Mind Matters Reporting on Natural and Artificial Intelligence

Michael Egnor

Obstetric Ultrasonography Ultrasound Echography of a first month
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Michael Egnor
Date
January 21, 2020
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Abortion Advocate Admits in a Medical Journal That Unborn Children Feel Pain

The scientific community has for decades misrepresented the straightforward science of conception and fetal development for ideological reasons
Michael Egnor
January 21, 2020

I have cared for hundreds of premature infants and it is very clear that these very young children experience pain intensely. An innocuous needlestick in the heel to draw small amount of blood would ordinarily not be particularly painful for an adult. But a tiny infant will scream at such discomfort.

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Photo by Bret Kavanaugh
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Author
Michael Egnor
Date
January 17, 2020
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Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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Yes, Split Brains Are Weird, But Not the Way You Think

Scientists who dismiss consciousness and free will ignore the fact that the higher faculties of the mind cannot be split even by splitting the brain in half
Michael Egnor
January 17, 2020

Patients after split-brain surgery are not split people. They feel the same, act the same, and think the same, for all intents and purposes. Materialists like Jerry Coyne focus on subtle differences and distort the big picture.

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Photo by NeONBRAND
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Author
Michael Egnor
Date
December 29, 2019
Categorized
Philosophy of Mind, Religion
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Why Materialism Fails as a Science-Based Philosophy

I don’t believe that either panpsychism or cosmopsychism is true. But I have some sympathy with people who hold those views
Michael Egnor
December 29, 2019

There is no doubt that consciousness is a fundamental property of animal and human existence. As philosopher Philip Goff notes, a philosophy like materialism that cannot plausibly account for it cannot be correct.

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Arrangement mit Zitrusfrüchten, citrus fruits
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Author
Michael Egnor
Date
December 12, 2019
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Philosophy of Mind
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How Can Mind Interact with Matter?

Nature itself provides examples of how the immaterial interacts with the material
Michael Egnor
December 12, 2019

Nature is pervaded by immaterial forms like chirality that determine the properties of matter. This interaction is well recognized in science. It is in this sense that spirit and matter can and do interact.

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Humanoid Robot Call Center Question
Humanoid robot in a call center with questions in the front of the monitor. 3d illustration.
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Author
Michael Egnor
Date
October 7, 2019
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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Can We Engineer Consciousness in a Robot?

One neuroscientist thinks we need only “simple guidelines.” His underlying assumptions are just wrong
Michael Egnor
October 7, 2019

Graziano's approach is not new. Ancient philosophers thought the mind was fire (not too long after the discovery of fire). Early modern philosophers thought the mind was a machine (just as the machine age got started). Now suddenly it's a computer… 

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human brain dissection
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Author
Michael Egnor
Date
October 6, 2019
Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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An Oxford Neuroscientist Explains Mind vs. Brain

Sharon Dirckx explains the fallacies of materialism and the logical and scientific strengths of dualism
Michael Egnor
October 6, 2019

It’s good to see a growing response to the materialist superstition about the mind and the brain from the neuroscience and philosophy community.

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peacock with open tail and female
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Author
Michael Egnor
Date
September 26, 2019
Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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Did Consciousness Evolve to Find Love?

It’s an attractive idea but it comes with a hidden price tag
Michael Egnor
September 26, 2019

If consciousness is a mere tool of human sexual selection, it is mere plumage, a pretty enticement, of no meaning or import otherwise. But then what becomes of Dr. Graziano’s own intellectual labors?

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Abstract.
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Author
Michael Egnor
Date
September 25, 2019
Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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Did Consciousness “Evolve”?

One neuroscientist doesn’t seem to understand the problems the idea raises
Michael Egnor
September 25, 2019

Darwinian evolution must select physical attributes. If consciousness evolved as a mere byproduct of physical brain processes, it is powerless in itself. Thus Graziano's theories of consciousness are themselves mindless accidents.

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Photo by Julien-Pier Belanger
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Author
Michael Egnor
Date
September 23, 2019
Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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Neuroscientist Michael Graziano Should Meet the P-Zombie

To understand consciousness, we need to establish what it is not before we create any more new theories
Michael Egnor
September 23, 2019

A p-zombie (a philosopher’s thought experiment) behaves exactly like a human being but has no first-person (subjective) experience. The meat robot violates no physical principles. Yet we KNOW we are not p-zombies. Think what that means.

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Near death experience Andrew Charney Unsplash 4gP2EKPlU1Q-unsplash
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Author
Michael Egnor
Date
September 19, 2019
Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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Near-Death Experiences Are More Real Than Some of the Research

At Scientific American, we learn of an analysis that tries to link them to recreational drug highs, based only on language use
Michael Egnor
September 19, 2019

The scientific “method” of inferring a common biological cause of the experiences by analyzing the language used to describe them is junk science. One may as well infer that lung cancer and tuberculosis have a common cause because sufferers from both diseases report cough, shortness of breath, chest pain, and weight loss.

