Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

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Discarded face mask lying in a city street

Being a Good Scientist Doesn’t Mean Being an Effective Leader

Francis Collins admits that they botched the COVID-19 response.
Collins’s recent admissions and overarching career illustrate why we should resist the current push to impose a regime of rule by experts. Read More ›
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A child using smart phone lying in bed late at night, playing games. Children's screen addiction and parent control concept. Child's room at night. Sensitive content on screen

Andrew McDiarmid on Teens and Smartphones

We can mitigate the mental health crisis, but we have to act now.
Noted social psychologist Jonathan Haidt notes that the mental health epidemic among teenagers, particular teen girls, really began around 2012 or so. Read More ›
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3d render gold metallic pie chart icon on dark background concept for analyze data information

Let’s Dispose of Exploding Pie Charts

Pie charts are seldom a good idea. Here's why.
Points can be made without sensationalized graphs that undermine the credibility of the argument. Let’s dispose of exploding pie charts. Read More ›
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Blurred crowd of unrecognizable at the street

This New Year, Resolve to Stay Human

This year, we will continue to declare that human beings are unique and exceptional.
The transhumanist vision of life seeks to supplant our human limits with endless knowledge and longevity through the collective online database of humanity. Read More ›
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Man in desert

Copyright in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

What exactly is a human and how does a human differ from a computer?

On December 27, The New York Times Company sued Microsoft and OpenAI for violations of their copyright. The Times contends that training chatbots on its content in order to create an information competitor is a violation of its copyright. This suit is sure to bring up a number of old copyright issues that were never resolved, plus some new that need to be worked through. The fact is, the big search engines have been violating copyright from the very beginning. All search engines are in fact derivative works of the sites that they crawl, index, and dish out. Most search engines even provide excerpts from the sites they scan. However, most copyright holders have turned a blind eye to this for two main Read More ›

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Robot hands point to laptop button advisor chatbot robotic artificial intelligence concept.

ChatGPT: You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby  

Reviewing the bot's progress (and problems) from over the last year
LLMs still have problems with getting their facts straight but, all things considered, their performance  is remarkable. Read More ›
Mathematics in everyday life Reuben Teo Unsplash Hba7In7vnoM

Great Ideas, Like All Ideas, Are Immaterial in Principle

The main reasons we hear more ideas today is that we are building on basic past ideas plus there are many more human beings and communications systems
i Loeb sounds as though has absolutely no idea what makes human intelligence unique; thus he mistakes the result for the cause. Read More ›
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Faith written on rural road

Science vs Religion Debate: Uselessness Cubed

Science no longer means anything like what Dr. Pierre hopes that it does
In reality, faith means that you can’t be absolutely sure that something will work but it is a reasonable belief. Read More ›
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3d illustration futuristic background with large sphere and neon dots

The Two Visions of AI Technology

Competing views of AI's potential comprise a new struggle in Silicon Valley.
Perhaps the doomers have a dystopian and exaggerated fear of AI, but a discussion about the new technology’s potential harms still needs to be had. Read More ›
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ACT I, typed text on a vintage typewriter, screenplay title heading. On old paper with ink. writer's idea

Alien 3 Review, Part 2

An attack on motherhood and logic

Last time, we began with the opening scene, and already, the entire franchise is ruined. In this review, we’ll discuss why. I would recommend reading the previous article for clarity, but for now, I’ll simply list the sequence of events. The alien queen, somehow, managed to lay an egg inside the room where the cryobeds were kept in spite of the fact that she’d never been outside the hull of the ship. The egg hatched and the parasitic alien damaged Newt’s cryobed, then for no apparent reason, abandoned its attempt to latch onto Newt, and latched onto Ripley instead. But here’s the thing. Ripley’s bed wasn’t damaged in anyway. So, how did it break into the bed? Both the ship Read More ›

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Modern Electric car rides through tunnel with cold blue light style 3d rendering

Tesla Recall Due to the Short Attention Span of Drivers

Tesla did nothing wrong, but some claim they didn’t do enough right.
Besides further restricting environments, the new Tesla software will also give additional warnings to drivers easily distracted from monitoring their vehicles. Read More ›
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Big data and artificial intelligence concept. Machine learning and cyber mind domination concept in form of women face on dark blue technology background, 3d illustration.

Defending Why We’re More than Machines

We need to look beyond materialism to understand what it means to be human.
If something like dualism is true, then it goes a long way to showing the implausibility of the idea that we are solely meat machines, robots, etc. Read More ›
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Composite image of 3d image of human brain

You Can’t Always Be Happy

Our dopamine system both excites and tames pleasure
Humans cannot achieve permanent happiness. Earthly pleasures do not ultimately satisfy us. The Bible said it. The neuroscientists have proved it. Read More ›
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Generative AI illustration of neanderthal prehistoric caveman

Does It Take a PR Agency to Make Neanderthals Human?

It’s interesting to watch how science writing on Neanderthals has changed over the years
There is no reason to think Neanderthals were not human in the usual sense except that someone must be the subhuman if Darwinism is true. Read More ›
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AI chatbot - Artificial Intelligence digital concept

AI Chatbot Claude Passed My “Sex and Gender” Test. I’m Impressed.

The chatbot "Claude" isn't perfect, but it's miles ahead of the others.
Claude was the first chatbot to answer my question correctly. The AI chatbot arms race, however, is just getting started. Read More ›