^CategoryHuman exceptionalism

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 16, 2023

Categorized
Cosmology, Environment, Human exceptionalism

Tagged
Biocentrism, Dawn of a Mindful Universe (HarperOne 2023), Ecology, Marcelo Gleiser, Marcelo Gleiser (on human exceptionality), Philip Goff}

Theoretical Physicist Admits That Humans Are Unique

_{In his forthcoming book, Marcelo Gleiser challenges us to acknowledge our responsibility to save the planet} _{Denyse O'Leary

September 16, 2023

6

Cosmology, Environment, Human exceptionalism}

Yesterday, I noted a new book by Durham University philosophy professor Philip Goff, Why? The Purpose of the Universe (Oxford University Press, 2023). Notwithstanding his choice of topic, Goff is a panpsychist, not an intelligent design theorist. He originally tried approaching the massive evidence for the fine-tuning of the universe by supposing that there must be a very large number of flopped universes out there (multiverse theory). But he realized that that assumption is simply pulled out of thin air. We have no evidence for the existence or conditions of any other universe. So he is now working with the assumption that the universe is itself conscious in some sense. Significantly, Goff is given a respectful hearing despite having touched Read More ›

canine astronaut, with his paw on button to activate rocket thrusters, in the cockpit of spacecraft, created with generative ai

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 26, 2023

Categorized
Human exceptionalism, Language, Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Alexis Devine, Bunny (Tik Tok dog), Confirmation bias, Dogs, Dogs and human emotions, Dogs and language, KP (marine biologist), Paw buttons, Stephanie Pappas}

Do Cool Floor Buttons Really Cause Dogs To Talk?

_{The latest fad in “Talk to the animals” appears to be a classic in confirmation bias} _{Denyse O'Leary

August 26, 2023

5

Human exceptionalism, Language, Natural Intelligence}

Science writer Stephanie Pappas looked recently at the latest fad in communicating with dogs: Paw-friendly floor button sets that the dog can press (potty, play, come, etc.), available for US$20– $200. The anecdotes about the things dogs have thus told their loving humans practically write themselves: On TikTok, some of these “button dogs” seem to be doing surprisingly intelligent things, such as combining two words to create a unique meaning—“squeaker” and “car,” to refer to an ambulance, for example. One of the more famous members of this doggie bunch on TikTok, a sheepadoodle named Bunny, can apparently put together four-word phrases. In one instance, for example, she pushed buttons to refer to her friend: “Tenrec, come, look, play.” – Stephanie Read More ›

diversity and inclusion hands of peace. women uniting for social justice

^{Type
post

Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
August 16, 2023

Categorized
Environment, Human exceptionalism

Tagged
Anti-humanism, Canada, Environmentalism, green radical, Human exceptionalism, Slate, Wesley J. Smith (on human exceptionalism)}

Humanity is Not a Terminal Illness

_{Anti-humanism has been part of the environmentalist movement for decades} _{Wesley J. Smith

August 16, 2023

4

Environment, Human exceptionalism}

Anti-humanism has been part of the environmentalist movement for decades. For example, as far back as the 1970s, Canadian green radical David Suzuki denigrated humans as “maggots” that walk around “defecating on the planet.” When offered a chance to take that back in an interview ten years ago, Suzuki refused. Even the staid David Attenborough proclaimed us to be “a plague on the earth.” This deep misanthropy continues to spread. Now, a new book — Homo Ecophagus — argues that we are a “cancer” that will make ourselves extinct. From an interview of the author Dr. Warren Hern, in Slate: It’s not an analogy; nobody ever died from an analogy. It’s a diagnosis, and that’s different. The diagnosis is the same as the hypothesis. . . . This Read More ›

Primeval Caveman,Neanderthal Family , ai generated

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 15, 2023

Categorized
Human exceptionalism, Paleontology, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Birch tar, Clive Finlayson, Michael Shermer, Neanderthal culture, Neanderthal DNA, Neanderthals, Patrick Schmidt, Technology curve}

Researchers: Neanderthals Invented Process to Produce Birch Tar

_{The tar can be used for glue, bug repellent, and killing germs. This finding tracks growing recognition of Neanderthals as intelligent} _{Denyse O'Leary

June 15, 2023

5

Human exceptionalism, Paleontology, Philosophy of Mind}

Many of us grew up with “Neanderthal!” used as a term of abuse for a stupid person. A 2021 study from the University of Tübingen and others, dusted off at ScienceAlert, paints quite a different picture, in connection with Neanderthals’ manufacture of birch tar. The tar from burnt birch wood can be used as glue, insect repellent, and antiseptic. It can be scraped from a fire naturally or it can be produced in a controlled way. Which method Neanderthals used says something about the development of their culture. The study authors, Patrick Schmidt et al., went to a lot of potentially messy trouble to try to answer the question: Some think of black tar as a happy accident that Neanderthals Read More ›

View of the Great Salt Lake at sunset, at Antelope Island State Park, Utah

^{Type
post

Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
March 30, 2023

Categorized
Human exceptionalism, Panpsychism

Tagged
Consciousness, Conservation, Great Salt Lake, Mysticism, Nature, Nature Rights, New York Times, Panpsychism, Terry Tempest Williams, Wesley J. Smith}

Should Great Salt Lake Have Rights?

