Denyse O'Leary

the drawings from the ceiling of Altamira cave in Santillana Del Mar, Cantabria, Spain

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
January 9, 2023

Categorized
Archeology, Arts & Culture, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Becky Ferreira, Ben Bacon, Cave paintings, Kristina Killgrove, Lunar calendar, Melanie Chang, Paul Pettit}

Do Cave Paintings From 20,000 Years Ago Show Symbolic Writing?

_{In an article in the Cambridge Archeological Journal, researchers say they’ve deciphered the dots and Y’s among the animal paintings} _{Denyse O'Leary

January 9, 2023

5

Archeology, Arts & Culture, Philosophy of Mind}

London-based wood carving conservator Ben Bacon has, with academic colleagues, shaken up Ice Age paleontology by demonstrating that the marks on the 20,000-year-old cave paintings of animals found across Europe could be interpreted as a lunar calendar timing their reproductive cycles: Prof Paul Pettitt, of Durham University, said he was “glad he took it seriously” when Mr Bacon contacted him. “The results show that Ice Age hunter-gatherers were the first to use a systemic calendar and marks to record information about major ecological events within that calendar.” News, “Londoner solves 20,000-year Ice Age drawings mystery” at BBC (January 5, 2023) The paper is open access. Bacon had spent many hours both on the internet and in the British Library, studying Read More ›

Lost and confused man walks puzzled on a penrose triangle. Perplexed person looks disoriented ahead, don't know which way to choose. Surreal and conceptual scene, mental maze, optical illusion

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
January 8, 2023

Categorized
Mathematics, Philosophy of Mind, Physics

Tagged
Closer to Truth, Computationalism, Consciousness, Idealism (philosophy), Penrose Triangle, Physicalism, Robert Lawrence Kuhn, Roger Penrose, Supervenience}

Nobelist Roger Penrose Talks About His Impossible Triangle

_{At Closer to Truth, the mathematical physicist explains to Robert Lawrence Kuhn how he understands the relationship between mathematics, the mind, and the physical world} _{Denyse O'Leary

January 8, 2023

8

Mathematics, Philosophy of Mind, Physics}

Last month, Robert Lawrence Kuhn interviewed eminent British mathematical physicist Sir Roger Penrose on the relationship between mathematics, the mind, and the physical universe (December 9, 2022/32:00 min). Penrose likes to illustrate the relationship between the three with an “impossible” triangle (see below). Here are a couple of transcribed selections from the first part of the discussion in Part 1*, concerning the Penrose Triangle, with some notes: Robert Lawrence Kuhn: Let’s start with your grand metaphysical framework, your three worlds — three mysteries: the physical world, the mental world, the platonic or mathematical world — each connected to the other two in your famous diagram of an equilateral triangle. What’s the origin of this vision of yours of foundational reality? Read More ›

An internet email symbol and a group of people are separated by a red prohibitory symbol No. restrictions on access to the global Internet. Censorship. Information control, society isolation policy

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
January 5, 2023

Categorized
Censorship, Social Media

Tagged
Benjamin Weingarten, Facebook, Facebook censorship, Glenn Greenwald, Government management of news, Matt Taibbi, TikTok, Twitter files 11, Twitter files 12}

Big Tech Censorship Goes Well Beyond Twitter

_{Big Tech media is not, in itself, an answer to current legacy mainstream media if we would like to know information that our betters would prefer that we didn't} _{Denyse O'Leary

January 5, 2023

6

Censorship, Social Media}

The big news (if it is even news) is that most Big Tech media are involved in censorship of opinions disapproved by the governing elite. Elon Musk has certainly shone a light by buying Twitter and releasing the house files to independent journalists. Legacy media entities still refuse to cover the story seriously (probably because they cannot take inevitable further blows to their relevance, numbers, or prestige) First, some updates on the Twitter Files via indie journalist Matt Taibbi: Twitter files 11 deals with — among other things — the way Twitter was pressured in 2016 by political friends, then out of power, to discover that there was Russian involvement in the outcome of the U.S. 2016 election. Twitter was Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
January 4, 2023