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chimpanzee family
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Author
Michael Egnor
Date
August 2, 2019
Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind
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Human-Ape Similarity Shows Humans Are Exceptional

If man is an animal biologically, but so unlike an animal cognitively, the obvious implication is that some aspect of the human mind is not biological
Michael Egnor
August 2, 2019

Ironically, if humans and apes were biologically more different, materialists could claim that the material biological differences rather than immaterial spiritual differences account for our powers of abstract thought. The biological similarity precludes such an argument.

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nerve cells, Neurologic Disease, tumors,brain surgery
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Author
Michael Egnor
Date
July 24, 2019
Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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A Materialist Neuroscientist Continues the Argument with Himself

On the topic of “intellectual seizures,” he seems committed to both points of view
Michael Egnor
July 24, 2019

I assert that intellectual seizures do not exist. Dr. Ali asserts that they do exist and that they do not. The difference between their existence and their non-existence seems to be Dr. Ali’s rhetorical needs of the moment.

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Business concept for group of stacked paperclip with another one red plane paperclip is point to another direction as a team leadership
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Author
Michael Egnor
Date
July 20, 2019
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Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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Can Materialism Explain Abstract Thought? Part II

Now Dr. Ali argues with Dr. Ali
Michael Egnor
July 20, 2019

I know of no report in medical history of an abstract thought evoked by a seizure or by brain stimulation. Which is odd, if the brain causes abstract thought.

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Stand out from the crowd and different concept , One light balloon flying away from other green balloons on light green pastel color wall background with window reflections and shadows . 3D rendering.
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Author
Michael Egnor
Date
July 16, 2019
Categorized
Philosophy of Mind
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What Is Abstract Thought? A Reply to Dr. Ali

Abstract thoughts cannot arise from material things because a cause cannot give what it does not have
Michael Egnor
July 16, 2019

Dr. Ali’s deeper fallacy—deeper than his misunderstanding of the research—is his belief that mere complexity of material processes is sufficient to explain immaterial processes.

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human brain on a running machine
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Author
Michael Egnor
Date
July 13, 2019
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Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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Up! Up! Up! Keep Those Hippocampi Up!

The lighter side of neurobabble about our brains and ourselves
Michael Egnor
July 13, 2019

Neurobabble is a full-employment campaign for neuroscientists. Recast obvious social or psychological facts as brain events and you’ll never be out of work.

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Fetuses in Vials artificial grown, in vitro fertilization of babies, embryo growth future technologies, human cloning vials, fetuses test tubes, babies grown laboratories 3D illustration
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Author
Michael Egnor
Date
July 11, 2019
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Philosophy of Mind
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Three reasons why humans won’t be cloned

I am prepared to subject my belief that humans cannot be cloned like Dolly the sheep to the test
Michael Egnor
July 11, 2019

Both materialist and immaterialist theories of the mind should be subject to empirical testing—neither should be exempt.

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People rows. Unusual persons in row. Concept 3D illustration
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Author
Michael Egnor
Date
July 6, 2019
Categorized
Philosophy of Mind
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Is an Immaterial Mind a Barrier to Human Cloning?

Human cloning has thus far been a scientific dead end
Michael Egnor
July 6, 2019

The ability to clone a rational man is a straightforward prediction of the materialist view of man, and the inability to clone a rational man is a straightforward prediction of the immaterialist view.

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Labirinth
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Author
Michael Egnor
Date
July 3, 2019
Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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Tales of the Mind: A Neurologist Encounters the House of Mirrors

Materialism is an intellectual trap, out of which neuroscience needs to climb
Michael Egnor
July 3, 2019

Yale University neurologist Steven Novella posted recently on the science of growing brain tissue in the lab. It’s interesting stuff, but then we come to the jumbled metaphysical musings that conclude his post: There is a layer of weirdness to the very idea of brain tissue in a vat, because I think we are naturally uncomfortable with the very notion that our consciousness is the result of a clump of tissue shuttling ions around. It breaks the illusion that our brains evolved to have, a very compelling and persistent illusion – namely that the reality we perceive is real, rather than a constructed representation. That internal representation has a strong relationship to physical reality, but the two are not the Read More ›

Langzeit EEG
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Author
Michael Egnor
Date
July 2, 2019
Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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Do “forced thinking” seizures show that abstract thought is a material thing?

Epilepsy suppresses abstract thought, it does not evoke it
Michael Egnor
July 2, 2019
It’s worth noting that Wilder Penfield, (with Herbert Jasper, his neurologist colleague), was one of the first doctors to characterize forced thinking seizures and he asserted that there are no intellectual seizures. He understood that forced thinking seizures are not seizures of the intellect. Read More ›