ArchiveArticles
Jacques Maritain on the Human Person
A philosopher on two competing views of human beings: are we mere bodies or embodied souls?At the end of the day, a lot of the AI enthusiasm among the technological “futurists” like Ray Kurzweil is based on certain assumptions of what a human being fundamentally is. Casey Luskin reported on Kurzweil’s lecture at the recent COSM 2023 conference, noting how he is convinced that AI is humanity’s destiny, and will serve as our functional “God figure,” all-knowing, self-determining, sentient. Kurzweil sees the human person in purely scientific terms: if we can achieve a certain level of technological advancement, we will transcend our limits and take the next step of human evolution. Technology will be our religion, the means to our immortality. Jacques Maritain, a French philosopher, shared helpful thoughts about the human person in his Read More ›
At COSM ’23, Futurist Ray Kurzweil Preaches the Gospel of Artificial Intelligence
The technology futurist thinks AI is humanity's destiny.
Will the Octopus Ever Find Its Way Into a Tidy Evolutionary Tree?
New finds in genetics and neuroscience both shed light and deepen the puzzle of the almost "alien" species
“Ghost Work” and the Enduring Necessity of Human Labor
Contrary to popular assumptions, the greater the automation, the greater the need for human labor.
A Modest Proposal for the MLB
Major League Baseball got greedy and needs to reform.
Can Evolution Create Free Will? A Neurologist Says Yes
Could the impersonal natural force of evolution shape hierarchies in the human cerebral cortex so that we have the free will that it does not itself have?
Creativity Takes Discipline. AI Offers an Easy, but Boring, Way Out
Because creativity requires work, AI systems will stunt human creativity over time.Consider the following scenarios and compare: Leilani considered the images on the screen … choose five, copy them, and paste them from the AI generator to the AI evaluator. Two to choose from … creative juices flowing, Leilani chose one and started working on the type. Which typeface would represent the playful air the client was looking for? Back to the AI selector to describe each face. All of them were playful, but one was fun, too — that’s the right match! After a few more minutes of creative release, Leilani leaned back to consider the result. Paste a copy of the final to her local friend’s group and wait a minute … the first response was: “Wow! You’re as Read More ›
Megan Review, Part 3
If you’re looking for a mind-numbing popcorn flick to pass the time, Megan is worth watching.In the previous review, Megan began her killing spree, but Gemma quickly figured out there was a problem with the robot and took her back to her lab. Cady was distraught about the loss of her favorite toy, but Gemma still brought the girl to the lab and made Cady talk with a social worker. Afterward, she and Cady had a heartfelt discussion about the loss of the child’s parents. Gemma takes Cady home. Meanwhile, the assistants bring Megan down to the lab, but the robot escapes. Megan makes a B-line for Gemma’s house, but along the way, she encounters Gemma’s employer, David. She quickly kills the boss and his assistant before stealing a car. David was a rather unlikable Read More ›
Model Collapse: AI Chatbots Are Eating Their Own Tails
The problem is fundamental to how they operate. Without new human input, their output starts to decay
How Can Content Creators Avoid AI Theft?
The world of AI appears to be shaping up much like the world of social media.Whither AI and copyright? Two significant battles working their way through the United States court system will define the relationship between human creators and AI systems. If you are a creator, you need to pay attention. First, can content created by AI be copyrighted? While it seems evident that content created by a user prompt should not be copyrightable by the user, what about the designer and operator of the AI system? It might seem reasonable to infer the humans who create a system that, in turn, creates new “works” should be able to copyright those works. In August of 2023, however, a United States District Court Judge ruled that AI-generated content cannot be copyrighted because “human authorship is a Read More ›
Crypto is New, but Stealing is Old News
Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted for stealing millions from customers in court decision.
Spies and Lies: China’s Cyberespionage Is on an Unprecedented Level
Chinese cybertheft is an ever-increasing threat.
The Scientific Evidence for Near-Death-Experiences
A conversation with Dr. Gary Habermas on the plausibility and evidence of near-death-experiences.Is there strong scientific evidence for near-death experiences, the subject of the new film After Death? On an episode of ID the Future, I spoke with Dr. Gary Habermas about his chapter evaluating the evidence for near-death cases in the recent book Minding the Brain: Models of the Mind, Information, and Empirical Science. As Dr. Habermas explains, most near-death accounts contain both objective and subjective elements. Personal testimony about other realms can’t be independently corroborated, but objective evidence rooted in this world can be confirmed and evaluated. “I can’t verify heavenly discussions or heavenly sites,” says Habermas, “so the kind of NDE data I’m talking about virtually always occur on this earth in normal kinds of situations, like parking lots or in your Read More ›
When Did Humans First Start Burying the Dead?
One of the things paleontologists look for is special care taken in the placement of the deceased's body
Assisted Suicide and the Dangers of “Word Engineering”
When radical policies are proposed, the first step is to change the lexicon to make it seem less extreme, even mundane.
Reading in the Digital Age
Writer Joseph Epstein argues compellingly on behalf of the novel.
Materialism Can’t Account for Beauty
Concepts like truth, beauty, and goodness can't be derived from the material world
The Anti-Human “Rights of Nature” Movement
Environmentalism is growing increasingly antii-human. Just look at what Milwaukee County did.Environmentalism is growing increasingly anti-human. The “nature rights” movement epitomizes the misanthropy. If the suppose rights of Nature (with a capital N) were ever enforced legally–human thriving would be throttled by elevating the entire natural world to quasi-personhood status deserving — at minimum — equal consideration with humans. Moreover, nature rights laws generally allow anyone to sue to enforce nature’s supposed rights, which would mean that human enterprise would be subject to lawfare by the most extreme environmentalists. Milwaukee County has jumped on the bandwagon. From a formal “Resolution Supporting the Nature Rights Movement:” WHEREAS, major bodies of water within Milwaukee County, including the Menominee River, Milwaukee River, and Fox River as well as Lake Michigan, provide essential biodiversity and wildlife habitats; andWHEREAS, these Read More ›
The FTX Trial is Heating Up
Convicted for fraud, the former crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried is trying to offload the blame. But a key witness weakens his case.The trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, is underway in Manhattan. Investors in FTX lost billions of dollars earlier this year, but Bankman-Fried is denying alleged fraud and misuse of funds. However, prosecutors are accusing him of systematically stealing those funds and channeling them unto personal means. A bombshell witness, Caroline Ellison, Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend and a “top executive” in his business, took the stand earlier this month and supported the criticisms of the prosecution. David Gura writes for NPR, Though other former top executives at FTX businesses are testifying during the trial, Ellison was always considered the most important witness. After prosecutors first called her to the witness stand, everyone stood and faced the Read More ›