Author: Denyse O’Leary | Page 37

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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post

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 ›

Hand with microphone tied with rope, depicting the idea of freedom of the press, idea of the repression of the mass media or freedom of expression

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 28, 2021

Categorized
Censorship, Social Media

Tagged
Bari Weiss, Media (traditional media), Substack}

Newsletter Group Creates Alarm Plus Demands for Censorship

_{Substack is getting a lot of ink these days — raising both hope from readers and hand wringing from old media} _{Denyse O'Leary
July 28, 2021

5

Censorship, Social Media}

The traditional media our parents grew up with are slowly dying in a chronic low-ratings crises — but surprising new media are being born. Substack is getting a lot of ink these days — raising both hope and handwringing. Its very existence shows how information is rapidly changing. At Substack, an online subscription newsletter system founded in 2017, tech guys Chris Best and Hamish McKenzie point out bluntly that the “New York Times” model of information is doomed: Today, as a result of a mass shift of advertising revenue to Google and Facebook, the news business is in crisis. The great journalistic totems of the last century are dying. News organizations—and other entities that masquerade as them—are turning to increasingly Read More ›

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post

Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 23, 2021

Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Abstractions, Language, Parrots}

Do Birds Really Understand What They Are Saying?

_{Remarkable claims are made for some birds} _{Denyse O'Leary
July 23, 2021

4

Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

Perhaps because parrots can carefully mimic human voices (and many other sounds), many claims are made for their intelligence For example, that they understand abstractions like currency: After training eight African grey parrots and six blue-headed macaws to barter metal rings for walnuts, the researchers paired the birds up with same-species partners. They then put the parrots in clear chambers joined by a transfer hole, and gave one bird—the donor—ten rings, while the other was left with none. Even without the promise of a reward for themselves, seven out of eight of the African grey parrot donors passed some of their available tokens through the transfer hole to their broke partners, usually shuttling them beak to beak. On average, about Read More ›

Close up of math formulas on a blackboard

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 16, 2021

Categorized
Mathematics, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Abstraction, Andreas Nieder, Chiliagon, Numeracy, Philip Ball, Rafael Núñez}

Is Our “Number Sense” Biology, Culture — or Something Else?

_{It’s a surprisingly controversial question with a — perhaps unsettling — answer} _{Denyse O'Leary
July 16, 2021

5

Mathematics, Philosophy of Mind}

British science writer Philip Ball, author of How to Grow a Human, offers an even-handed account of a controversy on the origin of our ability to understand numbers (numeracy). Numeracy is the beginning of mathematics, the most abstract of all human pursuits. It isn’t possible to get very far in mathematics without some ability to abstract. Ball cites as an example the difference between 152 and 153. Many life forms, competing for a pile of food items, can distinguish between 2 and 3. But distinguishing between 152 and 153 clearly requires abstraction. It’s the same principle as the chiliagon, a geometric figure like a triangle except that it has 1000 sides. A triangle can be envisioned concretely. A chiliagon can Read More ›

Illustration of synapse and neuron on a blue background.

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post

Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 14, 2021

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Consciousness, Daniel Dennett, David Chalmers, Dualism, Idealism, Integrated Information Theory (IIT), Materialism, Michael Graziano, Naturalism, Panpsychism, Quantum Collapse}

Will We Soon Be Able to Test Theories of Consciousness?

_{Proponents of two leading theories of consciousness are trying to develop tests for their models, in a hitherto baffling field} _{Denyse O'Leary
July 14, 2021

7

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

Science journalist and author Anil Ananthaswamy has written a thoughtful piece at New Scientist on the leading models of consciousness and their relationship to quantum mechanics (quantum physics). Are we reaching the point where we can test at least one of them? Ananthaswamy is well qualified to assess the arguments. He is the author of both Through Two Doors at Once (2018) on quantum physics and The Man Who Wasn’t There (2015) on the nature of the self. Models of consciousness that assume that “consciousness isn’t separate from the material reality that physics explains” (materialist or naturalist theories) fall into three general classes, as he explains. Analysts like Tufts philosopher Daniel Dennett and Princeton neuroscientist Michael Graziano argue that consciousness Read More ›

Red and green men meet for a treaty. Candidates Political Debate. civilized resolution of conflicts and disputes, search for compromise. Networking in business. Negotiation platform.

