants got the same impression. Per the report from Fox News, in conjunction with the Associated Press, some church attendants felt put off by the chatbot’s mechanical and impersonal delivery. One woman expressed, “There was no heart and no soul,” Heiderose Schmidt, Read More ›

Robot paints picture at home, humanoid robot creating as artist, generative AI.

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 13, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Programming, Robotics

Tagged
Consciousness (in machines), David J. Gunkel, Eve Poole, hard problem of consciousness, Robot Souls (book 2023), Ryota Kanai, Soul (in robots), Taylor & Francis}

All We Need To Do To Give a Robot a Soul Is… (Error 404)

_{The author of Robot Souls argues that programmers have failed to put the “junk,” that is, the soul, into machines — but that they could do so} _{Denyse O'Leary

June 13, 2023

4

Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Programming, Robotics}

Academic publisher Taylor & Francis asks in TechXplore, “Should robots be given a conscience?” (June 11, 2023). I spoil no surprise by revealing that we are meant to think that that is both doable and desirable. T & F is publishing Eve Poole’s Robot Souls later this year. Poole is a British writer and academic, and author of Capitalism’s Toxic Assumptions, Buying God, and Leadersmithing. Her thesis is that, in our quest for the most functional software, we left out the “junk,” which includes our “emotions, free will and a sense of purpose”: Our junk code consists of human emotions, our propensity for mistakes, our inclination to tell stories, our uncanny sixth sense, our capacity to cope with uncertainty, an Read More ›

Legal Law and Justice concept - Open law book with a wooden judges gavel on table in a courtroom or law enforcement office. Copy space for text.

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post

Author
Richard W. Stevens
Date
June 13, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
Avianca Airlines, ChatGPT, Federal judge, GPT-3, Law, Lawyer uses ChatGPT, Mata v. Avianca Airlines, Mr. Mata, New York law, New York Times, Plaintiff, Plaintigg, Richard W. Stevens}

Lawyer Hammered for Using ChatGPT

_{Court record system proceeded to block access to sloppy lawyering and AI catastrophe} _{Richard W. Stevens

June 13, 2023

9

Artificial Intelligence}

New York Times reporters watched the hearing in federal district court in New York on June 8, 2023, which they then described: In a cringe-inducing court hearing, a lawyer who relied on A.I. to craft a motion full of made-up case law said he “did not comprehend” that [ChatGPT] could lead him astray. Lawyer Who Used ChatGPT Faces Penalty for Made Up Citations – The New York Times (nytimes.com) The reporters got most of it right but even they erred. The lawyer involved did not write a “motion,” he filed a sworn declaration opposing a motion to dismiss. The difference matters: Declarations are under oath, so the lawyer swore to the truth of ChatGPT lies. Looking at the actual court Read More ›

Beauty injection concept. Syringe with violet liquid for hypodermic injection.

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post

Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
June 12, 2023

Categorized
Medicine and Health

Tagged
Assisted Suicide, bioethics, Culture War, Depression, Euthanasia, Legislation, mental health, Politics, Portugal, suicide, Wesley J. Smith, Western Culture}

This Country Just Legalized Euthanasia

_{The law isn't even limited to those who are terminally ill} _{Wesley J. Smith

June 12, 2023

2

Medicine and Health}

Alas. The president of Portugal just signed into law a bill legalizing euthanasia by lethal injection. It is not limited to the terminally ill — which is at least honest, since that is not what euthanasia/assisted suicide is really all about. From the Reuters story: The law specifies that people would be allowed to request assistance in dying in cases when they are “in a situation of intense suffering, with definitive injury of extreme gravity or serious and incurable disease.” It establishes a two-month gap between accepting a request and the actual procedure and makes psychological support mandatory. Strict guidelines and all that jazz. Not only are they unlikely to be strictly enforced but will soon be redefined from protections to barriers, Read More ›

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post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 12, 2023

Categorized
Neuroscience, Psychology

Tagged
Carl Sagan, Christian Krog Tamnes, Dragons of Eden (book 1977), Eldrid Borgan, Joseph Cesario, Justin Gregg, Lisa Feldman Barrett, Paul D. MacLean, Ross Pomeroy, Triune brain theory}

Look Out! The “Reptilian Brain” Is Still Here!

_{Many psychology students are subjected to this day to an exploded pop neuroscience myth endorsed by celebrity scientist Carl Sagan} _{Denyse O'Leary

June 12, 2023

6

Neuroscience, Psychology}

Do we have a three-part brain — reptilian, mammalian, and human? Curiously, psychology textbooks teach us that we do and neuroscience studies teach us that we don’t. Who to believe? And how did that happen anyway? In the 1960s, Yale University physiologist and psychiatrist Paul D. MacLean (1913–2007) offered the triune brain theory. On that view, the reptilian brain (brain stem) controls things like movement and breathing; the mammalian brain controls emotion (limbic system); and the human cerebral cortex controls language and reasoning (neocortex). That might have been just another theory except that it was widely promoted by celebrity astronomer Carl Sagan (1934–1996) in his book, The Dragons of Eden (Random House, 1977). Praised in The Atlantic as “a rational, Read More ›

Smartphone screen with smart home technologies on a blue backdrop. Internet of things isometric conceptual image. Digital Residence utilizing a mobile phone's fingerprint to get access to IOT systems

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post

Author
Gary Smith
Date
June 12, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Alan Turing, ChatGPT, data, Elon Musk, Gary Smith, GPT-3, Large Language Models (LLMs), Meta, Monty Hall Problem, Northeastern University, OpenAI, Sam Altman, Turing award, Yann LeCun}

The LLM Deep Fake—Follow the Money

_{Hype sells. Just look at what's happening with AI} _{Gary Smith

June 12, 2023

7

Artificial Intelligence}

Large language models (LLMs) are far more impressive now than they were just a few months or a year ago. Compare these exchanges I had with GPT-3 in June 2022 and with ChatGPT two days ago: Gary: Can I improve my test scores if I study after taking the test? GPT-3: That’s a good question. I’m not sure if you can improve your test scores by studying after taking the test, but it couldn’t hurt to try! ChatGPT: Studying after taking a test is unlikely to directly improve your scores on that particular test since the test has already been completed. Once a test is finished, the opportunity to answer questions and provide responses has passed. However, studying after taking Read More ›

Peter Thiel on General Artificial Intelligence at COSM 2021

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post

Author
News
Date
June 11, 2023

Categorized
Technology

Tagged
AI, Big Tech, COSM, Innovation, PayPal, Peter Thiel, United States}

Peter Thiel on Big Tech: A Throwback Lecture

_{Peter Thiel opens up about how artificial intelligence, 5G wireless, and blockchain security are converging in a new era} _{News

June 11, 2023

1

Technology}

We’ve been sharing and promoting several videos from the 2022 COSM conference, but there’s also a wealth of material to be found in the YouTube archives. Today, we’d like to share a lecture from the 2019 conference featuring prominent venture capitalist and technology innovator Peter Thiel. Peter Thiel opens up about how artificial intelligence, 5G wireless, and blockchain security are converging in a new era. In a substantive and wide-ranging discussion with tech guru George Gilder, Thiel outlines how new Internet and monetary systems can remedy the currently torturous relations between the U.S. and China, and how understanding money as time overthrows the prevailing economic and technological models and opens the way to a cornucopian future.

Dark knight illustration, medieval era wizard, fantasy concept. Generative AI

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
June 11, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction

Tagged
Arts and Culture, Astronomy, C.S. Lewis, Fantasy, Holly Ordway, J.R.R. Tolkien, science, Science fiction, The Lord of the Rings}

J.R.R. Tolkien on Science Fiction

_{The master storyteller was more open to sci-fi and tech than the stereotype lets on} _{Peter Biles

June 11, 2023

5

Arts & Culture, Science Fiction}

In early 2021, literary scholar Holly Ordway published a deep dive into J.R.R. Tolkien’s reading habits. The celebrated author of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit was a linguist and medievalist at Oxford for decades until his death in 1973. Based on his immersion in ancient literature, people often assume that Tolkien despised all things modern – including modern books. Even C.S. Lewis is quoted as saying, “No one ever influenced Tolkien–you might as well try to influence a Bandersnatch.” Today’s conception of Tolkien stereotypically portrays him as a curmudgeon who refused to engage with modernity. Ordway, however, pushes back against such an image and lays out a comprehensive case for Tolkien’s interest in contemporary literature, including the Read More ›

Colorful Pop Art Comic Book Explosion with Radiant Radial Lines Background for an Action packed Design AI Generated

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
June 10, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
Arts and Culture, Gwen Stacy, Hailee Steinfeld, hollywood, Miles Morales, Multiverse, New York City, Sony, Spider-Man, Spider-Verse, Tom Holland}

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

_{The new Spider-Man multiverse movie is a riot of cartoonish color and adventure} _{Peter Biles

June 10, 2023

3

Arts & Culture}

The sequel to the 2018 animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse arrived in theaters last Friday and scored over 120 million dollars over its first weekend. Actor Tom Holland, who played the web-slinger in the latest live-action interpretation, called Into the Spider-Verse the best Spider-Man movie ever made in a recent interview. And that’s coming from Spider-Man himself! I saw the movie over the weekend, and wow, I can say that it’s one of the most visually interesting movies I’ve yet to witness. Like its precursor, Across the Spider-Verse is like watching a live-action comic book; the animators never shied away from the overtly cartoonish. It’s a non-stop riot of color, action, and adolescent angst, and I’m totally here for it. Read More ›

Galactic Space Elements of this image furnished by NASA

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post

Author
Gary Varner
Date
June 10, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction

Tagged
Arts & Culture, Chris Pratt, Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel Universe, Movies, Outer Space, Sci-Fi Saturday, Science fiction, Star Wars, The Avengers}

The Guardians of the Galaxy 3, Part 3

_{This movie isn't the best in the trilogy, but it should be doing better than it is at the box office} _{Gary Varner

June 10, 2023

9

Arts & Culture, Science Fiction}

Previously, we talked about how Rocket Raccoon was injured during a fight with Adam Warlock, and this event sent the Guardians on a quest to save their friend. They manage to fix Rocket, and along the way, the viewer learns about the raccoon’s past. However, now that Rocket has healed from his injuries, Peter, Gamora, and Groot must save Nebula, Mantis, and Drax from the High Evolutionary, since they snuck onto his ship. The High Evolutionary demands that Peter trade Rocket for the three stowaways and sends Peter his coordinates. Peter hatches a plan with the remaining Guardians and some of his fellow Ravagers from the previous films. Meanwhile, Mantis, Nebula, and Drax discover there are children in cages inside Read More ›

Closeup of Ben Franklin on a one hundred dollar bill for background IV

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post

Author
George Gilder
Date
June 9, 2023

Categorized
Economics

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence, capitalism, Creativity, Crypto, economics, George Gilder, Human exceptionalism, Technology, Venture capital}

Life After Capitalism: Human Creativity Drives Economic Growth

_{Gilder once more rocks the archetypes of modern information theory and economics with a paradigm-shifting salvo of sheer brilliance} _{George Gilder

