ArchiveArticles
Beauty is Non-Computable
Taking some time to reflect on the beautiful things in the world can lead to genuine thanksgiving.
Everyday Evidence of the Mind’s Reality: the Placebo Effect
The placebo effect — you get better because you think you will — may be getting stronger, as researchers manipulate it more effectively
What Mission Impossible Tells Us About AI Mythology
If you’re looking for an intelligent take on existential risk and superintelligent AI, the latest Mission Impossible movie is not for you.
Is Science Slipping Away on Us by Degrees?
Science writers weigh in on misrepresentation of science history, reasons for loss of trust, and whether physics is ripe for a revolution
What Do Bees’ Joy and Pain Really Tell Us About Insect Minds?
If sentience, like intelligence, can be independent of phylogeny (place in Darwin’s tree of life), the conventional picture of evolution might need rethinking
Graphene’s Moment Has Arrived
Is there a way to create high quality graphene at a low cost?
Sam Altman Out at OpenAI, Microsoft Picks Him Up
Will Microsoft become the prime leader in the AI movement, and what will be the future of OpenAI?
The Multiverse: Better in Fiction Than in Real Life?
The multiverse may be “unscientific nonsense” or a “religious” belief, as some physicists assert but the rules of storytelling are not the laws of nature
Aliens Review, Part 2
Attacking aliens is like kicking a beehive.
Once a Supporter, Science Writer Airs Doubts About Free Will
ChatGPT has set John Horgan thinking about whether he is just "ChatGPT-Me" himself
Pew: Post-COVID, Trust in Science Dropped Significantly
Most other institutions have taken a hit in trust as well. But what would it take for science in particular to pull out?
Why ChatGPT Is Killing Off Traditional AI
We're living in another AI "winter"
Congress Boosts “Kill Switch” Technology to Control Drivers
Federal agency power poised to extend to your every move.
Marks: AI Creating More AI Equals Nonsense
AI "inbreeding" will always lead to model collapse.
The Free Will Debate Really Heated Up This Year
Many commentators are weighing in; surprisingly, perhaps, well-known materialists are disputing the claim that there is no free will
China, Cybertheft, and the Ethics of Espionage
All nations spy, but espionage crosses a moral line when it costs normal civilians their jobs.
Will Neuroscience Ever Accommodate Immaterial Consciousness?
Joseph Green offers an informative account in Minding the Brain of the current state of neuroscience. What we now know is remarkable — but so is what we don’t
Euthanasia’s Slippery Slope
Once a society embraces death as the answer to suffering, what counts as suffering never stops expanding.