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Are the Brain Cells in a Dish That Learned Pong Conscious?
Human-derived organoids learned faster than AI and always outperformed mouse-derived organoids in terms of volley length, raising troubling questionsRecently, science media were abuzz with a remarkable story about minibrains (mouse and human brain cells in a dish) learning to play the video game Pong: Scientists have successfully taught a collection of human brain cells in a petri dish how to play the video game “Pong” — kind of. Researchers at the biotechnology startup Cortical Labs have created “mini-brains“ consisting of 800,000 to one million living human brain cells in a petri dish, New Scientist reports. The cells are placed on top of a microelectrode array that analyzes the neural activity. “We think it’s fair to call them cyborg brains,” Brett Kagan, chief scientific officer at Cortical Labs and research lead of the project, told New Scientist. Tony Tran, Read More ›
Does Superdeterminism Resolve Dilemmas Around Free Will?
If we lack free will, we have no justification whatsoever to even believe that we lack free willThe conventional view of nature held by materialists, who deny free will, is that all acts of nature, including our human acts and beliefs, are wholly determined by the laws of nature, understood as the laws of physics. We cannot be free, they assert, because all aspects of human nature are matter, and the behavior of matter is wholly determined by physical laws. There is no “room” for free will. It’s noteworthy that physicists who have studied determinism in nature (specifically, in quantum mechanics) have for the most part rejected this deterministic view of free will and implicitly (if not explicitly) endorsed the reality of free will. There are two reasons for this. First, experiments that have followed from the Read More ›
The Matrix Resurrections: The Studio Is Making Us Do This!
Mark Zuckerberg, eat your heart out. If there is one word to describe this movie, that word is Meta.Let’s address the most contentious issue first. This movie isn’t great, but it’s not The Last Jedi bad. Matrix fans aren’t going to be storming the gates in protest, because their beloved characters were assassinated for “the message.” It’s true that Neo is nerfed so that Trinity can take his place. This is annoying because, as I’ve said before, nobody wants to see a Dragon Ball Z spectacle featuring Neo’s powers just so the poor sap could die in obscurity because nothing he did mattered anyway. They didn’t do this, and that is to the writer’s credit. If there was anybody who deserved a deus ex machina sent by the Social Justice Warriors from on high, it was Trinity. Her Read More ›
Peng Shuai Backtracks Her Accusations
This comes as no surprise to anyone who knows how China's propaganda worksOn December 19, Peng Shuai was stopped by a journalist with Singaporean Chinese-language state-owned newspaper Lianhe Zaobao while she was in Shanghai for the International Ski Federation’s Cross-Country Skiing China City Tour. The Wall Street Journal reports that journalist Chen Qingqing, of the Chinese state media mouthpiece Global Times, posted a short video on Twitter of Peng with former NBA and CBA basketball player and current chairman of the China Basketball Association, Yao Ming hours before the Lianhe Zaobao interview was posted. In the interview Peng said that she never said or wrote about anyone sexually assaulting her. The Wall Street Journal reports: “There’s been a lot of misunderstanding,” Ms. Peng said in an interview, describing the situation as touching on “my personal privacy.” “There shouldn’t be any distorted interpretations,” she Read More ›
A French-Based Company Wants to Make Your IDs Digital
What kinds of security concerns should be addressed before we consent to their vision of convenience?Imagine all of your information and documents – all of it – stored on your phone. We’ve grown accustomed to carrying around our banking and payment systems, address and phone books, and our social media apps on our phones, but now imagine even your passport and your driver’s license taking the form of a personal QR code. Imagine being asked to verify your identity not with a physical ID, but with the phone in your pocket. Thales Group, a French-based technology company, is asking you to imagine just such a reality. In October 2020, Thales posted a video to YouTube, showcasing their digital ID wallet and boasting of its many convenient qualities: The idea of storing your information in one Read More ›
Our Beliefs Change Us But the Core Is What Matters
A doctor who studies mystical experiences reflects on what ties life-changing beliefs togetherDoes what we believe matter? Last week, we noted that in podcast #165 at Mind Matters News (December 16, 2021), neurosurgeon Michael Egnor continued a discussion with neurologist Andrew Newberg on what we know about spirituality and the brain. This week, they talked about how we connect with spirituality in different ways. Dr. Newberg has published a number of books on the topic, including How God Changes Your Brain (2009) and Why God won’t go away (2008). https://episodes.castos.com/mindmatters/74a74c07-fccf-470d-8f45-bff8170e64b2-Mind-Matters-News-Episode-165-Andrew-Newberg-Episode-2-rev1.mp3 This portion begins at approximately 13:13 min. Show Notes, and a partial transcript follow: Andrew Newberg: When somebody conceives of a soul as immaterial, what does that mean? How does a brain understand that? And how do we engage that in an Read More ›
The Cult of Statistical Significance — and the Neglect of Oomph
Statistical significance has little meaning when separated from practical importanceA central part of John Maynard Keynes’ explanation of the Great Depression was his assertion that household income affects household spending. When people lose their jobs and income, they cut back on their spending, which causes other people to lose their jobs and their income — propelling the economy downhill. Keynes’ theory was based on logic and common sense. It was later tested empirically with household survey data and with national income data compiled by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Figure 1 shows U.S. after-tax personal income and consumer spending for the years 1929 through 1940. Since income and spending both tend to grow over time along with the population, the data were converted to annual percentage changes. The observed statistical Read More ›
“Do You Hear What I Hear?” Christmas Music is All in Your Mind
Is music a matter of matter and energy alone, or is there something more to the story?What better time than the Christmas season to explore immaterial realities of the human mind? A perfect example to consider is Christmas music. It’s everywhere during the holiday season. But what exactly is music? Described in purely physical terms, music is what humans sometimes perceive from the vibrations of air. Individual pieces of music are described less in physical terms and more in subjective terms using words that reflect how humans experience music in their minds. Eight key elements of music fall mostly into the category of qualia, i.e., experiences that occur in the hearers’ minds only: Dynamics, Form, Harmony, Melody, Rhythm, Texture, Timbre and Tonality. Do you know the Christmas song “We Three Kings” when you hear it? Written in 1857, the song has been arranged Read More ›
Can Higher Dimensions Help Us Understand Biblical Miracles?