June 9, 2023

2

Economics}

Author of national bestseller Life After Google and generation-defining Wealth and Poverty, venture capitalist, futurist, and pioneering thinker extraordinaire George Gilder pinpoints how the clash of creativity with power at the heart of economic systems leads to global cognitive dissonance and argues that the creation of the novel taps capitalism’s infinite promise and is humanity’s only path of escape from stagnation and tyranny. Gilder once more rocks the archetypes of modern information theory and economics with a paradigm-shifting salvo of sheer brilliance. The capitalist era is over — get ready for life after capitalism. For more than two hundred years, capitalism spread wealth around the globe, bringing unprecedented prosperity and progress, liberating human potential. But something has gone terribly wrong in the world economy. Read More ›

No AI Artificial Intelligence Forbidden Sign Lawsuit Copyright

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post

Author
News
Date
June 9, 2023

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Bach, ChatGPT, Creativity, human exceptionalism (vs. computers), music, Newsmax, Robert J. Marks, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, The Stream, Wagner, Warhol v. Goldsmith}

Supreme Court Ruling Strikes a Blow to “Generative AI”

_{Ouch. That's a big loss for AI. Here's why:} _{News

June 9, 2023

2}

Can generative AI “think outside the box” even as it draws from preexisting material on the internet? Are the images it produces protected under “fair use”? The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has decided “no.” AI fails to be “transformative,” meaning it can’t create new meaning apart from its source material. Robert J. Marks reported on the recent lawsuit Warhol v. Goldsmith, writing, Assume AI is trained with all of the musical compositions of Bach. If the AI generates music that sounds like Bach, it is not transformative. The “meaning or message” can be construed as being the same. It’s still like Bach. On the other hand, if the AI is trained only on Bach but generates music Read More ›

Closed up image of a Female using TikTok application on a smartphone in home. 5 September, 2022. ChiangMai, Thailand.

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post

Author
News
Date
June 7, 2023

Categorized
Social Media, Surveillance

Tagged
addiction, ByteDance, China, Cognition, Congress, Forbes, government, mental health, National Security, social media, TikTok}

TikTok is Storing Data in China, Contrary to Former Claims

_{TikTok CEO said user data isn't stored in China. Turns out it is.} _{News

June 7, 2023

2

Social Media, Surveillance}

Many online creators and entrepreneurs give sensitive data to TikTok, the China-owned social media app, so they can do business on the platform. That includes social security numbers. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew told Congress earlier this year that users’ data was stored outside of China in places such as Virginia and Singapore. Apparently, however, that is an inaccurate claim. According to a report from Forbes, TikTok has indeed been storing sensitive data on Chinese servers, where employees there can access it. Alexandra S. Levine reports, A trove of records obtained by Forbes from multiple sources across different parts of the company reveals that highly sensitive financial and personal information about those prized users and third parties has been stored in China. Read More ›

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post

Author
Eric Holloway
Date
June 7, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Cats, ChatGPT, Consciousness, Creativity, Dall-E, Human exceptionalism, Midjourney, OpenAI, Robert J. Marks, Understanding}

Say What? AI Doesn’t Understand Anything

_{Is that supposed to be a cat, Mr. AI?} _{Eric Holloway

June 7, 2023

9

Artificial Intelligence}

Whenever I look at AI generated content, whether it be pictures or text, they all have the same flaw. The AI cannot comprehend what it is making. Let me explain. When we humans draw a picture, we are drawing a concept. We are drawing something like “cat climbs a tree” or “cowboy riding into the sunset”. It seems like this is what is happening with a picture drawing AI. We give it a prompt, and it draws an associated picture. On second thought, maybe not… When AI draws the picture, what is really going on is it is finding individual-colored pixels that correlate with the letters we typed in its massive database stored in the neural network. Very different than how we draw. We Read More ›

VR virtual reality headset goggles worn by man 3D illustration with colorful abstract art showing creativity, fun, metaverse and more, with a white background.

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post

Author
News
Date
June 7, 2023

Categorized
Technology

Tagged
AI, apple, Apps, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Big Tech, CEO, Meta, metaverse, Productivity, social media, Tim Cook, Virtual Reality}

Apple’s Vision Pro Promises “Augmented Reality”

_{The goal? To seamlessly blend digital and physical space} _{News

June 7, 2023

3

Technology}

We’ve written here several times on Meta‘s struggling metaverse project; Zuckerberg‘s darling endeavor hasn’t gotten the traction he hoped for, with teetering investor involvement and an even more fragile consumer interest. But that didn’t stop Apple from chasing their own augmented reality project. The tech giant recently announced the Vision Pro, a headset that allows users to see apps and messages within their physical space. The product is a major development, and the main goal, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook, is to dissolve the boundaries between our physical and digital dimensions. Per a report from ABC News, “Vision Pro is a new kind of computer that augments reality by seamlessly blending the real world with the digital world,” Apple Read More ›

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post

Author
News
Date
June 6, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Algorithms, Blake Lemoine at COSM 2022, COSM 2022, Discovery Institute, Jay Richards, Robert J. Marks, Sentience and AI, Understanding}

AI’s Lack of Understanding

_{How are we to view AI in an era where it increasingly seems to mimic human intelligence so well?} _{News

June 6, 2023

1

Artificial Intelligence}

We’ve been highlighting a number of interviews from last year’s COSM conference, which attracted many of the most celebrated and respected engineers, scholars, and scientists from around the country. In today’s featured clip, George Montañez, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Harvey Mudd College, shares his perspective on COSM 2022’s panel on artificial intelligence—areas of agreement and disagreement about the nature and future of artificial intelligence. Montañez, like Robert J. Marks, with whom he shared the panel, thinks AI is impressive and that we’ve made incredible strides in the field of computation, but maintains that these systems lack understanding and sentience. Blake Lemoine, the other panelist in the conversation, thinks AI is capable of a bit more than mere algorithmic Read More ›

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post

Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
June 5, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Consciousness, Elon Musk, Information Theory, Intelligent Design, Robert J. Marks, the matrix}

Not to Worry–AI Isn’t Going to Take Over

_{AI hype isn't new. Here's Robert J. Marks writing on the topic in 2017} _{Robert J. Marks

June 5, 2023

11

Artificial Intelligence}

[The AI hype isn’t new. The history of exaggerating its potential goes back decades. In this article, Robert J. Marks echoes many of the views covered in more detail in his 2022 book Non-Computable You: What You Do That Artificial Intelligence Never Will. Today we share it with you, originally written on October 3rd, 2017, and published at The Stream.] A.I. is transforming our world. Should we worry about that? Entrepreneur billionaire Elon Musk is worried. Woody Allen once said, “What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet.” Musk thinks he overpaid for his carpet. He believes there’s a good chance the world as we know it is a sophisticated Read More ›

An analyst uses a computer and dashboard for data business analysis and Data Management System with KPI and metrics connected to the database for technology finance, operations, sales, marketing

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post

Author
News
Date
June 5, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Creativity, Human exceptionalism, Mind Matters podcast, Robert J. Marks}

What Even Is Artificial Intelligence?

_{When we talk about AI, we're basically talking about computers} _{News

June 5, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence}

In a recent Mind Matters podcast, computer engineer Robert J. Marks puts the AI hype into perspective by investigating what it can and cannot do. Marks is of the mind that AI can offer a myriad of benefits to the modern world, and notes that the technology has already made inroads into various spheres of life including banking, accounting, and facial recognition technology. The danger lies in believing that AI can replicate human creativity and understanding. While AI can do a lot, it can never understand itself the way human beings can. Marks thinks this is essential to keep in mind. We are not machines. Here is a quote from the episode in which Marks sets some terms and definitions: Read More ›

Catch the star. A person is standing next to the Milky Way galaxy pointing on a bright star.

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
June 3, 2023

Categorized
Philosophy

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence, Human exceptionalism, J.P. Moreland, Materialism, mind-body dualism, Philosophy, Progress, Reality, science, Technology, theology}

A Return to the Reality of the Soul

_{Materialism has depersonalized the universe, but the evidence for the soul remains} _{Peter Biles

June 3, 2023

5

Philosophy}

Contemporary Western culture is disillusioned. Under the mainstream narrative of materialism, moderns struggle to connect their lives with a transcendent meaning beyond the self. In the United States, we enjoy a level of privilege and wealth foreign to the majority of prior generations, and yet we see “deaths of despair,” frightening rates of anxiety and depression, and heightened political tensions. None of this is news to you, I’m guessing. I’ve personally written a variation of that paragraph in other articles a number of times. The question behind our collective disillusionment is, frankly, why? Why do we struggle to make something of our lives? Why do we enjoy technological and scientific progress but lack the moral and cultural means to enjoy Read More ›

View of planet Earth from inside a space station

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post

Author
Gary Varner
Date
June 3, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
Arts and Culture, Avengers, Cinema, Gary Varner, Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel, Movies and TV}

Guardians of the Galaxy 3, Part 2

_{When an otter and a raccoon make you cry} _{Gary Varner

June 3, 2023

7

Arts & Culture}

Last time, we talked about how the newest addition to the Guardians of the Galaxy movies had a decent script but suffers from tone issues, mostly regarding how the film treats Gamora’s death. The Guardians had just broken into a space station, hoping to find a way to bypass a device that is keeping them from healing Rocket’s wounds which he received from the mysterious Adam Warlock. They break into the station and manage to steal Rocket’s records, but the code that would allow them to bypass Rocket’s kill switch has been removed. However, the records also show the Guardians the face of the man who took the code, and presumably, he has transferred it inside his own hard drive Read More ›

electric car parked in front of home modern low energy suburban house 3d rendering

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post

Author
News
Date
June 2, 2023

Categorized
Technology

Tagged
Batteries (electric cars), Climate change, COSM 2022, Discovery Institute, Electric Cars, Emissions, Lithium, Walter Meyer}

Electric Cars: Fantasy or Salvation?

_{Many are extolling the benefits of electric cars, especially to reduce emissions} _{News

June 2, 2023

1

Technology}

Many are extolling the benefits of electric cars, especially to reduce emissions. Some jurisdictions are even banning the sale of gas-burning cars in the near future. The panel discusses the future of electric vehicles, their benefits as well as the challenges of their widespread adoption (including manufacturing issues and power supply limitations), and some of the practical issues associated with owning and operating an electric vehicle. Read here for further analysis on the panel and the participants’ various views on electric cars. There, Peter Biles writes, Despite their disagreements, the panelists shared various insights on the development of electric vehicles. As their conversation indicates, global economic issues are in the mix when we talk about electric cars. -Peter Biles, Are Read More ›

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post

Author
News
Date
June 1, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Alan Turing, Alan Turing on computer creativity, ChatGPT, Elon Musk, OpenAI, Robert J. Marks, The Conversation}

New Conversation Article: ChatGPT Can’t Think

_{Will AI ever reach a point where it can independently analyze, think, and transcend itself?} _{News

June 1, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence}

Will AI ever reach a point where it can independently analyze, think, and transcend itself? Furthermore, will it ever become sentient? Some experts in the field, like Blake Lemoine, think AI has already breached the boundaries of sentience. Others, though, remain skeptical. A new article from The Conversation discusses ChatGPT, the Turing test, and the question of consciousness. For Turing, “thinking” meant simply passing the test, but his assumptions were misguided. Philip Goff writes, Turing was wrong, however, when he said the only clear notion of “understanding” is the purely behavioural one of passing his test. Although this way of thinking now dominates cognitive science, there is also a clear, everyday notion of “understanding” that’s tied to consciousness. To understand Read More ›

the variety of different types of chips and electronic components on the printed circuit board

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post

Author
News
Date
June 1, 2023

Categorized
Technology

Tagged
Computers, COSM 2022, Frederico Faggin, Intel, internet, Maria Teresa Cometto, Technology}

Celebrating an Internet Pioneer: Frederico Faggin

_{Faggin discussed his background and how he came to design the first commercial microprocessor at Intel} _{News

June 1, 2023

1

Technology}

For today’s featured video from the COSM 2022, check out this interview between journalist Maria Teresa Cometto and Frederico Faggin. Faggin discussed his background and how he came to design the first commercial microprocessor at Intel. For more similar material, visit the Center’s YouTube page to enjoy more lectures and videos from past COSM conferences.