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 7, 2021

Categorized
Censorship, Education

Tagged
Bret Weinstein, Florida, Intellectual freedom, Ron DeSantis, Universities}

Will Florida’s Law for Diversity of Thought at Universities Work?

_{In an internet-linked global society, protecting diversity of thought becomes even more important} _{Denyse O'Leary
July 7, 2021

4

Censorship, Education}

A new Florida law, which took effect July 1, asks universities to survey “intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity” annually on their campuses, to find out how free students, faculty, and staff feel “to express their beliefs and viewpoints.” Ohio Northern University law professor Scott Gerber explains, The problem DeSantis has identified is not unique to Florida — Indiana’s Republican governor signed a similar bill last month — and it traces directly to the political biases of the processes by which faculty are hired. Many of the same colleges and universities that tout tenure as a way to encourage free thought censor it by not allowing conservative and libertarian faculty candidates who think freely to get in the door. I once Read More ›

Live lobster in the aquarium. Product in the supermarket. Close up photo of big lobsters in water tank for sale

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 24, 2021

Categorized
Ethics, Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience

Tagged
brain, Jordan Peterson, Minimal self, Pain}

Can Crabs Think? Can Lobsters Feel? What We Know Now

_{In Switzerland, it is now illegal to boil a lobster alive. Are the Swiss right? Is it cruel?} _{Denyse O'Leary
June 24, 2021

6

Ethics, Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience}

Because crustaceans have shells, we may tend to think of them as like machines. Yet crustaceans, along with octopuses, show some surprising abilities and complexities. Take crabs, for example: A new Swansea University study has revealed how common shore crabs can navigate their way around a complex maze and can even remember the route in order to find food … Spatial learning is quite complicated, so figuring out how it works in crustaceans gives us a better understanding of how widespread this ability, and learning in general, is in the animal kingdom.” The researchers tested 12 crabs over four weeks, placing food at the end of the maze each time. The route to the end of the maze required five Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 24, 2021

Categorized
Censorship, Social Media

Tagged
Cancel culture, Clarence Thomas, Douglas Murray}

Black American Conservatives Lead Fight Against Cancel Culture

_{They “trigger” bullies when they say what they think needs to be said, not what the Cancel mob insists on hearing} _{Denyse O'Leary
June 24, 2021

6

Censorship, Social Media}

British writer Douglas Murray dissects social media’s Cancel Culture, in a typically unsparing fashion: All ages have their orthodoxies. And if writers, artists, thinkers and comedians do not occasionally tread on them, then they are not doing their jobs. Meanwhile human nature remains what it is. And just as some children will always pull the wings off flies and fry small ants with their toy magnifying glasses, so a certain number of adult inadequates will find meaning in their lives by sniffing around the seats in the public square until they find an aroma they can claim offends them. Douglas Murray, “How to fight back against ‘cancel culture’” at Spectator (January 24, 2020) Black American conservatives “trigger” Cancel Culture when Read More ›

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 18, 2021

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Censorship, Social Media

Tagged
Babylon Bee, Chrissy Teigen, Comedy, Mark Steyn, Pedro Domingos}

Books: The First Step in Fighting Cancel Culture

_{Malicious envy was always out there but before social media it could rarely assemble so large a mob} _{Denyse O'Leary
June 18, 2021

4

Arts & Culture, Censorship, Social Media}

Many writers and artists are beginning to speak out and take action, recognizing that sharing the cost of speaking up reduces its burden.

Books: Cancel Culture As an Invisible Army of Censors

_{The new censorship is different from traditional “banned” or “challenged” lists because a younger, much more active crowd is behind it} _{Denyse O'Leary
June 18, 2021

4

Arts & Culture, Censorship, Social Media}

For authors, Cancel Culture, powered by social media, is becoming a serious business. A poorly thought-out tweet from years past — or merely one to which socially powerful people take exception — may destroy a career. The mob has hit genre fiction hard. One author, studying the trend, recounts, Since March, I have been sending discreet messages to authors of young adult fiction. I approached 24 people, in several countries, all writing in English. In total, 15 authors replied, of whom 11 agreed to talk to me, either by email or on the phone. Two subsequently withdrew, in one case following professional advice. Two have received death threats and five would only talk if I concealed their identity. This is Read More ›