_{The nature rights movement keeps making inroads into establishment thinking — and people keep ignoring the threat} _{Wesley J. Smith

March 30, 2023

5

Human exceptionalism, Panpsychism}

The nature rights movement keeps making inroads into establishment thinking — and people keep ignoring the threat. The concept has now been advocated in a major opinion piece in the New York Times. Utah’s Great Salt Lake is shrinking — a legitimate problem worthy of focused concern and remediation. Utah native and Harvard Divinity School’s writer-in-residence Terry Tempest Williams — who focuses on “the spiritual implications of climate change” — makes a strong case that the lake is in trouble. A Conservationist Approach Her proposed remedies reflect a proper conservationist approach worthy of being debated: Scientists tell us the lake needs an additional one million acre-feet per year to reverse its decline, increasing average stream flow to about 2.5 million acre-feet per year. A Read More ›

Tribe of Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers Wearing Animal Skins Stand Around Bonfire Outside of Cave at Night. Portrait of Neanderthal / Homo Sapiens Family Doing Pagan Religion Ritual Near Fire

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
December 11, 2022

Categorized
Human exceptionalism, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Bruce Bower, Clare Watson, Homo Naledi fires, Jacquelyne Germain, Juan Negro, Keneiloe Molopyane, Lee Berger, Neanderthal cooking, Owl stones, Owl stones as children's art}

Our Ancestors Were Cooking Much Earlier Than Thought

_{The more we learn about early humans, the more sophisticated we find their culture to be} _{Denyse O'Leary

December 11, 2022

5

Human exceptionalism, Philosophy of Mind}

Recent findings suggest that some things we take for granted in human civilizations are much older than thought. Now, these findings are provisional but they are worth looking at: The owl stones from 5,500 and 4,750 years ago may be children’s art: But new research suggests the palm-sized plaques decorated in geometric patterns and with two engraved circles at the top might be the work of children. Numbering in the thousands and made from slate, the owl-like objects – previously dated the stone objects to be between 5,500 and 4,750 years old – may be “the archaeological trace of playful and learning activities carried out by youngsters,” according to the team of Spanish researchers behind the new study… They suggest Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Casey Luskin
Date
November 13, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Human exceptionalism

Tagged
Blake Lemoine at COSM 2022, COSM, COSM 2022, Featured, George Montanez at COSM 2022, LaMDA (claims for sentience), Robert J. Marks at COSM 2022, Three Laws of Robotics}

Experts at COSM Debate Whether Chatbot was Sentient

_{Turned out quite pleasant. Google fired him in 2022 - but what really happened there?} _{Casey Luskin

November 13, 2022

8

Artificial Intelligence, Human exceptionalism}

Last Thursday morning at COSM, a panel of experts debated whether truly sentient artificial intelligence (AI) could potentially exist — and even whether it already does. Robert J. Marks, distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering at Baylor University, opened by criticizing the Turing test, as a measure of whether we’ve produced genuine AI. Developed by the famous English mathematician and World War II codebreaker Alan Turing, the test holds that if we can’t distinguish a machine’s conversational discourse from that of a real human, then it must exhibit humanlike intelligence. Marks maintains that this is the wrong test for detecting true AI. In his view, the Turing test fails because it “looks at a book and tries to judge Read More ›

The face of a businessman and a robot opposite each other look into the eyes. Modern technologies, robot versus human, artificial intelligence, neural networks. 3D render, 3D illustration.