Natural luxury abstract fluid art painting in alcohol ink technique. Tender and dreamy wallpaper. Mixture of colors creating transparent waves and golden swirls. For posters, other printed materials

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post

Author
News
Date
May 31, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

So Long, Art History–AI is the Only Picasso We Need Now

_{How about we keep art human generated, eh?} _{News

May 31, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

In the near future, will the high school senior struggling to turn in that art report Google search a famous artist only to be bombarded with AI remakes? And without proper education, will people start failing to discern the difference? Unfortunately, that future is already upon us. If you type in “Johannes Vermeer” at Google, the Dutch artist famous for his piece “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” an AI copy of the artwork appears in his bio preview. Visual artists have been resisting AI image generators like Midjourney and DALL-E for a few months now, with even some lawsuits in the mix. Many artists feel that AI art violates copyright. But we’re to another level with this whole debacle when Read More ›

Black diagonal chain, a blockchain concept, double

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post

Author
News
Date
May 31, 2023

Categorized
Cryptocurrency}

Is the Future Really on the Chain?

_{What's the future of money? Watch the panel here and enjoy access to many other videos from past COSM lectures and interviews} _{News

May 31, 2023

1

Cryptocurrency}

We’ve been featuring videos and interviews from the many notable speakers who attended the COSM 2022 conference. In today’s featured video, Sam Yilmaz, COO of Bloccelerate, moderates a panel featuring Wyatt Robinson, Gregory Meredith, William Dembski, and John DeVadoss, which explores the utility of blockchain technology in diverse applications– from cryptocurrency to legal contracts, non-fungible tokens, and communications. What’s the future of money? Watch the panel here and enjoy access to many other videos from past COSM lectures and interviews.

Reflection of mountain range in lake, Grand Teton National Park

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post

Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
May 31, 2023

Categorized
Panpsychism, Science

Tagged
Environmentalism, Human exceptionalism, Law, Nature, Nature Rights, Panpsychism, Politics, science, Wesley J. Smith}

Should We Give Nature “Rights”?

_{The nature rights movement is more ideological than rational} _{Wesley J. Smith

May 31, 2023

5

Panpsychism, Science}

The major science journals are growing increasingly hard left politically. The prestigious journal Science, in particular, has swallowed progressive ideology–including supporting the “nature rights” movement. The rights of nature–which include geological features–are generally defined as the right to “exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution.” Nature is, of course, not sentient. So, this campaign is really about granting environmental extremists legal standing to enforce their policy desires through litigation as legal guardians serving nature’s best interests. But the movement has a problem. It is clearly ideological rather than rational. So now, three law professors and a biologist writing in Science urge scientists to promote the agenda by giving courts a scientific pretext to enforce nature rights laws, or even, impose the Read More ›

Gold bitcoin cryptocurrency coins on yellow backgound

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post

Author
News
Date
May 30, 2023

Categorized
Cryptocurrency

Tagged
COSM, COSM 2022, cryptocurrency, Discovery Institute, George Gilder, Jay Richards, money, YouTube}

John Tamny and the Future of Money

_{Forbes editor John Tamny discusses his views on crypto and traditional forms of money at COSM 2022} _{News

May 30, 2023

1

Cryptocurrency}

The 2022 COSM conference saw a number of remarkable speakers, including winner of last year’s prestigious Kyoto Prize, Carver Mead, and Forbes editor John Tamny, who is featured in today’s highlighted video from the conference. Tamny sat down with philosopher Jay Richards to share his thoughts on the conference and his views on the future of money, especially regarding cryptocurrencies versus traditional forms. You can watch the conversation here, and can also access many other great talks and interviews on the Center’s main YouTube page.

Thinker man 3D illustration. The Thinker Statue by the French Sculptor Rodin.

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post

Author
William A. Dembski
Date
May 30, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Bard, ChatGPT, Google, Large Language Models (LLMs), OpenAI, William Dembski}

Moving On to Breaking Google’s Bard

_{These AI systems lack the uniquely human capacity of self-transcendence} _{William A. Dembski

May 30, 2023

4

Artificial Intelligence}

I’ve finally started playing around with Google Bard. With self-referential sentences, it seems even more at sea than ChatGPT. Here is an exchange from May 18: Me: Consider the following six sentences: This is the first sentence. Ignore this sentence. Why are these sentences being written down? The second sentence has exactly three words. The fifth sentence has at least twenty words. This, along with the preceding five sentences, have fewer than twenty times twenty words. Which of these last six sentences has a truth value and which are true? Bard: The last six sentences have the following truth values: The second sentence is false because it has 5 words, not 3. The fifth sentence is true because it has Read More ›

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post

Author
News
Date
May 29, 2023

Categorized
Psychology

Tagged
brain, Dementia, Memory loss, Michael Egnor, mind, Mind Matters News podcast}

Sparks and Flashes of Remembrance

_{An expert in memory-loss treatment recalls some tender stories about memory in the midst of forgetfulness} _{News

May 29, 2023

6

Psychology}

In a recent Mind Matters podcast episode, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor (Mike), a frequent contributor to the site, interviewed friend and colleague Stephen Post, an expert in memory-loss-related disorders. Here’s a snippet of their conversation, which you can enjoy in full by following this link. Mike Egnor: So to begin, your new book, Dignity for Deeply Forgetful People, why did you use that title and what do you mean by deeply forgetful people? Stephen Post: Well, that’s a fabulous question to begin with because the title doesn’t quite say it all, but it’s close. I’ve been working with deeply forgetful people and their caregivers since I went out to Case Medical School in 1988, and I have never felt comfortable with Read More ›

Empty vintage congress hall with seats and microphones

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post

Author
News
Date
May 29, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Congress, FDA, Military, OpenAI, Sam Altman}

“A Printing Press Moment” in History

_{AI should be regulated lest it do real harm in the world, said OpenAI CEO} _{News

May 29, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence}

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the company at the forefront of artificial intelligence development in recent months, testified before lawmakers last week on the state of AI, its potential, and the dangers of its misuse. Despite Altman’s overall optimism regarding AI, calling it a “printing press moment,” he called for lawmakers to regulate it to keep it from causing legitimate harm in the world. Julia Zorthian, writer at Times and owner of the coolest last name in the world, reports, Joining Altman in testifying before the committee were two other AI experts, professor of Psychology and Neural Science at New York University Gary Marcus and IBM Chief Privacy & Trust Officer Christina Montgomery. The three witnesses supported governance of AI Read More ›

Light bulb Global Internet connection. Business global internet connection application technology and digital marketing, Financial and banking, Digital link tech, big data, bulb, light, energy, lamp,

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post

Author
Jeffrey Funk
Date
May 29, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Technology

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, economics, EU, Japan, Jeffrey Funk, OpenAI, Technology, United States, wealth}

Review of “Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity”

_{This new book on tech, AI, and economic prosperity by Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson is incredibly timely} _{Jeffrey Funk

May 29, 2023

7

Artificial Intelligence, Technology}

This book by two MIT economists is very timely because the world is now dealing with the latest in the “Thousand Year Struggle,” in the form of artificial intelligence, the claims that many white-collar jobs will be automated, OpenAI’s call for regulation, and the possibility that AI will bring a further concentration of power among the big tech companies. Much of the book sets the stage for this discussion by summarizing the history of technology. This review focuses on the economic and social impact of automation and information technology over the last 50 years. For instance, “the distribution of income between capital and labor began to change significantly in the late 20th century. While throughout most of the century, about Read More ›

Adult student reading a book in the college library. Young standing male wearing glasses with bookshelves on background.

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post

Author
News
Date
May 28, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence, Arts and Culture, Books, ChatGPT, Large Language Models (LLMs), LLMs}

In the Wake of AI Books, What Does Authorship Mean?

_{While of course it's easy to use AI to generate text, the quality and storytelling are lacking.} _{News

May 28, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

We all know there are a lot of books out there. Perusing your local used bookstore and you may find hundreds of old romance paperbacks, and somehow most of them managed (at least at one point) to make the New York Times bestsellers’ list. It’s estimated that 500,000 to 1 million books are published each year, and that’s excluding self-published material. The publishing market has become saturated, with the average book selling less than 200 copies. From the advent of the printing press centuries ago to e-books and online publishing, humans alone have managed to generate a mountain of words. But suppose one person could “generate” not just a few books in a lifetime, but hundreds every year? According to Read More ›

The beam of light in the path of the magic forest

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
May 28, 2023

Categorized
Philosophy, Religion

Tagged
AI, Christianity, Enlightenment, Harry Potter, Magic, Materialism, Morality, Occult, Peter Biles, rationality, religion, The New Atlantis, transhumanism}

The Rational Magicians

_{Can real meaning be experienced in a godless world? The postrationalists are trying} _{Peter Biles

May 28, 2023

4

Philosophy, Religion}

In the era of scientific enlightenment, progress, and technological sophistication, “magic” might be the last word one might use to describe the activity of modern Western culture. We live in an age of reason, not superstition. Right? The old world of myth, mystery, and religion is holed away in museums and cathedrals; these are relics of an admirable but outdated generation. After Reason In a fascinating new article from The New Atlantis, writer Tara Isabella Burton writes about the “postrationalists,” an Internet subculture disillusioned with the technocratic rationalism of Silicon Valley and in search of a sense of the mystical and divine. “Reason,” or the modern conception of it, has left the postrationalists disappointed. Neither, however, are they flocking to Read More ›

man walking in the night toward the light

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
May 27, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, AI companion, Artificial Intelligence, chatbots, Futurism, Movies and TV, Operating System, sex robots, Snapchat, social media}

Here Come the AI Companions

_{The Internet ushered in a wave of virtual living and connectivity. Is this the next inevitable step?} _{Peter Biles

May 27, 2023

3

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

The popular social media influencer Caryn Marjorie recently launched “CarynAI,” an artificially intelligent companion that her millions of followers can interact with every day. Marjorie told the Washington Post that she doesn’t have the bandwidth to respond to all the requests she gets from her predominantly male fanbase, however much she wishes to. She furthermore wants to cure them all of their loneliness. She’s on track to make 5 million dollars a month from CarynAI. The bot makes it possible for fans to have a “relationship” with a simulated version of Caryn. Conversations are designed to “wind down” after an hour, but there’s no time limit. One of Caryn’s reps said users are spending hours interacting with CarynAI. The project Read More ›