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post

Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 17, 2021

Categorized
Ethics, Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience

Tagged
Ed Yong, Michael Egnor, Nautilus, Octopus intelligence, Pain, Pain in animals, Robyn Crook}

Octopuses Get Emotional About Pain, Research Suggests

_{The smartest of invertebrates, the octopus, once again prompts us to rethink what we believe to be the origin of intelligence} _{Denyse O'Leary
June 17, 2021

7

Ethics, Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience}

The octopus is becoming a popular creature among neuroscientists. It is a very smart invertebrate with an unusually complex nervous system, organized in a fundamentally different way from that of, for example, mammals. Recently, a researcher has found the first strong evidence that octopuses feel pain, as opposed to merely reacting to it. There are two parts to pain: The natural physical reaction, like a sophisticated alarm system, sets off a chain of involuntary responses. But that chain of responses, by itself, doesn’t prove that any “self” is feeling anything. The alarm system would work just the same in an empty building as in a populated one. The second component can be called “emotional.” The life form experiences the pain Read More ›

Nairobi, Kenya : Ranger feeding orphaned baby elephant in David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust conservation center

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 8, 2021

Categorized
Ethics, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Human exceptionalism, Moral choice, reason}

There Is No Escape From Human Exceptionalism

_{Author Melanie Challenger thinks we should embrace our true animal nature. But that’s impossible} _{Denyse O'Leary
May 8, 2021

4

Ethics, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

Melanie Challenger, author of How to Be Animal (2021) thinks we would be less messed up if we could just accept our animal nature. She writes at Aeon, “Human exceptionalism is dead: for the sake of our own happiness and the planet we should embrace our true animal nature.” Further, Today, our thinking has shifted along with scientific evidence, incorporating the genetic insights of the past century. We now know we’re animals, related to all other life on our planet. We’ve also learned much about cognition, including the uneasy separation between instinct and intention, and the investment of the whole body in thought and action. As such, we might expect attitudes to have changed. But that isn’t the case. We Read More ›

American staffordshire terrier dog with little kitten

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 7, 2021

Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Science

Tagged
Mammals (adopting other animals)}

Researchers Ponder Why Animals Adopt Other Species’ Orphans

_{Beliefs about what animals “should do” are often hampered by a lack of common sense reasoning and an outdated evolution theory} _{Denyse O'Leary
May 7, 2021

5

Natural Intelligence, Science}

At The Conversation, evolutionary anthropologist Isabelle Catherine Winder (pictured) and anatomist Vivien Shaw pose a question, “Animal adoptions make no evolutionary sense, so why do they happen?“ For instance, scientists working with gorillas in Rwanda recently found the gorillas band together to take care of orphans. In these cases, young peers and (surprisingly) dominant adult males can be key to immature orphans’ survival. Perhaps it really does take a village to raise a child. Meanwhile researchers in DR Congo found that bonobos (apes closely related to chimpanzees) go even further, and sometimes adopt babies from a different social group. We even have examples of cross-species adoption, such as the dolphin who adopted and nursed a melon-headed whale, and a group Read More ›

Ancient Forest, Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park

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Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 6, 2021

Categorized
Information Theory, Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Information (as immaterial), Plant communications, Plants (memory), Suzanne Simard, Thomas Nagel}

Plants Help Each Other. Are They Self-Aware? Can They Suffer?

_{Recent discoveries that plants can do many things that we used to think only animals could do raise some interesting questions} _{Denyse O'Leary
May 6, 2021

6

Information Theory, Natural Intelligence}

In recent decades, we have learned that plants are much more like animals in their use of information than earlier thought. They have nervous systems that use glutamate to speed transmission, as mammals do. And seeking to thrive and grow, they communicate extensively. Recently, environmental journalist Richard Schiffman interviewed forest ecologist Suzanne Simard, author of the just-released Finding the Mother Tree on the intelligence of trees: You also found that birches give sugars to fir trees in the summer through the mycorrhizal networks and that firs return the favor by sending food to birches in the spring and fall, when the birches lack leaves. Isn’t that cool? Some scientists were having trouble with this: Why would a tree send photosynthetic Read More ›