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Mind Matters Reporting on Natural and Artificial Intelligence

Michael Egnor

Young businesswoman thinking while using a laptop at work
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post
Author
Michael Egnor
Date
March 30, 2020
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind
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Jeffrey Shallit, a computer scientist, doesn’t know how computers work

Patterns in computers only have meaning when they are caused by humans programming and using them.
Michael Egnor
March 30, 2020

Materialism is a kind of intellectual disability that afflicts even the well-educated. To put it simply, machines don’t and can’t think. Dr. Shallit’s wristwatch doesn’t know what time it is. Dr. Shallit’s iPod doesn’t enjoy the music it plays or listen to his phone calls. His television doesn’t like or dislike movies. And his computer doesn’t, and can’t, think.

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Western lowland gorilla, Gorilla gorilla
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Author
Michael Egnor
Date
March 27, 2020
Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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How Not To Debate Materialists

This is the story of how a gifted scientist lost a debate with a Darwinist — a debate he should have won
Michael Egnor
March 27, 2020

Although ape brains do differ somewhat from human brains in cortical anatomy, it is the similarity between the brains of apes and men, rather than the differences, that provide striking evidence of human exceptionalism.

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Fractal galaxy cosmic consciousness, the Eye that is the Source of Creation
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Author
Michael Egnor
Date
March 22, 2020
Categorized
Religion
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God’s Existence Is Proven by Science

Arguments for God’s existence can be demonstrated by the ordinary method of scientific inference
Michael Egnor
March 22, 2020

If we approach the arguments logically, as the ancient philosophers did, we will see that it is more certain that God exists than that anything else does. Atheist evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne should consider the arguments more carefully before assuming that prayer is foolish.

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Group of people holding hands praying worship believe
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Author
Michael Egnor
Date
March 15, 2020
Categorized
Medicine and Health, Religion
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Jerry Coyne Hasn’t Got a Prayer

He understands neither natural theology nor natural science
Michael Egnor
March 15, 2020

We are more scientifically certain of God’s existence than we are of quantum mechanics or Newtonian or relativistic gravitation. The logic is rigorous.

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Female surgeon praying in operation theater
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post
Author
Michael Egnor
Date
March 8, 2020
Categorized
Medicine and Health, Religion
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Why prayer is wise during a pandemic

Evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne thinks that only fools would pray about coronavirus. He is wrong and here is why
Michael Egnor
March 8, 2020

If God is real, then prayer is probably the first thing you want to do in a crisis. A plea to the Boss is a fine preamble to the grunt work of managing a crisis. I’m a neurosurgeon, and I pray before each operation. It really helps.

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Head shot close up portrait of red-and-green macaw in zoo
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Author
Michael Egnor
Date
March 6, 2020
Categorized
Mathematics, Natural Intelligence
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Polly Want a … Statistician?

Ethology, the science of animal behavior, offers interesting data but the interpretations are too often witless
Michael Egnor
March 6, 2020

Can birds really do statistics? A reporter writing up the results of a study for a popular science magazine seems to think so. The researchers are (appropriately) more cautious. But what are the issues here?

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mental mind sport motivation concept of young handsome strong man with beard wearing black jersey concentration relaxation in sport gym
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Author
Michael Egnor
Date
March 5, 2020
Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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The Mind Is the Opposite of a Computer

Matthew Cobb, a materialist, only scratches the surface when he explains why your brain is not a computer
Michael Egnor
March 5, 2020

Mental activity always has meaning—every thought is about something. Computation, by contrast, always lacks meaning in itself. A word processing program doesn’t care about the opinion that you’re expressing when you use it. In fact, what makes computation so useful is that it doesn’t have its own meaning. Because the mind always has meaning and computation never does, the mind is the opposite of computation.

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Text paper trees
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Author
Michael Egnor
Date
February 25, 2020
Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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How Can We Study Consciousness Scientifically?

Tam Hunt offers some ideas at Scientific American but his dismissal of objectivity is cause for concern. There is a better way.
Michael Egnor
February 25, 2020

Hunt is right that the scientific study of consciousness using merely third-person objective data is flawed—it is the idiotic flaw of behaviorism—but the notion that “objective” data needs scare quotes opens the door to a deconstruction of our knowledge of the natural world that is every bit as idiotic and dangerous as the crude materialist objectification of consciousness.

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Sagrada Familia
Spandrels within the interior arches of the Sagrada Familia
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Author
Michael Egnor
Date
February 11, 2020
Categorized
Philosophy of Mind
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Did Consciousness Evolve?: A Darwinist Responds

Jerry Coyne argues that consciousness is a mere byproduct of useful traits that are naturally selected. But wait…
Michael Egnor
February 11, 2020

The critical problem that consciousness poses for Darwinian evolution is that there is no survival advantage for subjective first-person existence over objective third-person existence.

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rib-eye steaks cooking on flaming grill panorama
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post
Author
Michael Egnor
Date
January 29, 2020
Categorized
Philosophy of Mind
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Meat has no opinions

Why you can't actually deny free will
Michael Egnor
January 29, 2020

If we are just meat, as evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne insists, we cannot have a true opinion of the matter. Meat is neither right nor wrong. To have an opinion about free will implies that we accept it.

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Obstetric Ultrasonography Ultrasound Echography of a first month
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Author
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
Categorized
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
Categorized
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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post
Author
Michael Egnor
Date
September 19, 2019
Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
Tagged

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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