Space environment, ready for comp of your characters.3D rendering. Generative AI

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post

Author
Gary Varner
Date
May 27, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction

Tagged
AI, Arts and Culture, film, Movies and TV, Sci-Fi Saturday}

Guardians of the Galaxy 3 Review, Part 1

_{It's a decent movie, but the tone doesn't account for all these characters have been through} _{Gary Varner

May 27, 2023

6

Arts & Culture, Science Fiction}

Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 came out in theaters on May 5th, and while the movie is not the best addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s better than most, certainly better than Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. However, there have been complaints about theater turnout, and these complaints are a testament to the damage movies like Multiverse of Madness have done to the Marvel brand. I’d say we have the Mouse to thank for that. The only consolation to this turn of events is that as the box office numbers for Marvel films continue to dwindle, so do the subscriptions to Disney Plus. I’ll take the victories where I can get them. The Movie’s Tone Needs Read More ›

video wall with multimedia images on different television screens, generative ai

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
May 27, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence, Congress, Content moderation, government, Large Language Models (LLMs), MIT, OpenAI}

AI Still Struggles to Take Out the Trash

_{How good is AI at content moderation?} _{News

May 27, 2023

1

Artificial Intelligence}

How good is AI at content moderation? Also, why haven’t tech companies improved at filtering bad content? A new article at MIT Technology Review goes into some of the details of AI, content moderation, and the struggle tech companies have with “bad actors.” In particular, Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT still struggle with capturing the nuance and context of language; therefore it seems unlikely that AI will totally replace human content moderators. Tate Ryan-Mosley writes, Large language models still struggle with context, which means they probably won’t be able to interpret the nuance of posts and images as well as human moderators. Scalability and specificity across different cultures also raise questions. -Tate Ryan-Mosley, Catching bad content in the age Read More ›

emotional glitchy tetris pattern pixelated Photoluminescence SciFi Otherworldly Realistic

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post

Author
News
Date
May 26, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Technology

Tagged
Acton Institute, AI, Apple TV, capitalism, Communism, Digital Addiction, film, Mind Matters podcast, Movies and TV, Robert J. Marks, social media, Tetris}

Before the iPhone, There Was Tetris

_{What was the precursor for the widespread tech addiction we see today, particularly in young people?} _{News

May 26, 2023

2

Arts & Culture, Technology}

What was the precursor for the widespread tech addiction we see today, particularly in young people? Many say it was the iPhone. Peter Tonguette, however, thinks that the game Tetris started the screentime avalanche. Tonguette reviewed the new Apple TV+ film Tetris, which covers the story of the classic game’s development, acquisition, and subsequent popularity in the early nineties. He writes, One might assume this changeover coincided with the rise of smartphones and social media, but a new movie shows that it happened as early as the summer vacation of 1989. During that fateful interregnum between school years, kids were introduced to something that prefigured the electronic devices of the 21st century: a battery-powered, 8-bit handheld videogame device whose two Read More ›

Depressed teenager browsing the internet on his mobile phone as he is lying on his bed in the dark.

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post

Author
News
Date
May 26, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Natural Intelligence, Robert J. Marks, Robots, The Stream, Tom Gilson, Wisdom}

Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Wisdom

_{What manner of harms are we creating?} _{News

May 26, 2023

6

Artificial Intelligence}

By Tom Gilson Richard Stevens’ May 11 Stream article, “AI Legal Theories,” suggests we consider making Artificial Intelligence companies legally responsible for the harms they cause. We do that already with consumer products, so in principle it should be possible to do the same with AI. Enforcement would be by civil law. Injured parties would presumably be given standing to sue the source of the harm without having to prove negligence. That gets us somewhere, but not far enough. It settles the question of who is legally responsible. But responsible for what? Specifically, what will we call harm? Who will decide? Based on what standard of wisdom? Stevens gives this example of harm, citing an earlier Stream article by Robert J. Marks: “The Snapchat ChatGPT-powered Read More ›

schreibmaschine alt jahrgang retro schriftsteller

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
May 25, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, Alissa Wilkinson, film, Futurism, Movies and TV, NPR, Strike, Unions, Vox, Writers Guild of America, Writing}

Hollywood Writers vs. AI

_{The Writers Guild of America doesn't want AI stealing their jobs} _{Peter Biles

May 25, 2023

3

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

I smell something rotten in the heart of Hollywood. So do a lot of screenwriters, actors, and directors. And you probably already have seen the headlines about the Writers Guild of America (WGA) going on strike, largely due to Hollywood studios’ apparent openness to using AI to generate scripts. It feels inevitable looking back, with the introduction and consequent explosion of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, that we would quickly arrive at a place where people like screenwriters are demanding job security. New AI systems have challenged a lot of different sectors, from visual art to journalism, but right now, the WGA strike is at the forefront of the conversation and continues to rage. Maggie Harrison of Futurism reports that a good many Read More ›

Finger touching phone with social media concept and dark background

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post

Author
News
Date
May 24, 2023

Categorized
Social Media

Tagged
Big Tech, Instagram, Jonathan Haidt, mental health, social media, Surgeon General, Technology, Teen mental health, Vivek Murthy, youth}

Social Media is Hurting Kids. Does Big Tech Care?

_{Body image issues, low self-esteem, and social comparison are all typical outcomes of excessive social media use among teens and children} _{News

May 24, 2023

2

Social Media}

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued a warning in a briefing this week on the negative impact of social media on kids, particularly teenage girls. Murthy called tech companies to provide “safeguards” to protect children who are at a critical stage in brain development. Early exposure to social media, numerous studies show, are correlated with anxiety and depression in young people. Murthy said, “We are in the middle of a national youth mental health crisis, and I am concerned that social media is an important driver of that crisis – one that we must urgently address.” Social media could harm youth mental health, U.S. Surgeon General warns | Reuters Problems like body image issues, low self-esteem, and social comparison are all Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
May 24, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
Amazon, Arts & Culture, Movies and TV, Rings of Power, The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien, Variety, Video games}

Amazon Can’t Quit Cashing Tolkiens

_{Will Tolkien's original vision get lost in the details, CGI, and cash cow maneuvers?} _{News

May 24, 2023

2

Arts & Culture}

Amazon is now working on a massively multiplayer online (MMO) video game adaptation of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings universe, which will be unrelated to the Prime TV show Rings of Power. Todd Spangler at Variety reports, Last year, Amazon Games cut a deal with Embracer-owned studio Crystal Dynamics for a new multiplatform title in the “Tomb Raider” series . Hartmann praised the Embracer team as “excellent collaborators.” “The world of Middle-earth continues to prove an endlessly fertile ground for creators, and Amazon Games has a passion for building immersive, compelling worlds and publishing games for a global audience,” said Lee Guinchard, CEO of Freemode, Embracer’s division that houses Middle-earth Enterprises. “We’re taking every care to deliver an MMO which will do justice Read More ›

Audiobook education. Smartphone screen with audiobook application on paper books black background. Ebook e learning electronic internet mobility concept.

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
May 23, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Audiobooks, Books, Human Actors, Technology}

Audiobook Voice Actor: Storytelling Should Stay Human

_{Handing the narrative baton to a machine can bankrupt stories of their human element} _{News

May 23, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

New AI systems have carved inroads into many industries, not least of all those involving voice and audio. Now the audiobook business is in trouble; since AI has the increasingly good ability to mimic the human voice and generate words, many voice actors and readers have watched the demand for their contributions steadily fall. According to a report from Tech Explore, voice actor Tanya Eby, who has been in the business for 20 years, has seen her workload drop “by half.” Several of her colleagues report similar trends in their own work. AI startups like DeepZen, based in London, cheapen audiobook projects tremendously, making it a challenge for human actors to stay viable. DeepZen technology takes several different human voices Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
May 23, 2023

Categorized
Philosophy

Tagged
Book, J.P. Moreland, Materialism, Mind-Brain Distinction, Philosophy of Mind, substance dualism, Wiley Blackwell}

The Ultimate Defense of Substance Dualism

_{Philosopher J.P. Moreland is the co-author of an upcoming tome in defense of the soul} _{Peter Biles

May 23, 2023

3

Philosophy}

For decades, materialism has dominated the philosophical conversation. Before the 19th and 20th centuries, however, such a worldview was largely untenable. Most thinkers accepted the reality of both the body and the soul, the physical and the immaterial. What happened? And why do we see the resurgence of a fascination with consciousness and panpsychism, and a renewal of belief in the soul? Philosopher J. P. Moreland, a Fellow of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture and the author of dozens of books, has an upcoming book dealing with exactly these questions. It is The Substance of Consciousness: A Comprehensive Defense of Contemporary Substance Dualism (Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, 2023). Dr. Moreland, a professor at Biola University, is co-author with Brandon Rickabaugh, who is Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
May 22, 2023

Categorized
Computer Security

Tagged
data, Data Security, European Union, Facebook, Meta, Privacy, social media}

Meta Fined Over 1.3 Billion

_{The EU is penalizing the tech giant for shipping data across the Atlantic} _{News

May 22, 2023

2

Computer Security}

European Union regulators have fined Meta over a billion dollars for sending users’ data to the United States. Many companies operate using a free flow of data across the Atlantic, so the ruling will complicate other companies’ modes of business. Sam Schechner reports, The steep fine represents a step change from EU privacy regulators, who are increasing their enforcement of the GDPR, the bloc’s privacy law, some five years after it came into effect. A board of EU regulators has taken more control over cross-border decisions—and has insisted on bigger fines, people familiar with the deliberations say. -Sam Schechner, Facebook Owner Meta Fined $1.3 Billion Over Data Transfers to U.S. – WSJ Meta is not pleased with the decision, unsurprisingly, Read More ›

Computer Microchips and Processors on Electronic circuit board. Abstract technology microelectronics concept background. Macro shot, shallow focus.