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Closer to Truth (video series), Conscious realism, Consciousness, Donald Hoffman, Evolution, Idealism, Objective reality, Robert Lawrence Kuhn}

Brain Scientist: Consciousness Didn’t Evolve. It Creates Evolution

_{With a tremor in his voice, Donald Hoffman tells Robert Lawrence Kuhn that even the Big Bang must be understood in a universe where consciousness is fundamental} _{Denyse O'Leary

January 4, 2023

10

Philosophy of Mind}

In a recent episode of Closer to Truth, Robert Lawrence Kuhn interviewed University of California cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman on a challenging topic, “Why did consciousness emerge? (7:41 min, December 10, 2022): There was a time when there was no consciousness in our universe. Now there is. What caused consciousness to emerge? Did consciousness develop in the same way that, say, the liver or the eye developed, by random mutation and fitness selection during evolution? Inner experience seems to be radically different from anything else. Are we fooling ourselves? Donald Hoffman is the author of Visual Intelligence: How We Create What We See and coauthor of Observer Mechanics: A Formal Theory Of Perception (Norton, 2000) A partial transcript and some Read More ›

Cat hunter with a caught mouse in her mouth

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
January 3, 2023

Categorized
Ethics, Law, Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Animal moral responsibility claims, Animal rights activism, Ed Simon, Human rights and animal rights movement, Miha Krofel, Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP), Raegan Scharfetter, Steven Wise}

Can Animals Be Held Criminally Responsible for Their Acts?

_{While the idea is handled provocatively in philosophy literature, in practice, animals are envisioned as plaintiffs, not defendants, in animal rights cases} _{Denyse O'Leary

January 3, 2023

7

Ethics, Law, Natural Intelligence}

In an essay at Psyche, Ed Simon, a journalist who investigates the eclectic, looks at the history/mythology of trying animals like pigs and rats for criminal offenses. He sees an opportunity there for animal rights activism: Dismissing animal trials as just another backwards practice of a primitive time is to our intellectual detriment, not only because it imposes a pernicious presentism on the past, but also because it’s worth considering whether or not the broader implications of such a ritual don’t have something to tell us about different ways of understanding nonhuman consciousness, and the rights that our fellow creatures deserve. From our metaphysics, then, can come our ethics, and from our ethics can derive politics and law. There need Read More ›

zen garden meditation stone background with stone and lines in sand for relaxation balance and harmony spirituality or spa wellness

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
January 1, 2023

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind, Science

Tagged
Closer to Truth (video series), Consciousness, Consciousness as immaterial, David Chalmers, David Chalmers on dualism, Dualism, Panpsychism, Robert Lawrence Kuhn, soul, Soul in Chalmers' view}

Philosopher: I Accept Dualism But Don’t Believe in the Soul

_{David Chalmers, whose background is in physics, talks to Robert Lawrence Kuhn at Closer to Truth about his struggle to accept that the mind is immaterial} _{Denyse O'Leary

January 1, 2023

10

Philosophy of Mind, Science}

David Chalmers, the New York University philosopher who coined the term “Hard Problem of Consciousness” was willing to take the risk of openly identifying as a dualist — that is, he believes that, on evidence, the human mind is immaterial. On that view, widely accepted worldwide, the human being has a dual nature: a material body and an immaterial mind. But Chalmers draws the line at believing in the existence of a soul. Here is his discussion at Closer to Truth with Robert Lawrence Kuhn, “Is the ‘Soul’ Immortal?” (May 4, 2021, 9:06 min): The claim that human beings have or are an ‘immortal soul’ goes back to the ancient Greeks, if not further. In a pre-scientific world, it would Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
December 30, 2022

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Psychology, Relationships

Tagged
Andrew Solomon, Cecily Whiteley, Depression (clinical), Global state of consciousness, Jonathan Birch, Neural correlates of depression, Noonday Demon (Scribner 2001), Randi Mazzella, Sally Brampton, Shoot the Damn Dog (Bloomsbury 2008), suicide}

Is Depression an Altered Global State of Consciousness?

