Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

Denyse O'Leary

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Alien extra-terrestrial life forms, micro-organisms, floating in cosmic space, outer space

In What Sense Is Origin of Life From Space a Scientific Question?

We can never know for sure what happened in the remote past. But future discoveries could, in principle, either strengthen or confirm the life from space claim.

One thing emerges clearly from the life from space approach: Intelligent design is a viable hypothesis for the origin of life.

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Small green sprout breaking through cracked concrete in a neutral urban setting, representing resilience, hope, determination, and new beginnings against harsh adversity and environmental contrast.

News Roundup: This Certainly Looks Like a Religious Revival…

The Barna Report says that, for the first time in decades, younger adult s— Gen Z and Millennials — are now the most regular churchgoers. There have been a number of unexpected conversions to Christianity in recent years

The growth in interest in the Bible is significant because studying the Bible is work and its message is about costly commitment.

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A woman stands contemplative in a futuristic mirror maze, surrounded by reflections and green neon lights.

Monkey Wrenched: Science & the Specter of Private Truth

The landscape in which science flourishes has greatly changed. A rising power threatens even popular science staples like Darwinism. I call that new power “private truth.”

Many people experience a vast liberation when they are freed from the constraints of logic, reason and evidence. They won’t part lightly with their new freedom.

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DNA strands in endless space

In What Sense Is Origin of Life a Scientific Question?

Recently, a friend recommended a paper on theories of the origin of life. (Yet another one?) But this one proved most interesting…

We’re allowed to consider that intelligent design may have got life going provided we locate it somewhere between Star Wars and Star Trek.

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Cognitive Researcher Conducting Perception Experiment with Visual Stimuli Under Natural Light, Selective Focus and Flat Lay Setup

Materialism in Science: Touching Another Hot Button

With a discussion of the findings of rigorous research into telepathy, the challenge to the presumption of materialism in science is beginning to be sounded loud and clear

What’s changed? The cost of protecting materialism in science has risen gradually, consistent with the rising number of situations on which it sheds little light.

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Bangkok, Thailand 25 AUG 2020. Men hand using digital tablet for search information on Google.  Wireless Smartphone technology with intelligence search engine.

Publishers suing Google over summarizing their stories

Offered summaries, many readers may not to go to the site, where they either pay or provide an audience for advertisers.

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Abstract image representing quantum mechanics and the mysterious world of subatomic particles, quantum, mechanics, physics

Wall Street Journal: A Disappointing Fret About “Conspiracy Physics”

If physicists are starting to “worry about the consequences” of discussing long-term theory failure, it is reasonable to think that there are even more serious problems within the discipline

If the physics establishment is only just now beginning to see that public funding depends on public legitimacy, well… it’s about time.

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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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