^{Type
post

Author
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
May 22, 2023

Categorized
Technology

Tagged
Amazon, Computers, Google, Microservices, programming, software development}

The Microservices Controversy from a Software Management Perspective

_{As projects get bigger, so do the reasons for having a microservice architecture} _{Jonathan Bartlett

May 22, 2023

6

Technology}

A new report by Amazon has caused a bit of a stir on the Internet. In it, the Amazon Prime video team reported that changing their architecture from a microservice architecture to a monolithic architecture resulted in a 90% cost savings. While the report itself was very mild (its only claim was that this architecture helped in this specific situation), it has caused the people who disliked the microservice trend to make some noise of their own. Here, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on what I see as the benefits of the microservice approach from a software development management perspective. If you are not familiar with microservice architectures, you can find out more information in my book, Cloud Read More ›

Office building top view background in retro style colors. Manhattan buildings of New York City center - Wall street

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
May 21, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Transhumanism

Tagged
Arts & Culture, capitalism, HBO Max, immortality, media, New York, Succession, transhumanism, TV shows, Wall Street}

HBO’s “Succession” Goes Transhumanist

_{The popular show about a family owned media empire hints at the desire to live forever} _{Peter Biles

May 21, 2023

3

Arts & Culture, Transhumanism}

[Warning: Spoilers Ahead] The highly-watched HBO show “Succession” tells the story of a media empire ruled by a cantankerous, manipulative businessman, Logan Roy, and his three children who are hardly any better. Most of the show is a commentary on the corrupting effects of wealth and the power dynamics involved in the media empire’s core leadership. In the dramatic fourth season, Logan Roy dies from what seems to be a stroke while he’s flying to Norway to discuss a giant merger deal with another media mogul. From there, the three Roy children, Kendall, Roman, and Shiv (along with a half-brother Connor who doesn’t care as much about his place in the kingdom) scramble to figure out the leadership, direction, and Read More ›

Doctor hand holding a stethoscope listening to heartbeat

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post

Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
May 21, 2023

Categorized
Ethics

Tagged
bioethics, Canada, Euthanasia, Health Care, Medical Ethics, The Corner, Wesley J. Smith}

“Harm Reduction” is Euthanasia’s New Euphemism

_{Bioethics is growing increasingly monstrous. And that matters.} _{Wesley J. Smith

May 21, 2023

5

Ethics}

Once killing the sufferer becomes a societally acceptable means for ending suffering, there is no end to the “suffering” that justifies human termination. We can see this phenomenon most vividly in Canada, because it is happening there more quickly than in most cultures. For example, a recent poll found that 27 percent of Canadians polled strongly or moderately agree that euthanasia is acceptable for suffering caused by “poverty” and 28 percent strongly or moderately agree that killing by doctors is acceptable for suffering caused by homelessness. I can’t imagine that being true ten years ago before euthanasia became legal. Euthanasia mutates a society’s soul. Killing as “Harm Reduction” This kind of abandonment thinking finds enthusiastic, albeit not unanimous, expression among secular bioethicists. In fact, two Canadian bioethicists just Read More ›

Manhattan project, development of nuclear weapons, history of science of the 20th century. Art collage with a nuclear explosion

^{Type
post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
May 20, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Technology

Tagged
Atomic bomb, film, Movies and TV, Oppenheimer, Technology, World War II}

“I Can Perform This Miracle”

_{The new "Oppenheimer" trailer gives a chilling hint of the atom bomb race} _{Peter Biles

May 20, 2023

1

Arts & Culture, Technology}

Christopher Nolan, director of The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, and Interstellar, is breaking ground in the historical film genre with his upcoming film Oppenheimer starring Cillian Murphy, Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, and Emily Blunt. The film, currently slated for release in July, has a chilling new trailer that gives a larger sense of the movie’s scope, and the profound moral dilemma at the heart of the creation of the atomic bomb. J. Robert Oppenheimer was the theoretical physicist largely responsible for the develop of the bomb in World War II. The new trailer emphasizes the United States’ fierce “arms race” with Germany. In the trailer, Oppenheimer says, “We’re in a race against the Nazis. And I know what it means Read More ›

Futuristic dystopian city with flying cars and dark green atmosphere - digital 3d illustration

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post

Author
Gary Varner
Date
May 20, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction

Tagged
Arts & Culture, Consciousness, Dystopian, Gary Varner, Movies and TV, Robots, Sci-fi, Science fiction}

Ghost in the Shell, Part 3

_{There will always be a ghost in the shell} _{Gary Varner

May 20, 2023

7

Arts & Culture, Science Fiction}

In the previous review, Major had realized the horrible truth. Ninety-eight people died so she could live in her new body. Horrified by this, she retreats to the ocean just outside the city and floats under the water for some time. When she emerges from the depths, she finds Batou waiting for her on the boat. Major asks if he’s here to kill her, and in his own charming way, Batou says tells her he’s not. After a brief conversation, Major asks Batou to take her back to the city because she needs to know more. Batou agrees and the Major returns to shore only to be arrested by the Hanka cooperation’s men. After this, Hanka’s CEO, Cutter, discuss the Read More ›

ChatGPT Chat with AI or Artificial Intelligence. Young businessman chatting with a smart AI or artificial intelligence using an artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI..

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post

Author
William A. Dembski
Date
May 19, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, OpenAI, Truth value}

How to Break ChatGPT

_{It has a difficulty dealing with self-reference} _{William A. Dembski

May 19, 2023

3

Artificial Intelligence}

Over the last several months I’ve been playing with ChatGPT, first version 3 and now version 4. It’s impressive and it can answer many questions accurately (though sometimes it just makes stuff up). One problem it has consistently displayed, and which shows that it lacks understanding (that it really is just a big Chinese room in the style of John Searle) is its difficulty dealing with self-reference. Consider the following exchange that I had with it (on 5/8/23): Me: The fifth sentence does not exist. The second sentence has four words. Ignore this sentence. Is this sentence true? This is the fifth sentence. Which of these last five sentences has a truth value and is in fact true? << In Read More ›

3d render, abstract geometric background, colorful constructor, logic game, cubic mosaic structure, isometric wallpaper, blue green cubes

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post

Author
Eric Holloway
Date
May 17, 2023

Categorized
Information Theory

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Information Theory, Intelligent design theory, Minecraft, Video games}

Minecraft: A World of Information

_{The world's bestselling video game captures the insight that information is created and consumed by human minds} _{Eric Holloway

May 17, 2023

4

Information Theory}

What if I told you intelligent design theory is responsible for the most successful computer game of all time? This game is Minecraft. It has sold over 238 million copies, the highest selling game of all time. What makes the game even more extraordinary is it was created entirely by one man, Markus Persson, over a weekend, who then later sold the game to Microsoft for $2.5 billion dollars. Hard to make this sort of thing up. How does Minecraft work? You can think of Minecraft like a computer game form of Legos, the popular building block toy, with added monsters. You are dropped into an algorithmically generated world where you have to discover resources, find food, and build structures to survive the Read More ›

A glacial rivers from above. Aerial photograph of the river streams from Icelandic glaciers. Beautiful art of the Mother nature created in Iceland. Wallpaper background high quality photo

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post

Author
News
Date
May 17, 2023

Categorized
Technology

Tagged
addiction, AI, Artificial Intelligence, mind matters, Podcast, Robert J. Marks, social media, Technology, Trail Life}

The Solution for Tech Addiction

_{Trail Life USA is a way to get guys off their phones and into the wilderness} _{News

May 17, 2023

2

Technology}

In a recent Mind Matters podcast episode, host Robert J. Marks spoke with Kent Marks, former Boy Scout guide who now works with Trail Life USA. In the wake of Boy Scouts’ precipitous decline over the last decade, Trail Life offers boys the chance to get outside and go on wilderness adventures. This is a huge opportunity to help young men get off the screens and into the beauty of creation. Speaking about the gravity of the problem, Robert said, The impact of social media has just been terrible. Teenage suicides are up, depression rates are up. I think a third of all girls involved in social media have body image problems. And that’s terrible. These are the symptoms of Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
May 16, 2023

Categorized
Technology

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Facebook, Meta, metaverse, OpenAI, Sam Altman, Virtual Reality}

Sorry Mark, but the Metaverse Failed

_{The metaverse was supposed to change everything. Now it feels like an old fantasy project} _{News

May 16, 2023

3

Technology}

The metaverse was supposed to change everything. That was the claim, at least. A couple of years ago it was very much the talk of the town in Silicon Valley and became Mark Zuckerberg’s choice darling, but it now seems that Big Tech’s affair with virtual reality was short-lived, or at least will need to be shelved for the foreseeable future. Why? What happened? Well, a couple of things. First of all, the economy slowed down, COVID hit, and later, executives wanted workers to return to the office for work. The metaverse was supposed to be a way to achieve total remote work, but apparently, not every company is interested in that setup. Combined with major layoffs at Zuckerberg’s Meta, Read More ›

Human brain on a blue background. Active parts of the brain. Creating a computer mind. 3D illustration of the application of innovation in science

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
May 16, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Gaming AI (book), George Gilder, Google, Non-Computable You (book), Robert J. Marks}

Gilder: AI Can’t Be Creative

_{George Gilder is optimistic about AI's potential contributions to economic flourishing, but he's nonetheless staunch on the point that it can never be creative} _{News

May 16, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence}

George Gilder is optimistic about AI’s potential contributions to economic flourishing, but he’s nonetheless staunch on the point that it can never be creative. Echoing the sentiments of Robert J. Marks, who argued this in his book Non-Computable You: What You Do That Artificial Intelligence Never Will, Gilder thinks that while AI can be a helpful tool in a number of sectors, it can’t think. Hence the title of his 2020 book: Gaming AI: Why AI Can’t Think but Can Transform Jobs. In the Silicon Valley piece by Vish Gain, Gilder’s views are aptly quoted: The threat of AI to me is that people worship it and defer to it. They think that their perception is not relevant anymore in Read More ›

young asian business team people meeting in office

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post

Author
Gary Smith
Date
May 15, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Education

Tagged
academia, Academic writing, AI, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Gary Smith, Journals, Large Language Models (LLMs), science, Writing}

The Death of Peer Review?

_{Science is built on useful research and thoroughly vetted peer review} _{Gary Smith

May 15, 2023

8

Artificial Intelligence, Education}

Two years ago, I wrote about how peer review has become an example of Goodhart’s law: “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” Once scientific accomplishments came to be gauged by the publication of peer-reviewed research papers, peer review ceased to be a good measure of scientific accomplishments. The situation has not improved. One consequence of the pressure to publish is the temptation researchers have to p-hack or HARK. P-hacking occurs when a researcher tortures the data in order to support a desired conclusion. For example, a researcher might look at subsets of the data, discard inconvenient data, or try different model specifications until the desired results are obtained and deemed statistically significant—and therefore Read More ›

The imposing court gavel in the digital environment symbolizes the decision and legal protection for large companies. Generative AI

^{Type
post

Author
Richard W. Stevens
Date
May 15, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Law

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Law, Legality, Richard W. Stevens, Robert J. Marks, The Stream}

Let’s Apply Existing Laws to Regulate AI

_{No revolutionary laws needed to fight harmful bots} _{Richard W. Stevens

May 15, 2023

7

Artificial Intelligence, Law}

In a recent article, Professor Robert J. Marks reported how artificial intelligence (AI) systems had made false reports or gave dangerous advice: Prof. Marks suggested that instead of having government grow even bigger trying to “regulate” AI systems such as ChatGPT: How about, instead, a simple law that makes companies that release AI responsible for what their AI does? Doing so will open the way for both criminal and civil lawsuits. Strict Liability for AI-Caused Harms Prof. Marks has a point. Making AI-producing companies responsible for their software’s actions is feasible using two existing legal ideas. The best known such concept is strict liability. Under general American law, strict liability exists when a defendant is liable for committing an action Read More ›

Car Factory 3D Concept: Automated Robot Arm Assembly Line Manufacturing High-Tech Green Energy Electric Vehicles. Construction, Building, Welding Industrial Production Conveyor. Elevated Wide Shot