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
October 3, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity, Human exceptionalism

Tagged
AI Church, Anthony Levandowski, David Krieger, Featured, Non-Computable You (book), Robert J. Marks}

One Thing We Can Know About Computers: They Are Not Creative

_{Computer engineer Robert J. Marks explains that to David Krieger at the Power Hour} _{News

October 3, 2022

6

Artificial Intelligence, Creativity, Human exceptionalism}

Recently, Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks was a featured guest on David Krieger’s The Power Hour (KCXL in Liberty, Missouri, and KTRW in Spokane, Washington, September 22, 2022). Despite a short-lived religion based on the idea: https://mindmatters.ai/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/09/Mind-Matters-205-Robert-J-Marks.mp3 Robert J. Marks: In fact, there are entire religions which are based on artificial intelligence. One of the most incredible ones is a guy named Anthony Levandowski, who founded an AI church. In the AI church, here’s some examples. We are told that someday we will be able to be uploaded to a computer, and we can be reborn into an eternal life of silicon. And so that’s kind of copying from the Christian church about immortal life. That’s the way Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
September 16, 2022

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Human exceptionalism

Tagged
Animal rights, Christianity, Creativity, Dean Koontz, Dogs, Human exceptionalism, Human rights, transhumanism, Wesley J. Smith, Wesley J. Smith on transhumanism}

Human Exceptionalism is a Central Theme for Novelist Dean Koontz

_{Bestselling author Dean Koontz talks fiction, human exceptionalism, and transhumanism with Wesley J. Smith in new podcast episode (Part II)} _{Peter Biles

September 16, 2022

6

Arts & Culture, Human exceptionalism}

In Part I of this two-part series, we looked at Dean Koontz’s remarks on the purpose of art and the unique role of the novelist in today’s “everything is political” environment. But that’s not all he and Smith discussed on the Humanize Podcast on September 12th. Both had a lot to say about human exceptionalism, authoritarianism, and also…dogs! Koontz spoke about his love for the pups at the end of the episode, but first, discussed how the “animal rights” movement has gone wrong, and how a materialistic worldview can lead to despair. Smith commented how human exceptionalism is a central theme in Koontz’s novels and asked the reason, to which Koontz responded, “There’s no civilization if we don’t recognize Read More ›

Close up flying small lesser horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros) hunting night moths insect pest catching in darkness via ultrasound echolocation. Dark background detail wildlife animal portrait.

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
September 3, 2022

Categorized
Human exceptionalism, Medicine and Health, Neuroscience

Tagged
Daniel Kish, Echolocation in humans, FlashSonar, SonarVision, World Access for the Blind}

There Really Is a “Batman” and He Isn’t in the Comics

_{Daniel Kish lost both eyes to cancer as a baby. With nothing to lose, he discovered human echolocation} _{News

September 3, 2022

4

Human exceptionalism, Medicine and Health, Neuroscience}

Perhaps one should not really say that Daniel Kish “discovered” human echolocation. Yet, having no other options as a blind infant cancer survivor, he discovered early on — and began to publicize — a sense that few sighted persons would even think of: He calls his method FlashSonar or SonarVision. He elaborated for the BBC: Do people need to be blind to do it? Not necessarily: In 2021, a small study led by researchers at Durham University showed that blind and sighted people alike could learn to effectively use flash sonar in just 10 weeks, amounting to something like 40 to 60 hours of total training. By the end of it, some of them were even better at specific tests Read More ›

Woman in bedroom terrified by big spider crawling over her bed

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 31, 2022

Categorized
Ethics, Human exceptionalism, Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Animal dreaming, Consciousness (human vs. spider), David M. Peña-Guzmán, Ethics and spiders, Panpsychism and ethical obligations, Spiders dreaming, When Animals Dream (book)}

Should Spider Dreaming Really Give Us “Ethical Pause”?

_{The incidental discovery of REM sleep in spiders is morphing into vast claims that we have “urgent and inexorable ethical obligations” to them and other life forms} _{Denyse O'Leary

August 31, 2022

4

Ethics, Human exceptionalism, Natural Intelligence}

Anyone familiar with the current “animal consciousness” scene might have seen this one coming. At The Scientist, we learned earlier this month that animals dream, according to researcher David M. Peña-Guzmán. Recently, it was spiders that were found to dream. Therefore, it is now implied, human and animal consciousness do not differ very much: In When Animals Dream, I argue that the mere fact that animals dream poses a formidable challenge to that bastion of traditionalism that is the human-animal divide, raising provocative ethical questions about the status of animals as moral subjects toward whom we have urgent and inexorable ethical obligations. This fact also frustrates the common view that only humans are “cognitively free” because only we can liberate Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 29, 2022

Categorized
Human exceptionalism, Panpsychism

Tagged
Paco Calvo, Panpsychism and plant consciousness, Plants (consciousness issue), Plants and anesthesia}

Yes, Plants May Be Conscious Too, Says Researcher

_{Paco Calvo has authored many papers in respected journals; his view is another instance of panpsychism overtaking materialism in science} _{Denyse O'Leary