_{Cecily Whiteley and Jonathan Birch from the London School of Economics and Political Science argue that altered consciousness prevents depressed people from just "seeing the bright side"} _{Denyse O'Leary

December 30, 2022

5

Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Psychology, Relationships}

PhD student Cecily Whiteley and philosophy prof Jonathan Birch, both of the London School of Economics and Political Science, think that depression is often misunderstood. In this 2021 article, noted again at Psyche, they point out that it is not just “feeling low”; it is an altered form of consciousness: The psychologist Andrew Solomon hints at some of these transformations in his memoir The Noonday Demon (2001): “When you are depressed, the past and future are absorbed entirely by the present moment, as in the world of a three-year-old. You cannot remember a time when you felt better, at least not clearly; and you certainly cannot imagine a future time when you will feel better. Being upset, even profoundly upset, Read More ›

Guilty dog and a destroyed teddy bear at home. Staffordshire terrier lies among a torn fluffy toy, funny guilty look

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
December 29, 2022

Categorized
Free will, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Alasdair Wilkins, Bjoern Brembs, Free will in animals, Fruit flies and free will, Helen Steward, Jason Palmer, Martin Heisenberg, Robert Doyle}

Do Animals, as Well as Humans, Have Free Will?

_{One can make a case for animal free will in the strict sense that no life form is bound by complete determinism because it doesn't exist} _{Denyse O'Leary

December 29, 2022

7

Free will, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

In 2009, University of Würzburg biology professor Martin Heisenberg wrote a defense of animal free will in Nature, basing his argument on the behavior of flies: For example, my lab has demonstrated that fruit flies, in situations they have never encountered, can modify their expectations about the consequences of their actions. They can solve problems that no individual fly in the evolutionary history of the species has solved before. Our experiments show that they actively initiate behaviour4. Like humans who can paint with their toes, we have found that flies can be made to use several different motor outputs to escape a life-threatening danger or to visually stabilize their orientation in space. Heisenberg, M. Is free will an illusion?. Nature Read More ›

Hairdresser's hands with scissors. New normal concept. Copy space. Stay safe. Health protection equipment during quarantine Coronavirus pandemic. Covid 19

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
December 28, 2022

Categorized
Censorship, Social Media

Tagged
COVID censorship, David Zweig, John West on totalitarian science, Mainstream media and Twitter files, Matt Taibbi, Substack, Twitter, Twitter and COVID censorship, Twitter files 10, Twitter files 9, Vivek Murthy}

How Twitter Cut Off a Reasoned Discussion of the COVID Response

_{Three more takeaways (7-9) as the story gets deeper — and of greater concern to those who believe that a free flow of information makes for a healthier society} _{Denyse O'Leary

December 28, 2022

6

Censorship, Social Media}

First, last January, John West reflected at Evolution News and Science Today about the rise of totalitarian science, as shown by the way COVID was managed: The COVID era also has seen a dramatic rise of censorship in the name of science. We are told continuously now that “misinformation” or “disinformation” must be stopped. No decent person favors the spread of “misinformation.” But who is to judge what constitutes “misinformation”? Those warning of “misinformation” seem to assume that existing elites are always right, and so they should be in charge of determining what is true or false. But anyone conversant with the history of science or government knows that this claim can’t hold up to scrutiny. Neither elite scientists nor Read More ›

Ritual circle in the oldest temple of world - Gobeklitepe. October 2019.

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
December 28, 2022

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Evolution, Philosophy of Mind, Religion, Theism

Tagged
A Better Ape (Oxford University Press 2022), Early humans, Evolution and culture, Genetics and culture, Religion and culture, Richmond Campbell, Victor Kumar}

Philosophers: Religion, Not Nature, Made Us Human

_{Victor Kumar and Richmond Campbell argue that many very ancient human types had human minds; religion is the missing ingredient} _{Denyse O'Leary

December 28, 2022

5

Arts & Culture, Evolution, Philosophy of Mind, Religion, Theism}

The philosophers who make this claim are not evangelists. Victor Kumar is director of the Mind and Morality Lab at Boston University and Richmond Campbell is the George Munro professor of philosophy emeritus at Dalhousie University. In an essay at IAI News, adapted from their book, A Better Ape: The Evolution of the Moral Mind and How it Made Us Human (Oxford University Press 2022), they argue that “it was the cultural institution of religion, and its ability to create large tribes, that made us into modern humans.” Sometimes there is a story in titles. The official title of this piece is “Nature didn’t make us human, culture did.” The subtitle is “How religion made us a successful species.” But Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
December 26, 2022

