Author: Denyse O’Leary | Page 34

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
November 5, 2021

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

Can AI Help Us Talk to Whales? Maybe. But Then What?

_{In the real world, if we succeed in communicating with whales, it will be much like communicating successfully with dogs, cats, and horses. None of them are furry people.} _{Denyse O'Leary
November 5, 2021

7

Artificial Intelligence, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

A recent article in the Smithsonian Magazine holds out the hope that AI can help enable us to talk with whales: The clicks of sperm whales are ideal candidates for attempting to decode their meanings—not just because, unlike continuous sounds that other whale species produce, they are easy to translate into ones and zeros. The animals dive down into the deepest ocean depths and communicate over great distances, so they cannot use body language and facial expressions, which are important means of communication for other animals. “It is realistic to assume that whale communication is primarily acoustic,” says Bronstein. Sperm whales have the largest brains in the animal kingdom, six times the size of ours. When two of these animals Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
November 2, 2021

Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Science

Tagged
Bacteria (cognition), James Shapiro, Panpsychism (vs. materialism), Theism, Theism (vs. materialism)}

University of Chicago Biochemist: All Living Cells Are Cognitive

_{James Shapiro’s recent paper points out, with examples, that bacteria meet the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of “cognitive”} _{Denyse O'Leary
November 2, 2021

6

Natural Intelligence, Science}

University of Chicago biochemist and evolutionary biologist James Shapiro has a message that those who believe that consciousness is an illusion (as, for example, philosopher Daniel Dennett claims) should heed: If all living things are “cognitive” then, to what extent would life itself have to be an illusion? Something’s wrong there. Let’s follow the thread of what Shapiro is saying. He takes a simple approach: If bacteria and archaea, thought to be the oldest, simplest life forms from at least 2 billion years ago, can be shown to have cognitive processes, then it stands to reason that most (if not all) of the more complex life forms have them too: All living cells sense and respond to changes in external Read More ›

shocked woman holding laptop being picked blamed by many people in the Internet

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 26, 2021

Categorized
Relationships, Social Media}

Silicon Valley: From Laid Back Hippies to Top Cops…What Happened?

_{A political science prof traces the steps by which the naive assumptions of the early Valley morphed into shadow banning, outright banning, and so forth} _{Denyse O'Leary
October 26, 2021

6

Relationships, Social Media}

Political scientist Jon Askonas offers a grim but somehow strengthening look at how Silicon Valley morphed from Apple’s revolt against 1984 to an increasingly comfortable relationship with totalitarian China. We must, he says, go back to the beginning. First, this is how Apple saw itself in 1984: Most of Silicon Valley saw itself that way — liberating people from authoritarianism. So what happened? In an incisive essay at The New Atlantis, Askonas offers some thoughts on what’s changed: ➤ First, he says, the Valley was very much influenced by 1970s California hippie beliefs about human nature that did not long survive realities like this: Faced with deadly riots in unstable societies caused by Facebook posts, Facebook tweaked its algorithms in Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 24, 2021

Categorized
Ethics, Philosophy of Mind, Relationships

Tagged
Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith (book), Evolutionary psychology, Jerry Coyne, Jonathan Haidt}

Compassion and Religion: Darwin’s Unscratchable Itches

_{If one’s research is in a hole as deep as evolutionary psychology is when accounting for compassion, why not stop digging?} _{Denyse O'Leary
October 24, 2021

7

Ethics, Philosophy of Mind, Relationships}

Last Sunday, I pointed to a chapter I wrote in The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith: Exploring the Ultimate Questions About Life and the Cosmos (2021) on evolutionary psychology, best understood as the psychology we have derived from our not-quite-human ancestors. “Not-quite-human ancestors”? Well, if you believe in conventional evolution theory at all, you must suppose that we have not-quite-human ancestors. Thus, to understand the origin of traits like giving to the Heart & Stroke Fund or subscribing to popular science magazines, we must get back to a point before any such institutions could have existed but there was some sort of dim potential. But we can’t really do that because, as noted last Sunday, there is no such Read More ›