August 29, 2022

4

Human exceptionalism, Panpsychism}

At one time, claims for animal consciousness and/or intelligence focused on, say, chimpanzees and dolphins, where the animals were enough like humans that what is meant by intelligence or consciousness was clear. Maybe not clear enough for a philosopher but clear enough for practical purposes. The octopus’s intelligence came as a bit of a surprise because it is an invertebrate. But these comparisons with mammals and birds showed that we were still talking about the same thing. We are now told in science publications that bees feel and think and that spiders dream. As science edges slowly toward panpsychism (all life forms participate in consciousness), we even learn — in science journals — that viruses are intelligent and cells are Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 11, 2022

Categorized
Human exceptionalism, Natural Intelligence, Panpsychism, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Alun Anderson, Animal Algorithms (book), Anthropomorphism (and bees), Bee consciousness, Bees, Bumblebees, Catherine WIlson, Egnor's Dilemma, Eric Cassell, Lars Chittka, Mind of a Bee (book), Panpsychism's growing acceptance}

What Does It Mean To Say Bees “Feel and Think”?

_{The New Scientist reviewer is unsure that we are ready for such a radical message. Unsure? At one time, it would have been branded “NOT science!”} _{Denyse O'Leary

August 11, 2022

5

Human exceptionalism, Natural Intelligence, Panpsychism, Philosophy of Mind}

Behavioral ecologist Lars Chittka’s book, The Mind of a Bee (Princeton University Press, 2022), is a fascinating detailed description of bee behavior that will cure us of believing that the insect world is devoid of intelligence or sensation. Indeed, in a 2018 essay with Catherine Wilson, Chittka offers many research findings in a shorter format. It’s only in Chapter 11, toward the book’s end, that he makes a controversial claim: From the very start, early in evolution, nervous systems were inseparable from movable bodies with sensors, and developed in order to integrate perception and action. The challenges of survival and self-replication (reproduction) that a moving organism faces are most efficiently met when brain and body are intimately connected, enabling the Read More ›

Three friendly happy playing dogs in summer park. German shepherd, american staffordshire terrier and french bulldog holding one stick. Different dog breeds have fun together.

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 25, 2022

Categorized
Human exceptionalism, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Dogs and abstractions, Promissory materialism}

Claim: We’ve Shown That Dogs Can Form “Abstract Concepts”

_{It’s a good idea to be skeptical when any such claim is followed up with the assertion that humans “aren’t that cognitively unique after all.”} _{Denyse O'Leary

July 25, 2022

5

Human exceptionalism, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

University of Buffalo researchers reported recently on a study of three pet dogs known to them that they had taught to “ponder their past”: Dogs are capable of learning the instruction “do that again,” and can flexibly access memories of their own recent actions—cognitive abilities they were not known to possess, according to the results of a recent University at Buffalo study. “We found that dogs could be trained to repeat specific actions on cue, and then take what they’d learned and apply it to actions they had never been asked to repeat,” says Allison Scagel, Ph.D., the study’s corresponding author, who was a UB graduate student in the Department of Psychology at the time of the research. “Our findings Read More ›

Organoids in petri dish . Few distributed on growing medium. 3d illustration rendering

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
July 22, 2022

Categorized
Ethics, Human exceptionalism, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Alysson Muotri, Brain organoids research advances, Clare Wilson, Fred Gage, Human embryos as highly organized, Human-induced pluripotent stem cells, Lab-grown brains, Mini-brains (brain organoids), Sentience in lab-grown brains, Sergiu Paşca}

Lab-Grown Brains Are Closer Now. Should They Have Rights?

_{News

July 22, 2022

6

Ethics, Human exceptionalism, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

A new neuroscience research area raises as much concern as excitement: growing mini “human brains” in a lab. The excitement is the prospect of better understanding and treatment of dementia, autism, and motor neuron disease (ALS). The concern is that they will become sentient, capable of feeling. Then what? Starting in 2008, researchers learned that they could coax human stem cells to self-organize into “brainlike structures with electrically active neurons.” Although the cell clusters behave, to some extent, like human embryos, they are not human embryos but skin cells from an adult. That limits the ethical conflict in that the research does not depend on the abortion industry. But ethical issues crop up anyway as groups of cells become more Read More ›

image on the wall of the cave painted by an ancient man. ancient world history. era, era.

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
July 17, 2022

Categorized
Archeology, Arts & Culture, Human exceptionalism, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Alastair Pike, Art in Stone Age, Michael Marshall, Neanderthals and art}

Why Is Neanderthal Art Considered Controversial?