Categorized
Language

Tagged
Giosuè Baggio, Language (origin), Language and consciousness, Linguistic Society of America, Linguistics, Neurolinguistics (MIT 2022), Noam Chomsky, Paul Bloom, Ray Jackendoff, Richard Nordquist, Stephen Jay Gould, Steven Pinker, Steven Pinker and Paul Bloom argue in Natural Language and Natural Selection (paper)}

How Human Language Is, and Isn’t, Like a Computer Program

_{A key difference is that a language cannot be downloaded into the brain, like a program. It must be painstakingly acquired} _{Denyse O'Leary

December 26, 2022

6

Language}

Giosuè Baggio, professor of psycholinguistics at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, has mixed feeling about comparing the brain’s management of human language to computation. In some ways, it is a useful analogy: If we look at what the brain does while people perform a language task, we find some of the signatures of a computational system at work. If we record electric or magnetic fields produced by the brain, for example, we find signals that are only sensitive to the identity of the sound one is hearing — say, that it is a b, instead of a d — and not to the pitch, volume, or any other concrete and contingent features of the speech sound. At some Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
December 25, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Artificial intelligence as sentient, Clsoer to Truth, Darwin Devolves, Developmental anatomy, Evolution as goal directed, Evolution theory, Max Tegmark, Max Tegmark on transhumanism, Michael Behe, Michael Levin, Robert Lawrence Kuhn}

Physicist Max Tegmark Worries About Intelligent AI’s “Suffering”

_{What strikes me about Tegmark’s approach to the question is its fundamental lack of seriousness} _{Denyse O'Leary

December 25, 2022

8

Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

In a recent interview, MIT theoretical physicist Max Tegmark talked to Robert Lawrence Kuhn at Closer to Truth about “transhuman brains” (Dec 20, 2022, 8:43 min): Transhuman brains are the melding of hyper-advanced electronics and super-artificial intelligence (AI) with neurobiological tissue. The goal is not only to repair injury and mitigate disease, but also to enhance brain capacity and boost mental function. What is the big vision, the end goal — how far can transhuman brains go? What does it mean for individual consciousness and personal identity? Is virtual immortality possible? What are the ethics, the morality, of transhuman brains? What are the dangers? Here’s a partial transcript and comments: Max Tegmark: I think it’s pretty clear that artificial intelligence Read More ›

Extreme magnification - Jumping spider portrait, front view

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
December 25, 2022

Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience

Tagged
Betsy Mason, Brain size (impact), Bridge spiders, Christa Lesté-Lasserre, Dan Robitzski, Jumping spiders, Portia (jumping spider), Spiders (hunting in groups), Spiders (strategies)}

Spiders Are Smart; Be Glad They Are Small

_{Recent research has shed light on the intriguing strategies that spiders use to deceive other spiders — and prey in general} _{Denyse O'Leary

December 25, 2022

6

Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience}

This story was #7 in 2022 at Mind Matters News in terms of reader numbers. As we approach the New Year, we are rerunning the top ten Mind Matters News stories of 2022, based on reader interest. For those of us who wonder whether invertebrates really think — well, it’s complicated because some do more than we expect but then some don’t. At any rate: “Spiders are smart: Be glad they are small. (March 11, 2022) Spiders, like octopuses, have eight legs. But they share something else as well — like octopuses, once we got around to studying them, they turned out to be much smarter than expected. What makes spiders even more unusual is that they are smart with Read More ›

Washington DC - FBI Building on Pennsylvania Street

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
December 22, 2022

Categorized
Censorship, Social Media

Tagged
Adam Sabes, Elon Musk and Twitter takeover, FBI and Twitter, Jake Gibson, Jeffrey A. Tucker, MSM and Twitter, Pieter Zatko, Stephen Green, Thursday Night Massacre, Tom Slater}

Three More Key Takeaways From the Twitter Files and Their Fallout

_{The FBI responds to the Twitter files: “Conspiracy theorists” are feeding the public “misinformation.” This isn't helping its reputation} _{Denyse O'Leary