We assume there are only three spatial dimensions because those are the ones we sense. What if there are four?String theory in physics postulates the existence of ten, eleven, or even twenty-six seven spatial dimensions. (Some call time a dimension, but that’s not what we’re talking about here.) What’s going on? You and I experience only three spatial dimensions. Physicists say these other dimensions are compactified in strings – like a two dimensional plane rolled up into what looks like a one dimensional appearing skinny straw. What if higher dimensions weren’t compactified? What if, say, there were a fourth spatial dimension? Access to a fourth dimension explains some of the miracles described in the Bible. A classic book about higher dimensions is Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott, first published in 1886. In the novel, life was constrained to Read More ›
Why Influence Matters More Than People Realize
How do we go from defending ourselves to persuading others?7 From Apologetics to Rhetoric During my years as a seminary professor, every course I taught had some connection with apologetics. One of the courses I taught that I liked best was rhetoric. Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. Unfortunately, it is an art that Christian apologetics has failed to fully appropriate. Aristotle rightly distinguished three appeals of persuasion. These were logos, ethos, and pathos. You can try to persuade by logical argument. That’s logos, and Christian apologetics is hypertrophied in that department. But you can also try to persuade by the force of your personality, or by your reputation for moral probity, or by your demonstrated expertise and qualifications. That’s ethos, and it speaks to your standing and credibility in the act of persuasion. Read More ›
In an Infinity of Universes, Is Another You Reading This Article?
Maybe. But the recent science evidence is not especially encouragingIt is generally believed that the early universe widely inflated. So, reporting on a recent article submitted to Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Stony Brook astrophysicist Paul Sutter points out: First off, they found that eternal inflation wasn’t nearly as common as originally thought. Their explanation for why cosmologists had thought eternal inflation was generic was because those earlier cosmologists had studied only a limited set of models. They found that many viable inflation models (“viable” here means they didn’t obviously contradict observations) didn’t lead to an eternally inflating scenario. Paul Sutter, “How real is the multiverse?” at Space.com (December 16, 2021) Cosmologists line up on both sides: Prominent proponents of the multiverse have included well-known cosmologists such as Max Tegmark and Read More ›
What If Your Schooling Meant an AI Telling You What To Do?
Lee and Chen are techno-optimists. They recognize the benefits of innovative technologies while acknowledging its inherent limitations and societal costsAuthor, CEO of Sinovation Ventures, and former head of Google China, Kai-Fu Lee, shared with COSM 2021 his predictions for the future of AI. His presentation drew from his book AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future, co-authored with prominent science fiction writer Chen Quifan. AI 2041 offers seven short stories that explore the ethical and societal implications of machine-learning technologies on various industries, such as manufacturing, art, and education. The last three chapters address potential societal and geopolitical issues raised by artificial intelligence. Each short story includes an “analysis” section, authored by Lee, which delves into the issues raised by the story and its characters. Lee and Chen are techno-optimists. They recognize the benefits of innovative technologies while acknowledging Read More ›
The Matrix Trilogy: Some Final Thoughts
I enjoyed the films and am looking forward to the Matrix Resurrections but there are some things I need to say as a reviewerWhile waiting for The Matrix: Resurrections, December 22: I admit, I’ve given this trilogy a hard time. But I do actually enjoy the films… when I’m not thinking about them. There are some good elements, and I want to point those out before going further. First of all, the relationship between Neo and Trinity is solid. It develops with the trilogy and we don’t have to suffer through a bunch of “will they?/won’t they?” tropes. A viewer can get invested in their relationship, so it hurts when Trinity dies. I appreciate any film where this risk is taken, instead of breaking up the characters and then getting them back together just so the writers don’t have to show the relationship’s Read More ›
Science Is Discovering That Mystical Experiences Are Real
When we contemplate, says neurologist Andrew Newberg, who studies such experiences, the frontal and parietal lobes of our brains quiet downIn podcast #165 at Mind Matters News (December 16, 2021), neurosurgeon Michael Egnor continued a discussion with neurologist Andrew Newberg on what we know about spirituality and the brain. Dr. Newberg has published a number of books on the topic, including How God Changes Your Brain (2009) and Why God Won’t Go Away (2008). The “science is atheism!” clubhouse would not be very happy with him. A partial transcript follows, with notes and links. Michael Egnor: Do you see differences in the brains of people who are meditating in a theistic and a non-theistic way? Is there something different about belief in God that you can see in the brain? Andrew Newberg: Well, that’s a great question. We haven’t specifically Read More ›
A Navigator Asks Animals: How Do You Find Your Way?