The Altamira Caves. Spanish rock art. It is the highest representation of cave painting in Spain

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 17, 2021

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind, Science

Tagged
Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith (book), Evolutionary psychology, Subrena E. Smith}

There Is No Such Thing as a Fossil Mind

_{A chapter on evolutionary psychology in Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith (2021) looks at the curious discipline of evolutionary psychology} _{Denyse O'Leary
October 17, 2021

5

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind, Science}

This month, the The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith: Exploring the Ultimate Questions About Life and the Cosmos (Harvest House 2021) appeared. The basic theme of the handbook, as described by editors design theorist William Dembski and Joseph Holden is “Science and Christianity are often presented as opposites, when in fact the order of the universe and the complexity of life powerfully testify to intelligent design.” I wrote one of the chapters, “What is evolutionary psychology?”. It concerns the effort to understand human psychology by appealing to a prehuman (“evolutionary”) past. As such, it explains a large variety of human behaviours as the unconscious enactment of a Darwinian survival scenario among not-quite humans that is wired into modules in Read More ›

Tomb of bare-knuckle fighter Tom Sayer on Highgate Cemetery

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 11, 2021

Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Death (as abstraction), Death (playing possum), Grief (in animals), Human exceptionalism}

A Philosopher Simply Invents Animals’ Concept of Death

_{She demands that we accept her invention so we can “rethink” human exceptionalism, and the “disrespect for the natural world that comes with it”} _{Denyse O'Leary
October 11, 2021

10

Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

Last week I talked about the question of whether primate mothers who carry dead infants around understand the concept of death. The scientists conducting the research sounded commendably cautious in the conclusions they drew. Not everyone follows their lead in this. Susana Monsó, professor of philosophy at UNED (Madrid) is the author of La zarigüeya de Schrödinger (Schrödinger’s Possum), “ a book on how animals experience and understand death,” and she dispenses with such caution. Her subtitle is “Having a concept of death, far from being a uniquely human feat, is a fairly common trait in the animal kingdom.” Yet she falls far short of demonstrating that. Her essay is a classic on what happens when we seek simply to Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 8, 2021

Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Abstraction (death as abstraction), Chimpanzees, Grief (in animals)}

Does a Chimp Mom Who Carries a Dead Baby Around Understand Death?

_{In a recent study of primate mothers, researchers imply that their behavior shows a growing awareness of the nature of death} _{Denyse O'Leary
October 8, 2021

7

Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

That is a trickier question than it first seems. Researchers looked into the habit some primate moms have of carrying a baby who has died, sometimes for months: Published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the researchers compiled data from anecdotes reported in 126 publications on primate behaviour. In the largest study of its kind, researchers undertook the most extensive and rigorous quantitative analysis to date of a behaviour known as “infant corpse carrying” in primate mothers, looking at 409 cases across 50 species. While there is debate among scientists around whether primates are aware of death, this new study suggests that primate mothers may possess an awareness — or be able to learn about death over time. Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 7, 2021

Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Science}

Physicist: Migrating Birds’ Mysterious Quantum Sense Is “Spooky”

_{Birds like the European robin pack a $10,000 lock-in amplifier into a 2 micron cell} _{Denyse O'Leary
October 7, 2021

7

Natural Intelligence, Science}

Earlier this year, the night-migratory European robin (Erithacus rubecola) made the headlines. Evidence has emerged that it may be using quantum mechanical effects to sense Earth’s magnetic field in order to migrate. Few expected to find quantum mechanical manipulation in the eye of a bird. Zoologist Eric Warrant, who was not involved in the research, says, that magnetic direction sensing is “the last sense we know, effectually, nothing about.” But this mysterious intelligence appears essential to migration, and hence, to the survival of many birds. So how, exactly, do they do it? Humans perceive the world around them with five senses — vision, hearing, taste, smell and touch. Many other animals are also able to sense the Earth’s magnetic field. Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
October 6, 2021