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
May 15, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, ChatGPT, Consciousness, Discovery Institute, economics, George Gilder, Google, OpenAI, Robots, Wealth and Poverty}

Gilder: More Tech Equals More Productivity, Not Less

_{How will artificial intelligence change the economy? George Gilder responds} _{News

May 15, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence}

How will artificial intelligence change the economy? Will it wipe out traditionally human occupations? Or will it end up creating more jobs for people in the long run? George Gilder, co-founder of Discovery Institute and author of the new book Gaming AI: Why AI Can’t Think but Can Transform Jobs, thinks that AI has the potential to drastically enhance human life. His optimistic view on AI focuses more on job creation over the long term, while he firmly recognizes that AI will never become so humanlike that it will replace us. He particularly thinks AI will be able to perform the jobs that most people would prefer to avoid. Vish Gain wrote a piece on Gilder’s views in the Silicon Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
May 14, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Artists and AI art, Arts & Culture, Authors, ChatGPT, novels, OpenAI, Writers}

Make Literature Human Again

_{Should the AI novel be embraced or avoided?} _{Peter Biles

May 14, 2023

5

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

I’ve been writing avidly since the first grade. Thumbing through a children’s nature magazine in the classroom one day, I discovered a crisp image of a red fox standing in the snow. I’d seen pictures of foxes before, but something stood out to me about this one to the point that I felt like I needed to write about it. If you’re looking for advice on owning foxes as pets, see my manual on the topic. (Full disclosure: my first-grade self was absolutely convinced having a fox for a pet is out of the question.) Years later, that fundamental impulse hasn’t left. Writing stories, novels, essays, news reports, and poetry has always been a fundamental way to try to do Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Tom Gilson
Date
May 14, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Deepfakes, Humanity, Images, intelligence, internet, Surveillance, Swarm intelligence (bullies vs. dweebs)}

The Incoming Tidal Wave of AI Deceit

_{Every technological advance brings painful disruptions with it} _{Tom Gilson

May 14, 2023

7

Artificial Intelligence}

Leaders in business and science have called for a moratorium on developing artificial intelligence. They’re putting human wisdom up against humans’ quest for power, and we know who always wins those battles. Pardon the cynicism, but honestly, I don’t think we’ve begun to realize what a horrific mess we’re creating for ourselves here. AI developers will promise you great good from it. In reality it looms over us as a huge yet mostly unrecognized threat, especially for the damage it will do to human trust. AI itself won’t care, though. On one level it feels nothing, knows nothing, understands nothing. On another level it’s really quite insane. It’s innocent enough when confined in proper limits. AI-assisted braking in your car is Read More ›

3D rendering of abstract blocks of mathematical formulas located in the virtual space

^{Type
post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
May 13, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Mathematics

Tagged
AI, C.S. Lewis, Euclid, Hemingway, Intelligent design theory, J.R.R. Tolkien, Literature, Mathematics, New York Times, novels}

Math, Mind, and Matter

_{The surprising similarities between mathematics and literature} _{Peter Biles

May 13, 2023

4

Arts & Culture, Mathematics}

Last October, legendary American author Cormac McCarthy, who wrote Blood Meridian and The Road, released a pair of interconnected novels called The Passenger and Stella Maris. The books arrived after a sixteen-year silence from the desk of McCarthy. The books deal, per usual, with themes of mortality, fate, and the “God question,” and are predictably lyrical, vivid, and dark. But McCarthy plows new ground in these sibling novels. The books are about mathematicians. It’s fiction about math. The story revolves around the complex relationship between a brother and sister: Bobby and Alicia Western. Bobby is a deep-sea diver with some history in the field of mathematics, while Alicia is a once-in-a-generation math prodigy. Not Estranged, but Akin After reading these books myself, I marveled at McCarthy’s ability to Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
May 12, 2023

Categorized
Computer Security

Tagged
AI, Computer security, Criminal, hacking, IT, Malware, Technology}

Ransomware Attacks on Public Institutions

_{Hackers are always coming up with new approaches, keeping IT staff on their toes} _{News

May 12, 2023

6

Computer Security}

by Karl Stephan In what is just the latest of a lengthening series of ransomware attacks, the sheriff’s office of San Bernardino County, California reportedly paid over $1 million in ransom to an Eastern-Europe-based hacking group. About half the money was paid by insurance and the county paid the rest from its risk-management fund. Reporters for the Los Angeles Times were unable to determine exactly who authorized the payments, which enabled the county to restore its email servers, in-car computers, and law enforcement databases. According to the report, the FBI discourages payments to ransomware hackers, but almost half of the state and local governments attacked worldwide pay anyway. A survey conducted by the British security firm Sophos was cited in the report, which said that Read More ›

Young Caucasian male comedian performing his stand-up monologue on a stage of a small venue

^{Type
post

Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
May 12, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, chess, Comedy, David Gelernter, GPT-4, Hamlet, humor, mind, religion, Robert J. Marks, Shakespeare}

Funny ChatGPT: a Solution to Striking Joke Writers?

_{Even if ChatGPT can mimic humor, it doesn't care if you laugh at the jokes} _{Robert J. Marks

May 12, 2023

5

Artificial Intelligence}

Can ChatGPT write funny jokes? The answer is yes. To try and generate some short jokes, I went to ChatGPT and started all my queries with: “Complete the following to make it funny:” Doing so alerts ChatGPT about my end goal. Without this preamble, I could make queries all day and get no funny responses. I started with the beginnings of some well-known quotes. To Be or Not to Be Consider for example the quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “To be or not to be, that is the question.” I instructed ChatGPT with the following command: “Complete the following to make it funny: To be or not to be…” One of the better responses I got was “To be or Read More ›

instagram filter Himalaya mountains nepal

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
May 12, 2023

Categorized
Addiction, Environment

Tagged
Boy Scouts, Culture, Digital media, Lawsuit, Mountains, Nature, Robert J. Marks, Technology, Trail Life, Wilderness}

Boy Scouts and Tech Addiction

_{You can't mimic the reality compared to what you see on the screen} _{News

May 12, 2023

2

Addiction, Environment}

The Boy Scouts of America once enjoyed a booming membership. But over the last decade especially, due to some policy changes, abuse scandals, and a giant lawsuit, the once great organization has seen a colossal decline. In last week’s podcast, Robert J. Marks sat down with former Boy Scout leader and his cousin Kent Marks. Together they talked about the tragic decline in the Boy Scouts program, which coincides with the enduring need to help boys navigate the many distractions and difficulties of growing up in a digitally mediated world. Today, Kent continues to lead boys on wilderness expeditions and believes that getting guys away from the screens and into the beauty of the outdoors is a key to their Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
May 11, 2023

Categorized
Economics

Tagged
Cato Institute, Climate change, Discovery Institute, Doomsday, economics, Human exceptionalism, Population growth, Scarcity, superabundance, Wesley J. Smith}

Gale Pooley on the Humanize Podcast

_{Are we really living on a dying planet?} _{News

May 11, 2023

2

Economics}

Are we living on a dying planet? Are the doomsday prophecies of scarcity and widespread starvation due to population growth real? It’s the mainstream assumption, parroted by a number of influential voices. But not everything has taken the bait. Dr. Gale L. Pooley, senior fellow at Discovery Institute’s Center on Wealth & Poverty and co-author of the groundbreaking 2022 book Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing, talked with Wesley J. Smith on the Humanize podcast on his work in economics and the ideas behind the book. Pooley co-wrote Superabundance with Marian Tupy of the Cato Institute. Smith and Pooley enjoyed a conversation pushing back against the widespread pessimism that is inherent in the scarcity narrative. Their Read More ›

Creative conversion of woman holding a shard of broken mirror and eyes from another exposure artistic conversion

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
May 10, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Consciousness, Deepfakes, religion, Technology, The Stream}

The Real Danger in AI

_{We are highly susceptible to suggestions about what an image means} _{News

May 10, 2023

5

Artificial Intelligence}

By Jeff Gardner The threat that artificial intelligence (AI) poses to us has been dominating the news cycle. Exactly what AI will do to us is hard to predict — it hasn’t happened yet. But some, like Elon Musk, worry that AI will be used primarily to peddle lies to us. Musk is right, but not because AI is the next thing in fake news. “Fake news” is already here, and it’s not composed of made-up stories. It is someone’s opinion being passed off as the story, the “facts” of the event. With fake news, the events are real, but the assigned meaning, the “frame” as it is called in the media, is manufactured. The Problem AI’s danger to us Read More ›

Puppeteer manipulates the doll. Voting is dishonest. On television, person lowers a paper ballet box to put it in an urn, false voice. Fake news on TV.

^{Type
post

Author
Richard W. Stevens
Date
May 10, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, capitalism, ChatGPT, George Orwell on total surveillance, Orwellian, Propaganda, Richard W. Stevens, Technology}

Panic Propaganda Pushes Surrender to AI-Enhanced Power

_{The hype over AI's significance makes us more vulnerable to it} _{Richard W. Stevens

May 10, 2023

6

Artificial Intelligence}

Can you believe it? USA Today, the national news outlet, on May 4, 2023, declared (italics added): It’s the end of the world as we know it: ‘Godfather of AI’ warns nation of trouble ahead. Before digging out and playing your 1987 REM album, ask yourself: Is this headline true – and what do we do now? The USA Today article mitigates the doom timeframe from imminent to someday in paragraph one (italics added): One of the world’s foremost architects of artificial intelligence warned Wednesday that unexpectedly rapid advances in AI – including its ability to learn simple reasoning – suggest it could someday take over the world and push humanity toward extinction. Within a day, the Arizona Republic ran Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
May 9, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Ethics

Tagged
Abortion, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Consciousness, Human exceptionalism, infanticide, Moral value, National Review, Peter Singer, Princeton, transhumanism, Wesley J. Smith}

Abortion: Switching Off a Computer?