The results are amazing. Many life forms do math they know nothing aboutIn “New book spotlights high tech animal navigation,” aircraft navigator Eric Cassell, speaking recently with geologist Casey Luskin on his new book, Animal Algorithms: Evolution and the Mysterious Origin of Ingenious Instincts (2021)Animals “know” things that there is no way they thought of themselves — or that their parents did. The problem with the “nature or nurture?” debate we all learned about in Psychology 101 is that the debate doesn’t matter. There’s no such simple explanation for how animals learn things like this: … my favorite example is actually in, uh, a desert ant that resides in deserts in Africa, and these ants actually employ several different types of navigation centers. They use a sun compass, a polarized light compass. Read More ›
Reuniting Humanity, One Hello at a Time
The Smartphone has done much more than just reinvent the phone. It reinvented how we interactThis story originally appeared at Newsmax. (December 13, 2021) Lately, I’ve been noticing something in recent years that maybe you’ve noticed as well. We don’t hello to each other in the streets as we once did. Perhaps it’s a small thing; easily dismissed in an age of distraction and (often) manufactured problems. It is nonetheless disturbingly telling. For the better part of a decade, I’ve been taking a couple of walks during my workday. I work in downtown Redmond, in Washington State, which is home to Microsoft and a host of other tech companies. During my 20-minute walks, I see quite a few folks who exercise, walk dogs, bike, wait for the bus, walk for pleasure, or are just trying to Read More ›
Meet a Doctor Who Thinks Spirituality Isn’t Just All in Your Head
Can science study what you are doing when you pray? Andrew Newberg does and he says the effects are realIn a recent podcast at Mind Matters News (“Neurotheology and the brain,”#164), neurosurgeon Michael Egnor interviewed neurologist Andrew Newberg on what brain imaging can tell us about spirituality. Dr. Newberg has published a number of books on the topic, including How God Changes Your Brain (2009) and Why God Won’t Go Away (2008) Newberg began by clarifying that he is not trying to explain away anything. He is just trying to understand it. https://episodes.castos.com/mindmatters/22bb89c2-fcd5-4c6a-87be-9c74b9d92b8c-Mind-Matters-Episode-164-Andrew-Newberg-Episode-1-rev1.mp3 Andrew Newberg: First of all, for me, it is what I like to refer to as a two-way street. It is not just science looking at religion, it is not religion looking at science. It is both of them really looking at each other to help Read More ›
If Facebook Kills Holly, Shouldn’t Zuckerberg Take the Stand?
When social media is associated with suicide, legislators must ponder what to do next(This article by Karl D. Stephan originally appeared at Engineering Ethics Blog (15 December 2021) under the title “Will Facebook kill Holly?” and is reprinted with permission.) I have to be careful about how I write today’s column. I do not want to betray any trusts. But on the other hand, a topic that up to now has been an abstraction for me has become personal. A statistic has turned into someone I know by only two degrees of separation. To protect anonymity, I have changed names and some details of what I will write here. But I assure you that what I am going to write is based on facts as personally told to me yesterday by someone I Read More ›
Understanding the de Facto Cold War With China
High tech is currently a battlefield between freedom and totalitarianismIn “Hyping Artificial Intelligence Hinders Innovation” (podcast episode 163), Andrew McDiarmid interviewed Erik J. Larson, programmer and author of The Myth of Artificial Intelligence (Harvard University Press, 2021) on the wrong path he thinks some analysts are taking in terms of what machines can and can’t do. Plus they discussed Alan Turing’s change of heart. Then they looked at the critical fact that Big Data can easily be the enemy of new ideas. And now, the future …? https://episodes.castos.com/mindmatters/34ce0d74-aa74-4ad9-9599-e9ddf2be56a7-Mind-Matters-News-Episode-163-Erik-Larson-.mp3 This portion begins at roughly 38:23 min. A partial transcript and notes, Show Notes, and Additional Resources follow. They began with: How do we determine that we are not simply manipulated by social media? Larson recommended a book by computer scientist Read More ›