Categorized
Censorship, Data Privacy, Social Media, Surveillance

Tagged
Facebook (as near monopoly)}

Facebook Outage: Not a Hack But Shows Dire Need for Competition

_{Monday’s Facebook outage was a sobering lesson on the power (and, ironically, helplessness) of monopoly Big Social Media} _{Denyse O'Leary
October 6, 2021

5

Censorship, Data Privacy, Social Media, Surveillance}

As the New York Times put it, “When apps used by billions of people worldwide blinked out, lives were disrupted, businesses were cut off from customers — and some Facebook employees were locked out of their offices.” (October 4, 2021) A less sympathetic source writes, As of publishing time, Facebook has been down for several hours, along with WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, and Oculus VR. But that’s just the beginning. The social media behemoth’s stock prices also crashed on Monday, making the company’s already bad day even worse. The plummet in stock prices came as a Facebook executive was on CNBC defending the company against claims by a whistleblower that the company prioritized profit over the safety of young Facebook users. Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 29, 2021

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Education, Social Media

Tagged
Abigail Shrier, Irreversible Damage (book), Jerry Coyne}

Database! One Stop Shop for Tracking Attacks by Cancel Culture

_{Looking at a number of entries at once helps us grasp the extent of the takeover of our culture, especially at universities, by grievance mobs} _{Denyse O'Leary
September 29, 2021

6

Arts & Culture, Education, Social Media}

One used to hear many people say “Cancel Culture is so ridiculous, it will go away soon.” Well, that’s not happening. Evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne, who usually writes about other matters, discusses two representative incidents: The removal of a book review at Science-Based Medicine written by one of its own editors because it was deemed too friendly to Abigail Shrier’s book, Irreversible Damage (2021), on the 4,400% rise from from 2008 to 2018 of teenage females seeking to transition to males — and the curious absence of rigorous studies that might account for the astounding increase. Coyne notes I read Shrier’s book and thought it was fair, empathic, and certainly not transphobic. But because Shrier was unfairly accused of transphobia Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 25, 2021

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Animation (science fiction benefits), Robots (as characters), Science fiction}

Love Among the Ruins, for Robots — Sci-fi Saturday

_{A beautifully rendered animated short of robots looking for some place to just exist in a deserted, ruined industrial landscape} _{Denyse O'Leary
September 25, 2021

20

Arts & Culture, Philosophy of Mind}

“Left Behind” at DUST by Minna Ericksson and Kateriina Kontturi at Xero Shorts (May 1, 2021, 7:14 min, animated) A lone robot walks the desolate landscape in search of a new life. It finds one in a unexpected place. Review: In a ruined, dystopian industrial landscape, a large robot (presumably laid off from a shut down enterprise) searches for a new place to be. The robot finds a cute baby robot that, duckling fashion, immediately bonds and begins to follow it around. The giant robot is none too pleased and tries, at first, to shed its unwanted companion. Then the baby robot begins to dance and… no more spoilers. This animation is not a laff riot; the climax reaches for Read More ›

Set of numbers 1, 2, 3 made of leather. 3D render font with skin texture isolated on black background.

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 14, 2021

Categorized
Education, Mathematics

Tagged
Algebra}

Further Dispatches From the War on Math

_{Discussions of social policy where math is relevant can be useful. But a student who does not understand how an equation works will fail at both math AND social policy} _{Denyse O'Leary
September 14, 2021

4

Education, Mathematics}

Earlier this year, I reposted an article that originally ran at Salvo on the war on the teaching of mathematics as a discipline in publicly funded schools in North America. The war continues so here are some updates: Recently, three mathematicians who immigrated to the United States weighed in: The United States has been dominant in the mathematical sciences since the mass exodus of European scientists in the 1930s. Because mathematics is the basis of science—as well as virtually all major technological advances, including scientific computing, climate modelling, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and robotics—US leadership in math has supplied our country with an enormous strategic advantage. But for various reasons, three of which we set out below, the United States is Read More ›

