ArchiveArticles
Are Near-Death Experiences Becoming Science Now?
The laughter has died down? Good. It was modern medicine — not religion — that created the hard evidence for credible near-death experiencesAncient Greek Philosophy and Modern Blockbuster Graphics
The amazing computer-generated effects you see in almost every blockbuster today are only possible thanks to ideas proposed over 2300 years ago.David Berlinski: Humans Are Unique
Some argue that humans are growing more peaceful, enlightened, and improved by the year, and that a coming technological singularity may well usher in utopia. Berlinski isn’t buying it.The Kids Aren’t Taking Notes
Colleges have become too dependent on digital methods of learning and communication.Will Studio’s New “After Death” Be a Hit Like “Sound of Freedom”?
The new 90-minute film interviews researchers and survivors of near-death experiencesAfter Death (Angel Studios 2023), a look at the many recent accounts of near-death experiences, will premiere October 27. Angel is the studio that produced the recent smash hit Sound of Freedom (2023). There’s a story in that: While SoF was trashed by fashionable media, it outgrossed some of the biggest films at the box office. Will After Death, directed by Stephen Gray and Chris Radtke, meet the same fate? Its basic message is that NDEs are becoming an intersection of science/medicine and faith. It will be interesting to see how the same fashionable media react. The principle reason for exploding interest in near-death experiences in recent decades is that high-tech medicine has been bringing back thousands of people from Read More ›
So AI is “Slightly Conscious” Now?
The AI optimists can't get away from the problem of consciousness.The idea that artificial intelligence could ever become actually “intelligent” is a minority view, but it’s espoused by some brilliant minds, including Jason Lemoine, an ex-Google employee who claimed the company’s developing AI system was sentient. Lemoine isn’t alone. According to Futurism, OpenAI’s top researcher, Ilya Sutskever, claimed in a Tweet this week that “large neural networks are slightly conscious.” Noor Al-Sibai writes, He’s long been preoccupied with artificial general intelligence, or AGI, which would refer to AI that operates at a human or superhuman level. During his appearance in the AI documentary “iHuman,” for instance, he even declared that that AGIs will “solve all the problems that we have today” before warning that they will also present “the potential to create Read More ›
New Poll Says Most People Don’t Want “Super AI”
Not all problems can be solved through techDespite tech companies’ search to create an artificial “super-intelligence,” a recent poll suggests ordinary citizens want no such thing to be set loose into the world. Sigal Samuel, writing for Vox, talks about technological “solutionism, ” the idea that all the world’s problems, moral or otherwise, can be solved through mere technological progress. This ideology, he notes, extends to the current craze and hype surrounding AI. Sigal writes, AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) enthusiasts promise that the coming superintelligence will bring radical improvements. It could develop everything from cures for diseases to better clean energy technologies. It could turbocharge productivity, leading to windfall profits that may alleviate global poverty. And getting to it first could help the US maintain an edge over China; Read More ›
Dune Review, Part 2
A long-expected betrayalCOVID Helped China Get Ahead on Genetic Therapies
Why is China trying to lead the world in genetic technology?Affirmative Action and Health Care
It is high time that our medical journals stick to medicine.How Media Have Helped To Corrupt Science
Traditional popular media, science media, and science journalists have all helped create a situation where we can’t afford to Trust the Science!More Ideological Alarmism in Yet Another Top Journal
Ideology continues to harm the scientific endeavor.Can AI Open Doors to Ancient Human History?
It’s not a time machine, to be sure, but it may help bring the past to life by motoring through dull, time-consuming translation tasksWhen Science Points Beyond the Physical
The idea that science has somehow shown the irrelevance of the mind to explaining behavior is seriously confused.Getting Beyond “Technique” When it Comes to Mental Health
A new book by Dr. Alan Noble on the value of choice, responsibility, and the inherent goodness of life.Jacques Ellul used the word “technique” to describe the mechanism befalling our modern society. When there’s a problem, we want the solution. When something isn’t fast enough, add the gears, the software updates, the weight loss pills, the trip to McDonald’s, etc. But suppose that mentality has seeped into the discourse surrounding mental health? Is there a quick-fix solution to debilitating depression and anxiety? Is there a pill for just that general sense of sadness and emptiness? Alan Noble is an Associate Professor at Oklahoma Baptist University and the author of a new book called On Getting Out of Bed: The Burden & Gift of Living. In it, Dr. Noble recognizes how a technique mindset is insufficient in addressing the Read More ›
A New Review for Berlinksi’s Latest Book
Despite the wonders of the scientific enterprise, it is run by humans, and is thus fallible.By David Klinghoffer By now the authority of science has been thoroughly abused. For that, you can thank scientists themselves, their promoters in government bodies and in university PR departments, and the legions of loyal pilot fish in popular and social media. Something really came undone in the Covid era. Today, the phrase “science says” or “doctors say” prompts a smirk from about half the population, and rightly so. To capture this reality, mathematician David Berlinski in his latest book, Science After Babel, evokes the image of Bruegel’s Tower of Babel — a bloated, vain enterprise, in denial of its own failings. The ancients saw science, and the other arts, as embodied by muses — beautiful young women. We may picture something more Read More ›
The Big Problem for Physicalism
One physicalist theory after another has either ignored or falsified the central characteristics of consciousnessEditor’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. L. Menuge, Brian R. Krouse, and Robert J. Marks. Below is an excerpt from Chapter 2. Look for more information at MindingtheBrain.org. By Angus Menuge The history of physicalism is one of extraordinary diversity: a wide variety of theories, with multiple versions, have jockeyed for dominance. Yet it is also a tale of persistent failure. One physicalist theory after another has either ignored or falsified the central characteristics of consciousness, intentionality, and rationality that define our mental life. We will begin by tracing the history of physicalism from the early varieties of behaviorism Read More ›
Why You Should Read More Fiction
The mental benefits for reading good stories are many.When looking for “solutions” to today’s mental health crisis in the United States, particularly among the millions of men who are checking out of society, reading fiction may not immediately come to mind. However, a new article from Psychology Today argues that reading fiction is “essential” for today’s men. The author of the article, psychologist Jett Stone, focuses on men in part because today’s literary market is largely geared towards women, and fiction and femininity are often closely associated. Nonetheless, he believes that reading fiction can benefit both women and men. He writes, Recent research indicates that reading fiction fosters critical thinking by presenting ideas subtly and in more roundabout ways than nonfiction. One study of adolescents found that frequent fiction readers possessed more Read More ›