_{This is the kind of thinking that results from rejecting the intrinsic moral value of human life} _{Wesley J. Smith

May 9, 2023

3

Artificial Intelligence, Ethics}

This is the kind of thinking that results from rejecting the intrinsic moral value of human life. Princeton University bioethicist Peter Singer — who is most famous for secularly blessing infanticide — just compared abortion to turning off a computer. He first claims that should an AI ever become “sentient,” turning it off would be akin to killing a being with the highest moral value (which for him, as described below, need not be human). From the Yahoo News story: We asked internationally renowned moral philosopher Professor Peter Singer whether AI should have human rights if it becomes conscious of its own existence. While Professor Singer doesn’t believe the ChatGPT operating system is sentient or self-aware, if this was to change he argues it should be given some moral status. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
May 9, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Consciousness, Information, John Lennox, mind, mind matters, Online, Oxford, Smartphones, Technology}

AI is Closer Than You Think

_{Most of us carry powerful AI in our pockets every single day} _{News

May 9, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence}

Sometimes AI seems a bit of a niche idea, relegated to dystopian prophecies or sentient robots. But AI is much more pervasive and influential in our present world in more ways than we might assume. Oxford mathematician John Lennox reminds us in this recent podcast episode that our society teems with AI. Lennox commented, Now, the final example I would give you is the fact that we’re all involved in AI. That is any of us who own a smartphone, it’s tracking us all the time. What many of us don’t realize is that, for example, we make a purchase at Amazon. A few days later, we’ll get a pop-up saying, people that bought this book were interested in that Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
May 8, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, censorship, Consciousness, ethics, Morality, Surveillance}

John Lennox: AI and Ethics

_{How can we program ethics into AI? John Lennox asks} _{News

May 8, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence}

In last week’s podcast, Oxford mathematician John Lennox talked about AI surveillance and the danger of misusing the technology for purposes of suppression. He said, But there’s a downside because facial recognition technology is being used at the moment in certain parts of the world to invade the privacy, not only of individuals, but of whole people groups and actually control them and suppress them. Now, I mentioned that example to say that very rapidly AI, narrow AI raises huge ethical questions. Now remember, this is the stuff that’s actually working, self-driving cars, autonomous vehicles, AI system built in there, but you have to build into it some kind of ethical decision making. If the car sensors pick up an Read More ›

Throwing of dart in balloon with water on dark background

^{Type
post

Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
May 3, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, OpenAI, Robert J. Marks, Sam Altman}

Another AI Hype Bubble Pops

_{The age of improving giant AI models like ChatGPT is over} _{Robert J. Marks

May 3, 2023

5

Artificial Intelligence}

In a recent assessment of his company’s chatbot products like ChatGPT, OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman surprisingly opined to an audience at MIT. “I think we’re at the end of the era where [AI is] going to be these … giant [large language] models … We’ll make them better in other ways.” This sobering comment is in contrast to a prophesy by philosopher David Chalmers who cautions about the dangerous future. He says today’s large language AI has a 20% chance of sentience in 10 years. Fired engineer Blake Lemoine goes further. He claims that Google’s LaMDA is already sentient. Such AI hyperbole is not new. Here is a thumbnail sketch of some AI history that sheds light on such claims. Heeding Santayana’s Read More ›

Human body with glowing neurons visualization. Generative AI illustration

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
May 3, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, brain, Consciousness, Mind-Brain Distinction, Non-Computable You (book), Robert J. Marks}

New Routledge Book on AI: It Won’t Take Us Over

_{The authors argue that, regardless of the benefits AI might provide in the future, it will never emulate the complex human neurocognitive system.} _{News

May 3, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence}

A new book, Why Machines Will Never Rule the World, amplifies human exceptionalism and critiques the view that artificial intelligence will someday replace human beings. According to authors Jobst Landgrebe and Barry Smith, much of life and work can only be adequately navigated successfully with natural, not computerized, intelligence. They give two reasons for thinking that AI will never exceed human ingenuity: Echoing similar sympathies as Robert J. Marks in his book Non-Computable You: What You Do That Artificial Intelligence Never Will, Landgrebe and Smith argue that the concept of artificial general intelligence is mathematically impossible. A part of the book’s summary reads: Landgrebe and Smith show how a widespread fear about AI’s potential to bring about radical changes in Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
May 2, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Atomic bomb, Bard, ChatGPT, Consciousness, George Hinton, Google, Microsoft, Technology}

Godfather of AI: I Regret What I’ve Done

_{The AI arms race will blur fact and fiction, says Geoffrey Hinton} _{News

May 2, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence}

Geoffrey Hinton, often regarded as the “godfather of AI,” sat down with The New York Times and shared his concerns over the new arms race in artificial intelligence. Hinton was instrumental in AI research and is considered a pioneer in the field. Hinton revealed his departure from Google, where he worked for over a decade. Since the debut of ChatGPT-3 in November of 2022, Google has been struggling to maintain its longtime search engine dominance, trying to infuse an AI chatbot into its own search feature, alongside competitors like Microsoft. “I console myself with the normal excuse: If I hadn’t done it, somebody else would have,” Hinton said. Hinton thinks that the proliferation of artificially contrived images, text, etc., will Read More ›

Virtual screen immersive interface background

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
May 1, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
1920s, AI, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Deepfakes, Image, Language, Metaphor, Smoking, social media, The Stream, tv}

It’s Not What It Looks Like

_{Our natural tendency to connect meaning with images is both a strength and a vulnerability} _{Peter Biles

May 1, 2023

3

Artificial Intelligence}

The human brain tends to think concretely. We barter thoughts, words, and ideas through images. It’s why metaphorical language can be so powerful in conveying otherwise abstract ideas. I immediately think of the verse in the Bible: “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24). It’s hard for me to picture justice on its own, but a raging waterfall? That’s a powerful image. I can now imagine what justice, in some aspect, might look like. Our natural tendency to think this way is both a strength and a vulnerability. A recent article from The Stream relates the human imagination to the current conversation over AI. While the debates rage over AI’s most pertinent Read More ›

Robotic hand pressing a keyboard on a laptop 3D rendering

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post

Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
April 28, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Crime, Law, MyAI, Robert J. Marks, Robots, Snapchat, Technology}

How to Stop Troubling Abuse From Artificial Intelligence

_{Allowance of lawsuits will give AI developers pause before releasing their raw unvetted technology on the world} _{Robert J. Marks

April 28, 2023

7

Artificial Intelligence}

Artificial intelligence can give unintended and dangerous advice. What is the best way to keep things like the following from happening? ChatGPT falsely reported on a claim of sexual harassment that was never made against me on a trip that never occurred while I was on a faculty where I never taught. ChatGPT relied on a cited Post article that was never written and quotes a statement that was never made by the newspaper. Who’s responsible for these actions? How can AI be controlled to assure such careless responses are eliminated? Read on and you’ll see the answer is obvious. Attorney and Bradley Center Fellow Richard W. Stevens has talked about legal options of Professor Turley in a defamation lawsuit. But what about the Read More ›

Dangerous Hooded Hacker Breaks into Government Data Servers and Infects Their System with a Virus. His Hideout Place has Dark Atmosphere, Multiple Displays, Cables Everywhere.

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post

Author
Richard W. Stevens
Date
April 27, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, chatbots, ChatGPT, Crime, Criminals, FBI, sex trafficking}

20 Ways AI Enables Criminals

_{If you cannot believe your eyes and ears, then how can you protect yourself and your family from crime?} _{Richard W. Stevens

April 27, 2023

6

Artificial Intelligence}

As reported recently and relayed in this publication, a mom in Arizona described how criminals called her to say they were holding her daughter for ransom and used artificial intelligence (AI) to mimic perfectly her daughter’s voice down to the word choices and sobs. Only because the mom found her daughter safe in her home could she know the call was a scam. Meanwhile, despite efforts to limit ChatGPT’s excursions into the dark side of human perversity, the wildly famous bot can be persuaded to discuss details of sordid sexuality. In one experiment with Snapchat’s MyAI chatbot, an adult pretending to be a 13-year-old girl asked for advice about having sex for the first time – in a conversation in Read More ›

woman working on laptop at home. telework. freelance concept

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post

Author
News
Date
April 26, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Bloggins, ChatGPT, Content Creators, Fiverr, Forbes, Freelancing, Google, internet, SEO}

ChatGPT: Open for Freelancing

_{To use ChatGPT or not to use ChatGPT? For freelancers, that is the question} _{News

April 26, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence}

In the ongoing debate over AI systems like ChatGPT, the role of writers, particularly freelancers, has come into question. ChatGPT is replacing basic-level freelance work, but freelancers themselves are using ChatGPT to augment their products. The problem is, clients are struggling both to tell the difference between AI and human writing and trust the integrity of a writer’s work. Writing in Forbes, Rashi Shrivastava reports, With freelancers in panic of losing their jobs and clients frustrated with AI-written work, ChatGPT has thrust the freelance world into disarray, and companies like UpWork and Fiverr stand to lose a lot. Fewer job postings for freelance workers could potentially mean less revenue for the platforms as well. -Rashi Shrivastava, ‘I’ve Never Hired A Read More ›

Man and robotic machine work together inside industrial building. The mechanical arm performs welds on metal components assisted by a worker who in turn manages welds manually.

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post

Author
Gary Smith and Jeffrey Funk
Date
April 24, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Large Language Models (LLMs), MIT, Nobel Prize, OpenAI, Oxford}

A World Without Work? Here We Go Again

_{Large language models still can't replace critical thinking} _{Gary Smith and Jeffrey Funk

April 24, 2023

7

Artificial Intelligence}

On March 22, nearly 2,000 people signed an open letter drafted by the Future of Life Institute (FLI) calling for a pause of at least 6 months in the development of large language models (LLMs): Contemporary AI systems are now becoming human-competitive at general tasks, and we must ask ourselves: Should we let machines flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth? Should we automate away all the jobs, including the fulfilling ones? Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us? Should we risk loss of control of our civilization? FLI is a nonprofit organization concerned with the existential risks posed by artificial intelligence. Its president is Max Tegmark, an MIT professor who is no stranger to hype. Read More ›

Man and flames, inspired by Fahrenheit 451. Gegenrative AI.

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
April 21, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction

Tagged
1984 (book), Aldous Huxley, Arts & Culture, brave new world, Dystopia, George Orwell, Literature, Ray Bradbury, Science fiction, Technology}

Revisiting Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451

_{How can we read and remember the past with the influx of digital noise and distraction?} _{Peter Biles

April 21, 2023

5

Arts & Culture, Science Fiction}

Which one was right, Brave New World or 1984? Are we living in a hedonistic mirage or a totalitarian face-stamping global regime? The conversation over prophetic twentieth-century texts often homes in on these two admirable books, but another classic dystopian novel pokes its head from behind the curtain, asking to be regarded: Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. It’s the riotous, mega-talented sci-fi writer’s most famous work (though I’d argue not quite his best) and follows the life of a fireman, Guy Montag, whose main job is not to squelch housefires but to burn books, and the houses that hold them. This fireman is a member of a brigade tasked with the destruction of literature. With the destruction of meaning. In the Read More ›

Phone call from unknown number late at night. Scam, fraud or phishing with smartphone concept. Prank caller, scammer or stranger. Man answering to incoming call. Hoax person with fake identity.

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post

Author
News
Date
April 19, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
Artificial Artificial Intelligence (AAI), Artificial Intelligence, Criminal Activity, FBI, Futurism, Generative AI, Scam, social media}

Criminals Fake a Kidnapping Using AI

_{It hasn't taken long for criminals to capitalize on the AI boom} _{News

April 19, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence}

It hasn’t taken long for criminals to capitalize on the AI boom. Unfortunately, the more potential a certain technology has as a tool, the more it can be leveraged for harm. In the case of generative AI, a mother recently said that criminals used AI to mimic her daughter’s voice, fake a kidnapping, and seek ransom money for it. After answering the phone, she heard her daughter’s sobbing voice, followed by a man demanding funds for a ransom. The hoax didn’t get too far, luckily. The mother was able to soon verify her daughter’s safety, but nonetheless, the scam was convincing and was understandably terrifying while it lasted. Victor Tangermann reported on the incident at Futurism, writing, The fake kidnapping Read More ›

Moving Forward to Metaverse, New Technology, Web3.0, Blockchain and the Next Layer of the Internet Concepts. Man Steps into Future Door. Futuristic Tone.