Male hand cutting banking card with scissors

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 9, 2021

Categorized
Business and Finance, Censorship

Tagged
Bari Weiss, David Sacks, Debanking, Jonathan Turley}

The New Internet: Reclassify Political Opponents as “Hate Groups”

_{Maybe this is something to talk to legislators about} _{Denyse O'Leary
September 9, 2021

5

Business and Finance, Censorship}

You don’t want your tax money spent in a certain way? Maybe you are a “hater.” Increasingly, bad things can happen as a result. Even from corporations you trust. A friend has pointed out that many American corporations are not nearly so interested in making money these days as they are in politically correct positioning. Consider the current trend toward depublishing books the public wants to read and “de-newsing” news stories people want to hear. But the trend is growing beyond books and news. It could affect your right to bank and use credit institutions. Successful entrepreneur David Sacks has the story at Substack about how concerns about “hate speech” can further an agenda: Just as there is no set Read More ›

sad mixed breed dog posing in a cage in animal shelter

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 27, 2021

Categorized
Ethics, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Abstraction, suicide}

Are Animals Capable of Committing Suicide?

_{Generally, experts think not. They may, of course, become profoundly depressed and engage in self-harm} _{Denyse O'Leary
August 27, 2021

6

Ethics, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

At Discover Magazine, Richard Pallardy offers an anecdote: In April 1970, Ric O’Barry visited a dolphin named Kathy at the Miami Seaquarium, where she was languishing in “retirement” after three years as the title character on the television show Flipper. O’Barry, who had captured her from the wild and trained her to perform, remembers thinking that she seemed depressed. She was all alone in a concrete tank — not a good thing for a highly social animal like a dolphin. He claims the former cetacean starlet swam into his arms, sank to the bottom of the tank and refused to resurface, drowning herself. Richard Pallardy, “Do Animals Commit Suicide?” at Discover Magazine (August 10, 2021) There is no lack of Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 26, 2021

Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience

Tagged
Memory, Octopus (and pain)}

Cuttlefish Have Good Memories, Even in Old Age

_{They are cephalopods and many types of cephalopod show a number of intelligent characteristics which we are only beginning to investigate} _{Denyse O'Leary
August 26, 2021

6

Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience}

Octopuses have been called a “second genesis” of intelligence, that is, they are invertebrates with high intelligence, instead of vertebrates. But their close relatives, squid and cuttlefish (they are all cephalopods), are not far behind, according to recent research. One unusual finding is that cuttlefish have very good memories: Can you remember what you had for dinner last Tuesday? Or on this day last year? It turns out that cuttlefish can, right up to old age – the first animal we’ve found that doesn’t show signs of deterioration in memory function over time. David Nield, “The Incredible Brains of Cuttlefish Hold Memories That Never Seem to Fade” at ScienceAlert (18 August 2021) Of course, cuttlefish live only a couple of Read More ›

press and media camera ,video photographer on duty in public new

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 25, 2021

Categorized
Ethics, Media

Tagged
COVID-19}

Media Try But Fail To Learn From Their Romance With Cuomo

_{Revoking Cuomo’s Emmy, amid facile self-reproach, is hardly a substitute for unpacking the bigger facts of what the recently resigned New York governor did wrong} _{Denyse O'Leary
August 25, 2021

6

Ethics, Media}

In a revealing article in Columbia Journalism Review New York City journalist Ross Barkan talks about the many media fails in covering the misdeeds of recently resigned New York State governor Andrew Cuomo. And yet, somehow, Barkan deftly pulls the punches. His omissions tell us a good deal about what is wrong with mainstream media today. Cuomo was brought down by credible sexual assault and intimidation allegations over many years. One reason justice took so long was the media’s infatuation with Cuomo, ignoring on-the-ground realities of all types — some deadly, as we shall see. Barkan gets a lot of stuff right: Cuomo was not nearly as skilled at handling the COVID-19 epidemic as major media painted him: But Cuomo’s Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 24, 2021

Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience}

Do Brains Really Evolve? The Horseshoe Crab’s Brain Didn’t

_{It’s very rare to find an intact fossil brain but a rare combination of minerals preserved one from 310 million years ago} _{Denyse O'Leary
August 24, 2021

4

Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience}

Recently, paleontologist Russell Bicknell and colleagues found a fossil horseshoe crab in the Yale Peabody Museum, originally from the Mazon Creek fossil beds near Chicago. That, in itself wasn’t spectacular but, for geological reasons, the creature’s brain was preserved, an extremely rare situation. So how much had the horseshoe crab’s brain changed in 310 million years? Not at all, really: A new beautifully preserved fossil of a horseshoe crab has now revealed that their brains have hardly changed since at least the Carboniferous Period… The brain structure of the ancient crab is almost identical to that of living species. In fact, it is this extraordinary similarity that meant the researchers could be confident that what they were looking at was Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 20, 2021

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

Defending the Mind’s Reality at a Materialist Cocktail Party

_{What to say when you find yourself among self-assured elite sloganeers} _{Denyse O'Leary
August 20, 2021

11

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

Most of the university cocktail set is quite sure that the mind is simply what the brain does. To doubt that, in their view, is to part company with science. And yet the evidence points in the opposite direction. If you are stuck with them, here are some snatches of their usual brilliance, along with suggested replies and their sources. Arguments from evolution Claim: We are just animals so, as we might expect, the human brain is not really unique. The human, mouse, and fly brains all use the same basic mechanisms!1 Response: That’s the remarkable part. What we do with our brains sets us apart. And greater size doesn’t really account for that. Lemurs, whose brains are only 1/200th Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 19, 2021

Categorized
Business and Finance, Media

Tagged
Andrew Sullivan, Rod Dreher, Substack}

Why So Many Mainstream Media Figures Really Hate Substack

_{The subscription newsletter service allows good writers to reach their audiences without a horde of censors and gatekeepers, as is usually the case in mainstream media today} _{Denyse O'Leary
August 19, 2021

8

Business and Finance, Media}

Substack — a newsletter site where popular writers can make money via private newsletters — has thoroughly rattled many traditional legacy mainstream media. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in San Francisco, it essentially ensures that the writer, not the medium, is the primary financial beneficiary of the writer’s talent. It also doesn’t need to censor writers on account of, say, money from China. One result is that many well-known writers from, for example, the New York Times, Vox, and BuzzFeed quit their jobs and started writing for newsletter subscribers who pay for premium content, print or podcast, typically $5 a month or $50 a year. Only a few thousand subscribers are needed to generate a nice income for a talented Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 2, 2021

Categorized
Philosophy, Religion

Tagged
Casey Luskin, Yuval Noah Harari}

Religion Is Far Too Complex to Have a Single Evolution Story

_{Casey Luskin reflects on Yuval Noah Harari’s thesis that religion evolved through stages because humans needed it in order to co-operate in larger groups} _{Denyse O'Leary
August 2, 2021

5

Philosophy, Religion}

In Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2015), historian Yuval Noah Harari recounts a familiar sort of tale about the origin of religion. Casey Luskin, who has been reviewing the book, explains, Yuval Noah Harari tells the standard evolutionary story. According to this story, religion began as a form of animism among small bands of hunters and gatherers and then proceeded to polytheism and finally monotheism as group size grew with the first agricultural civilizations. At each stage, he argues, religion evolved in order to provide the glue that gave the group the cohesive unity it needed (at its given size) to cooperate and survive. Casey Luskin, “Reviewing Sapiens: Getting the Origin of Religion Backwards” at Evolution News and Science Read More ›