December 22, 2022

6

Censorship, Social Media}

Key takeaways 1–3 are here. 4.Yes, the FBI finally responded to the Twitter files revelations about its cozy relationship with Twitter. And the response could be straight out of a bent cop novel: The Federal Bureau of Investigation is responding to Twitter Files revealing that the agency regularly contacted employees at the social media giant to notify them of accounts that “may” constitute violations of the company’s terms of service. FBI officials told Fox News that the agency didn’t ask Twitter employees to “take action” based on the information provided, and said the information was provided so that Twitter employees can make a determination on whether to take action. “We are providing it so that they can take whatever action Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
December 21, 2022

Categorized
Ethics, Peer Review, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology

Tagged
Adolph Hitler, Adrian Desmond, Anton Lavey, Charles Darwin, Daniel Gasman, Darwin’s Sacred Cause (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2009), Darwinian Racism (Discovery Institute 2022), Descent of Man (1871 and 1974), Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919), George Mosse, Hitler’s Ethic (Palgrave 2009), James Moore, Might Is Right (1896), Nazis and Darwinism, Peter Bowler, Ragnar Redbeard, Richard Weikart, Robert Richards, Was Hitler a Darwinian? (University of Chicago Press 2013), White Evangelical Racism (University of North Carolina Press 2021), Yuval Noah Harari}

When Scholars Simply Don’t Want To Believe Something Obvious…

_{… they are very good at developing clever arguments to avoid seeing it} _{Denyse O'Leary

December 21, 2022

8

Ethics, Peer Review, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology}

This article was originally published in Salvo 62 (Fall 2022) under the title “The Whitewashing.” In Hitler’s Ethic: The Nazi Pursuit of Evolutionary Progress (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), University of California historian Richard Weikart demonstrated painstakingly that the Nazis had developed an ethic based largely on applying Darwinian evolution principles to government. Scholars have since tried hard to obscure the connection, most likely because they believe in Darwinism and see it as science. Any suggestion that the Nazis were avid Darwinists too is unseemly and must be refuted by any and all means. With racism very much in current news, Weikart has focusing in Darwinian Racism: How Darwinism Influenced Hitler, Nazism, and White Nationalism (Discovery Institute Press, 2022) on the way Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
December 20, 2022

Categorized
Censorship, Social Media

Tagged
Elon Musk and Twitter takeover, Jack Dorsey, Jack Dorsey's regrets, Jay Bhattacharya, Meta and COVID censorship, Michael Goodwin, Michael Shellenberger, Twitter (and Elon Musk), Twitter and FBI}

Three Key Takeaways From the Twitter Files and Their Fallout

_{Twitter Files 7 dropped yesterday and it features the close relationship between Twitter and the FBI} _{Denyse O'Leary

December 20, 2022

5

Censorship, Social Media}

From the news: Do you think the pandemic response might have gone differently if voices such as yours were not suppressed? Yes… I do really believe censorship kills, and censorship killed during this pandemic. The policies could have been so much better… The policies that were adopted were incredibly damaging to the lives and livelihoods of so many people. 100million people thrown into poverty worldwide: that’s the estimate from the World Bank. Just the consequences of that itself are going to have tremendous effects on the lives and livelihoods of people going forward. And of course, all these children were robbed of an education for years. Those are absolutely monumental outcomes of the policies we adopted during the pandemic, and Read More ›

Macro concept of a brain connecting to pure love and intent

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
December 18, 2022

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind, Physics

Tagged
Christian Kerskens, Elizabeth Fernandez, Light (particle and wave), Marcelo Gleiser, Quantum Entanglement, Quantum entanglement and the brain}

Why Many Researchers Now See the Brain as a Quantum System

_{The hypothesis is that the brain relies on quantum physics, not classical physics, to power thinking processes} _{Denyse O'Leary