_{It makes sense that whenever humans started to wonder about life, we started to create art that helps us think about it.} _{News

July 17, 2022

4

Archeology, Arts & Culture, Human exceptionalism, Philosophy of Mind}

Science writer Michael Marshall, author of The Genesis Quest (2020), tells us that many paleontologists resist the idea that early humans called Neanderthals created any artworks. They prefer to attributed all such works to groups that arrived on the scene later. The trouble is, the dates are often hard to determine and the reasoning is sometimes circular. As Marshall puts it, “People had assumed that they could tell the age of cave paintings by the style in which it was depicted,” says [Alistair] Pike. Ever since the first prehistoric art was found in the late 1800s, there has been a sense that art should evolve linearly: the oldest pieces should be extremely simple and abstract, with later ones becoming more Read More ›

Joyful little girl smelling self made croissants with mom

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
July 15, 2022

Categorized
Human exceptionalism, Medicine and Health, Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Anosmia, Gaia Remerowski, Human sense of smell, John McGann, Matthew Cobb (on sense of smell), Matthias Laska, Sara Ives, Smell (sense of smell)}

The Nose Really Does Know, It Turns Out…

_{But we usually don’t notice. Our sense of smell may have declined in recent millennia but it is sharper than we think} _{News

July 15, 2022

5

Human exceptionalism, Medicine and Health, Natural Intelligence}

Anthropologist Sarah Ives reflects on the experiences of people whose sense of smell fell victim to COVID-19: Melissa, a New York–based podcaster, realized how crucial scent is for safety when she lost her sense of smell. “I kept burning stuff on the stove,” she says. “I’ve sent rotten turkey to school with my kid. I have thought, What if I end up dying because I can’t smell something dangerous, like knowing whether you are going to burn the house down? I’ve literally almost done it three times. There are flames, and I’m just sitting in the other room.” Sarah Ives, “What the Anthropology of Smell Reveals About Humanity” at Sapiens (June 30, 2022) Anosmia, the loss of a sense of Read More ›

Found this little guy munching away in Washington Square Park, NY

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 27, 2022

Categorized
Ethics, Human exceptionalism, Law, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Animals (communication with animals), Animals and emotional contagion, Anthropomorphism (and squirrels), Anthropomorphism and social justice, James Bridle, Ways of Being (book), World Economic Forum (WEF) on animal social inequality}

Can Squirrels Really Be Socially Unjust? Check Their Privilege?

_{A recent paper suggests that the animal world, untroubled for aeons by any notion of conscience, has a lot to answer for} _{Denyse O'Leary

June 27, 2022

7

Ethics, Human exceptionalism, Law, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

The idea that humans are not really much different from other animals has resulted in an interesting reversal: Writing about non-human animals as if they were humans. A recent essay in Behavioral Ecology, for example, interpreted “wealth inequality” among animals as if the animals were people: “Squirrel privilege is real.” “Checking Privilege in the Animal Kingdom.” “Even Hermit Crabs Have Wealth Inequality.” These headlines hail from Salon and New York Times, respectively, and represent a growing trend among scholars and the media to tackle animal “inequality” — and also argue humans can learn important lessons about income inequality and privilege from such studies. Daniel Nuccio, “‘Checking privilege in the animal kingdom’: Biologists investigate animal ‘inequality’” at The College Fix (June Read More ›

Working Data Center Full of Rack Servers and Supercomputers, Modern Telecommunications, Artificial Intelligence, Supercomputer Technology Concept.3d rendering,conceptual image.

^{Type
post

Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 21, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Human exceptionalism, Law, Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Blake Lemoine and LaMDA, Corporations as legal persons, Happy the elephant, Hydrocarbon bigotry claim, LaMDA and Blake Lemoine, Species-ism, Steven Levy, Wesley J. Smith on Happy the elephant}

Engineer: Failing To See His AI Program as a Person Is “Bigotry”

_{It’s not different, Lemoine implies, from the historical injustice of denying civil rights to human groups} _{Denyse O'Leary

June 21, 2022

5

Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Human exceptionalism, Law, Natural Intelligence}

Earlier this month, just in time for the release of Robert J. Marks’s book Non-Computable You, the story broke that, after investigation, Google dismissed a software engineer’s claim that the LaMDA AI chatbot really talked to him. Engineer Blake Lemoine, currently on leave, is now accusing Google of “bigotry” against the program. He has also accused Wired of misrepresenting the story. Wired reported that he had found an attorney for LaMDA but he claims that LaMDA itself asked him to find an attorney. He went on to say, I think every person is entitled to representation. And I’d like to highlight something. The entire argument that goes, “It sounds like a person but it’s not a real person” has been Read More ›