Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

Denyse O'Leary

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Untouched remote craggy cliff featuring a dramatic hanging overhang against a clear blue sky.

Dawkins Watches as Science Skeeters Off a Cliff, Learns Nothing

The decline is mainly due to the loss of traditional insights gained in large part from religion

It is becoming clear that if we lose our religion, we will lose our science as well.

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Dynamic energy fields illustration depicting electromagnetic waves, representing theoretical physics concepts like Maxwell's equations with intricate detail and vibrant colors

What If Science Tried Doing Without Materialism?

In a thoughtful review of The Immortal Mind, John Zmirak points to the way it currently underlies most popular presentations of science

Without materialism. math still adds up, physics and chemistry are still true, and logic still works. Only forgettable projects would be forgotten.

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Organ transplantation medical professional in a rush, following a strict procedure with an organ transplant case

Reuters Pulls Vid Where Xi Hails Organ Transplants for Longevity

Putin didn’t seem to care much about what he was heard to say about organ transplants but China is known to harvest organs from doomed political prisoners

When dictators adopt transhumanism, it won’t just be Ray Kurzweil trying to upload himself to digital immortality. There will be a very dark side.

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Social media censorship, political war between US president banning social networks. Tiny person on the laptop keyboard looking at the forbidden sign on the screen. Internet communication risk concept

Court: Satire is not illegal, even in California

The Babylon Bee won but the battle is hardly over. Many governments have begun to see the internet as something that they should try to run … into the ground.

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cages with white mouse

Even in mice, decision-making involves complex brain activity

If it’s this complex in mice, what are we to make of simplistic representations of human thinking in pop psychology textbooks?

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Humanity Upload – Concept of Digital Consciousness and Technological Evolution

Consciousness Can’t Be Uploaded as AI? — Of Course It Can’t!

Converting ideas and memories into bits in a computer program does not recreate in the computer the person whose minds and memories they are — only a simulation

The uploaded quirks and memories may be a good simulation of the deceased person but it is not a surviving self. It is just data.

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Decorative Scales of Justice in the Courtroom

Will “Citation Justice” Be Fair to Science?

Should scientists cite sources for the purposes of social justice or should they cite for information purposes alone?

There is a key difference in nuance between how citation justice is described in the leading science journal and how it may be interpreted in the field.

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Close up microscopic view of a sperm cell approaching and penetrating a human egg cell during fertilization in the reproductive process

Winds of Change: Skeptic Mag Defends Sex Binary Nature of Humans

It's not Skeptic Magazine that has changed. Rather, a change in our society created a need for a psychologist to come forward there to defend so obvious a proposition

The transgender movement, like the teacher-driven war on math, has embraced the Skeptics’ own approach to reality and now uses it for ITS purposes.

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A serene scene featuring a golden AI advisor hologram projected in a garden, interacting with people of different ages and backgrounds, symbolizing wisdom and harmony

Fiction: AI Can Even Turn Ghosts Into Glitches

Ken Francis’s short stories provide snapshots of a dystopian urban world that proves hard to distinguish from an AI hallucination

Not all of Francis’s stories end with disappointment. Just enough of them to make you wonder where all this modern urban life is heading.

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A robot doing yoga, contemplating its existence, ai and technology concept

AI Consciousness Myths: Neuroscientist Offers a No-Hype Approach

Àlex Gómez-Marín’s physics background shows in the way that he dissects the hyped-up claims before responding to them

At present, it doesn’t sound as though consciousness studies can take us beyond our natural folk understanding of consciousness.

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Brain activity

Albert Einstein: His mind was exceptional; his brain wasn’t

That was not what researchers expected. But the prior commitment to materialism in neuroscience makes the evidence difficult to accept and learn from.

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Fragmented Earth puzzle in space; environmental crisis concept; cosmic background; for climate change awareness

Science Writers Struggle With Reality as Crises Rock Disciplines

A series of recent articles and posts by prominent science and science writing figures leaves me wondering if they know what time it is

It’s curious that so few notice a much more serious threat to science than current politics is: the calls that are coming from inside the house.

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Group of happy diverse senior people standing together.

Researchers: Sense of Purpose in Later Life Lowers Dementia Risk

They believe that it helps the brain stay resilient. Fortunately, a wide range of activities have been found in various studies to provide that sense

While the observed effect was small, any actual effect is a tool in the box and this one does not come with the risks associated with medications.

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Portrait of smiling multinational people different religions stand together. National Religious Freedom Day. January 16. Holiday concept. Template for background, banner, card, poster and wallpaper

Religious Involvement Generally Predicts Better Mental Health

The signal that rises above the research noise is mostly positive. The question, in most cases, is what it points to

Harold Koenig and colleagues are confident that improving the quality of research will strengthen the usefulness of the overall database.

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Illustration of basic physics and mathematics formulas and galaxy in universe

When Physicists Clash Over an Allegedly Pointless Universe…

… we end up finding out how much current research appears to be an elaborate waste of public funds

When Piers Morgan invited Sean Carroll and Eric Weinstein on his show, sparks flew. And Sabine Hossenfelder’s comments are an eye-opener.

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Exploring the Intricate Connections of the Human Mind Through Gears and Creativity. Generative AI

Isn’t It a Bit Late To Try Retreading Eliminative Materialism?

Daniel Dennett was an eliminative materialist at a time when the idea that consciousness is an illusion sounded cool and daring. And the Big Explanation was just around the corner…

Overall, Jonny Thomson’s effort to keep Dennett’s eliminative materialism alive unintentionally points up how fragile it has actually become.

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A close-up view of a bunch of blue pills, showcasing a background medicine concept.

A Biologist Struggles to Understand “Unscientific Wokeness”

Truth, for many people now, is based on social, emotional, or political needs. And major science publications are buying in

Science, as both Darwinian Jerry Coyne and his non-materialist opponents know it, is one forlorn casualty of late-stage materialism, the world of private truth.

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Team of archaeologists excavating fossils

New Find: Stone Tools From 1 to 1.5 Million Years Ago

The tools were found on Sulawesi, an island near Flores, where fossils of diminutive humans were found in 2003 — but they were not as old as these tools

Human technology definitely has a history but the human mind does not. We see it where we see it, often just a glimpse in these abysses of time.

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A car parked on the side of the road, an empty red canister. The driver is on the road. Help on the road. Fuel shortage - oil, diesel, gasoline.

Is the Materialist Juggernaut Running Out of Fuel?

A recent thinkmag essay prompts a thought: can intellectuals still take materialism seriously?

Life would be so much easier for thinkmags if the mind were simply what the brain does. But wait. No one would produce thinkmags either.

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