December 18, 2022

5

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind, Physics}

Astrophysicist and science writer Elizabeth Fernandez asks us to consider whether quantum processes might help us understand better how the brain works and shed light on consciousness: Some scientists suspect that quantum processes, including entanglement, might help us explain the brain’s enormous power, and its ability to generate consciousness. Recently, scientists at Trinity College Dublin, using a technique to test for quantum gravity, suggested that entanglement may be at work within our brains. If their results are confirmed, they could be a big step toward understanding how our brain, including consciousness, works. Elizabeth Fernandez, “Brain experiment suggests that consciousness relies on quantum entanglement” at Big Think (November 22, 2022) The paper is open access. Her thesis is that the brain Read More ›

Newspapers and Laptop. Different Concepts for News - Network or Traditional Tabloid Journals. Data Sources - Electronic Screen of Computer or Paper Pages of Magazines, Internet or Papers

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
December 16, 2022

Categorized
Economics, Media

Tagged
Bari Weiss, Holman W. Jenkins Jr., Journalism schools, Neetu Arnold, Washington Post layoffs}

Layoffs at Washington Post Show Direction of Mainstream Media

_{As their role has changed so much, they simply no longer have a mass popular base} _{Denyse O'Leary

December 16, 2022

5

Economics, Media}

The Washington Post has started layoffs and it isn’t pretty: The Washington Post’s all-hands meeting turned chaotic Wednesday after the newspaper’s publisher announced looming layoffs – and then left the room as concerned employees shouted questions. The Jeff Bezos-owned broadsheet will conduct a round of layoffs during the first quarter of 2023, publisher Fred Ryan announced during what was supposed to be an hour-long meeting. Thomas Barrabi, “Washington Post announces layoffs during tense town hall before publisher Fred Ryan storms out” at New York Post (December 14, 2022) This follows the CNN layoff of hundreds of staffers, announced at the end of November and described as a gut punch to the organization. The laid-off include such figures as Chris Cillizza, Read More ›

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
December 15, 2022

Categorized
Biology, Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Afghan Hound, Border Collie, Charles Fawole, Dog breeding for intelligence, Dog intelligence, Flynn effect, Jean Marie Bauhaus, Payton Pearson, Stanley Coren}

Can a Dog Be Bred To Be As Smart As a Human?

_{An enterprising electrical engineer thinks it can be done} _{Denyse O'Leary

December 15, 2022

7

Biology, Natural Intelligence}

Within one hundred generations or roughly 600 years? That’s the project Payton Pearson, an electrical engineer who gives his affiliation as the Air Force Institute of Technology in Dayton, Ohio, has set himself: Artificial selection is a well-known phenomenon of selecting for certain physiological characteristics of various species of plants and animals, and it is something that human beings have been doing for thousands of years. A perfect example of this is the union and development of dogs under human stewardship since the beginning of the agricultural era of society. In that time, approximately 6,000 years [1], dogs have been artificially selected in such a way as to produce thousands of different breeds. From the stout Dachshund, a dog breed Read More ›

Venus flytrap is one of the carnivore plants

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Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
December 14, 2022

Categorized
Panpsychism, Philosophy of Mind, Plant Mind

Tagged
Anesthesia awareness, Annaka Harris, Conscious: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind (Harper 2019), Consciousness (evolutionary approach), Daniel Chamovitz, Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Knopf 1997), Jean-Dominique Bauby (1952–1997), Locked-in syndrome, Natural selection, Philosopher's zombie, Plant communications, Plant consciousness, Plant senses, Suzanne Simard, What a Plant Knows (Farrar Strauss & Giroux 2017)}

A Science Writer Makes the Case for Plants as Conscious Beings

_{Annaka Harris, neuroscience and physics writer, starts by casting doubt on human consciousness} _{Denyse O'Leary

December 14, 2022

10

Panpsychism, Philosophy of Mind, Plant Mind}

Annaka Harris, a science writer focusing on neuroscience and physics and the author of Conscious: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind (2019), challenges us to reflect on two points: 1) In a system that we know has conscious experiences — the human brain — what evidence of consciousness can we detect from the outside? 2) Is consciousness essential to our behavior? The editor notes, introducing an excerpt from the book, “But how sure can we be that plants aren’t conscious? And what if what we take to be behavior indicating consciousness can be replicated with no conscious agent involved? Annaka Harris invites us to consider the real possibility that our intuitions about consciousness might be mere Read More ›