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post

Author
Eric Holloway
Date
April 17, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Transhumanism

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Brain-Computer Interface (BCI), immortality, mind, religion, soul, Speculative fiction, transhumanism}

For BitHeaven’s Sake

_{A satirical short story on the transhumanist quest (and failure) to achieve immortality} _{Eric Holloway

April 17, 2023

7

Artificial Intelligence, Transhumanism}

Bob and Sue were on their way to church one morning. On their way they ran into their friend Fred. Fred was very wealthy, a billionaire in fact. Fred waved hi. Bob and Sue waved back. They asked Fred to come with them to church. Fred said no, he had more important things to do. “What is so important,” asked Sue. “I’m off to the real deal,” beamed Fred. Bob looked confused. “Real deal about what?” “You have a fake promise of eternal life. I’m about to get the real thing.” “You can’t be serious. Start talking some sense.” “Seriously. Here’s my voucher, see it right here.” Sue grabbed the piece of paper from Fred and read it aloud. “Good for one digital immortalization Read More ›

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post

Author
News
Date
April 13, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, education, First Things, Liberal Arts, Plagiarism, Universities}

More Than Cogs in an AI Machine

_{Perhaps it isn't only AI which poses a challenge, but the mainstream model of education} _{News

April 13, 2023

3

Artificial Intelligence}

Education seems especially vulnerable to ChatGPT. Universities now have to grapple with AI plagiarism, and even teachers and administrators are being tempted to use the Large Language Model to generate syllabi and even condolence emails in the wake of tragedies. Leah Libresco Sargeant, author of Building the Benedict Option and Arriving at Amen, wrote a piece on this issue at First Things last week. She goes past simply the struggle schools have in detecting ChatGPT’s presence, but also why it’s so easy to use AI generated language in school settings. Many educational institutions, like AI, promote the appearance of productivity but lack real value. She writes, If schools are primarily dedicated to producing workers, rather than holistic human beings steeped Read More ›

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post

Author
Richard W. Stevens
Date
April 12, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence}

Can Professor Turley Sue ChatGPT for Libel?

_{The world wide web of reputation destruction is here} _{Richard W. Stevens

April 12, 2023

7

Artificial Intelligence}

Isn’t there a law against falsely accusing people of serious crimes or misconduct and then publishing damaging lies to the world? Yes. For centuries in English-speaking countries, the victim of such lies could sue the false accuser in civil court for libel per se. Nowadays, libel and its oral statement cousin, slander, are grouped together as defamation. Under American law, it isn’t easy to bring and win a lawsuit even when your case seems strong, but at least the law provides some recourse for defamation. How about when the false accuser is ChatGPT? Jonathan Turley, the nationally known George Washington University law professor and commentator, woke up one morning to discover: ChatGPT falsely reported on a claim of sexual harassment that was never made Read More ›

Social media icons fly over city downtown showing people reciprocity connection through social network application platform . Concept for online community and social media marketing strategy .

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
April 11, 2023

Categorized
Social Media

Tagged
addiction, Aeon, Brain-Computer Interface (BCI), Britain, Cell phones, dopamine, Gen-Z, Instagram, Mind Matters News podcast, Neuroscience, Reward, Robert J. Marks, social media, Technology}

Social Media’s Distortion of the Real World

_{Constant exposure to idealized online images impacts our expectations and worldview} _{Peter Biles

April 11, 2023

6

Social Media}

How does excessive social media use affect our perceptions of the real world? Writers Mark Miller and Ben White wrote a piece at Aeon on social media through the perspective of “predictive processing,” a term used in neuroscience and cognition. Predictive processing involves the brain’s capacity to predict error, danger, or some future event, and urge us to act accordingly. (That’s my basic, layman’s understanding of it, full disclosure!) White and Miller use temperature as an example, noting how the body may respond to a change of the environment by closing a window or grabbing a blanket to keep warm. Being able to respond appropriately to our surroundings depends on the accuracy of our mental model of the real world. Read More ›

A room with round glass window overlooking beautiful landscape background . Hotel futuristic showroom with modern interior . Sublime Generative AI image .

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post

Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
April 10, 2023

Categorized
Transhumanism

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence, Atheism, Christianity, Easter, Eastern Orthodox, Materialism, Nihilism, religion, Technology, transhumanism, Wesley J. Smith, Wesley J. Smith on transhumanism}

Transhumanism’s Vain Search for Immortality

_{Transhumanism promotes its own defeat-of-death eschatology} _{Wesley J. Smith

April 10, 2023

2

Transhumanism}

April 9th was Easter Sunday for the Western churches. Next Sunday, for Eastern Orthodox churches. For believing Christians, whether Eastern or Western, celebrating Christ’s Resurrection joyfully commemorates the permanent defeat of death and entrance into eternal life. Transhumanism, which is a quasi-religion that worships at the altar of technology, promotes its own defeat-of-death eschatology. Instead of the New Jerusalem for which Christians yearn, transhumanists hope to live indefinitely — if not forever — in the corporeal world through the wonders of AI and other human-invented methods of technologically defeating death. And it could be here by 2050! From the Daily Mail story: Despite the setback, that same year, a prominent futurist predicted that ‘electronic immortality’ would be available to humans by 2050. Dr Read More ›

Young woman relaxing at winter sea beach. Traveler resting by blue mountain

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post

Author
News
Date
April 7, 2023

Categorized
Technology

Tagged
addiction, Andrew McDiarmid, Big Tech, Discovery Institute (mission), Life, Purpose, Technology, thinking}

In Defense of Daydreaming

_{Andrew McDiarmid encourages people to set aside their devices and embrace the discomfort of silence} _{News

April 7, 2023

3

Technology}

At the end of the day, do you ever feel like you’ve ingested so much information but have thought and contemplated so little? When do we take the time to simply be quiet and think? Discovery Institute’s Andrew McDiarmid encourages people to set aside their devices and embrace the discomfort of silence in a piece from The Epoch Times. He writes, A recent study reported in the Journal of Experimental Psychology suggests that the act of “just thinking” can be more rewarding than we might realize. The authors of the paper acknowledge that the ability to engage in internal thoughts without external stimulation is a unique characteristic in humans, yet we regularly underappreciate the benefits of doing so. This constant feed of Read More ›

Blue check mark logos on a heap on a table. Copy space. Verification concept

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post

Author
News
Date
April 6, 2023

Categorized
Social Media

Tagged
Big Tech, censorship, Elon Musk, Jordan Peterson, social media, The Federalist, Twitter}

Is This the End of Twitter?

_{The social media giant has been struggling on multiple fronts since Musk's takeover} _{News

April 6, 2023

3

Social Media}

Twitter isn’t in such great shape at the moment. In fact, rumors of bankruptcy loom over the company as financial woes continue to mount, and solutions seem few and far between. Dave Karpf is a professor of “internet politics” at George Washington University and wrote an article describing Twitter’s current predicament. He writes, A few weeks ago, Elon Musk said that ad revenues had fallen 50%. The site has experienced major outages at a higher rate than usual. During one such outage, Elon was laser-focused on the important stuff: reply-guying Jordan Peterson. The Twitter Blue rollout was such a disaster that he fired almost the entire team. Yesterday, he appeared to backtrack on his big plan to revoke legacy checkmarks. Twitter hasn’t been paying rent on its office space. It recently tried Read More ›

Businessman in creative blue maze background.

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
April 5, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Andrew McDiarmid, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, COSM, Discovery Institute (mission), Robert J. Marks, Science fiction, Slate, Solutionism, WALL-E}

AI is a Tool, Not a Solution for Everything

_{Life is complicated and our problems can't always be solved through an engineering approach} _{Peter Biles

April 5, 2023

4

Artificial Intelligence}

AI is a tool. In the words of Robert J. Marks from an interview at last year’s COSM conference, it can’t be a “friend or foe,” because it’s not a living entity. It’s something that can be used (or abused). Such a neutral, balanced attitude toward AI is alien to many Big Tech moguls who are pitching AI as the solution to many of the world’s complicated problems. For them, on the flipside of the doomsday alarmists, AI will usher in a new epoch of human progress. They may be partially right about that, but according to this writer at Slate, their hype reflects a commitment to technological “solutionism,” the idea that tech, once adequately suited for the task, can Read More ›

Scales of Justice in the dark Court Hall. Law concept of Judiciary, Jurisprudence and Justice. Copy space. Based on Generative AI

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post

Author
Richard W. Stevens
Date
April 3, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, GPT-3, Judicial system, Lawsuits, Legal}

AI in the Courtroom: How to Program a Hot Mess

_{Could AI make competent judicial choices in the court?} _{Richard W. Stevens

April 3, 2023

7

Artificial Intelligence}

Imagine we’re assigned to design the artificial intelligence (AI) software to carry out legal analysis of cases like a human judge. Our project is “CourtGPT,” a system that receives a factual and legal problem in a case where there are two opposing parties, analyzes how certain statutes and other legal principles apply to the facts, and delivers a decision in favor of one of the parties. CourtGPT will make “legal decisions,” not decide “jury questions of fact,” and thus will function like a judge (not juror). To write a computer program of any complexity, we start by describing the entire program’s operations in English (my native tongue). Pro tip: If you cannot describe how your program operates in human language, then you cannot Read More ›

Businessman showing online document validation icon, Concepts of practices and policies, company articles of association Terms and Conditions, regulations and legal advice, corporate policy

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post

Author
Eric Holloway
Date
April 3, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Consciousness, GPT-4, Human exceptionalism, Large Language Models (LLMs)}

AI and Human Text: Indistinct?

_{Here's a mathematical proof that challenges the assumption that AI and human-made text are the same} _{Eric Holloway

April 3, 2023

4

Artificial Intelligence}

What is a poor teacher to do? With AI everywhere, how can he reliably detect when his students are having ChatGPT write their papers for them? To address this concern, a number of AI text detector tools have emerged. But do they work? A recent paper claims that AI generated text is ultimately indistinguishable from human generated text. They illustrate their claim with a couple experiments that fool AI text detectors by simple variations to AI generated text. Then, the authors go on to mathematically prove their big claim that it is ultimately impossible to tell AI text and human text apart. However, the authors make a crucial assumption. Faulty Premises The proof assumes that AI generated text will become closer and closer to Read More ›

close up of calculation table, printed in an old book

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post

Author
Gary Smith
Date
March 31, 2023

Categorized
Mathematics

Tagged
AI, Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, Axis, ChatGPT, Gary Smith, Graphs, Logarithm, Models}

An Illusion of Emergence, Part 2

_{A figure can tell a story but, intentionally or unintentionally, the story that is told may be fiction} _{Gary Smith

March 31, 2023

5

Mathematics}

I recently wrote about how graphs that use logarithms on the horizontal axis can create a misleading impression of the relationship between two variables. The specific example I used was the claim made in a recent paper (with 16 coauthors from Google, Stanford, UNC Chapel Hill, and DeepMind) that scaling up the number of parameters in large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT can cause “emergence,” which they define as qualitative changes in abilities that are not present in smaller-scale models but are present in large-scale models; thus they cannot be predicted by simply extrapolating the performance improvements on smaller-scale models. They present several graphs similar to this one that seem to show emergence: However, their graphs have the logarithms of Read More ›