CategoryPhilosophy of Mind
Consciousness Studies Is a “Bizarre” Field of Science
The question of whether machines can be conscious is bound up with attempts to study immaterial things while denying their existence
In One Sense, Consciousness IS an Illusion…
We have no knowledge of the processes of our consciousness, only of the objects of its attention, whether they are physical, emotional, or abstract
What Do Thoughts Weigh?
Robert Marks thrashes out with Michael Medved why our minds are neither meat nor softwareIn a wide-ranging conversation, Robert Marks and Michael Medved tackle questions like what it means for something to be not just unknown but “unknowable.”
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Is Salad Murder?
A Darwinian biologist wrestles with the significance of plant intelligenceIf plants can sense things and communicate with each other, even though they lack a mind or brain, should they have rights? In an age of sometimes violent animal rights activism, that’s not an idle question. Plant physiologist Ulrich Kutschera, author of Physiology of Plants. Sensible Vegetation in Action (January 2019, German), talked about it in a recent interview: This is a serious issue which is related to plant intelligence. In April 2009, the Swiss Parliament discussed the topic of “plant ethics” and proposed to attribute to plants a kind of “Würde”, which can be translated as “dignity” (3). As a consequence, some radical plant ethics-activists have distributed T-shirts and other propaganda material with the slogan “Salad is murder”. Despite Read More ›
The Human Mind from a Computer Science Perspective
The Blyth Institute’s new journal will offer a focus on artificial intelligence and philosophy as well as philosophical questions in mathematics and engineering
How is Human Language Different from Animal Signals?
What do we need from language that we cannot get from signals alone?
Quantum Randomness Gives Nature Free Will
Whether or not quantum randomness explains how our brains work, it may help us create unbreakable encryption codesWhen I was boy, my father explained free will and predestination to me: I dig a fence post hole. · Did I create the hole because of my own free will? · Or was the hole already there and I simply removed the dirt? If true, the hole was predestined. The question cannot be answered by examining the evidence. In philosophy terms, it is “empirically unanswerable.” That is the sort of stuff that philosophers debate. Religious people might point to scripture to support one conclusion over the other.1 In physics, however, quantum randomness offers a definitive answer to the question of predestination vs. free will—for subatomic particles. In the world of classical physics (Isaac Newton’s physics), it can be argued Read More ›
Stephen Hawking and the AI Apocalypse
Can doomsday headlines, chasing fame, stand in for deep knowledge of a subject?
Has Neuroscience Disproved Thinking?
A philosopher argues that Nobel Prize-winning research shows that the theory of mind is just another illusion, useful for survival and success
Do Quasars Provide Evidence for Free Will?
Possibly. They certainly rule out experimenter interference.
Tom Stoppard’s New Play Tackles Consciousness Itself
Consciousness is a hard problem for science, principally because no one quite understands what makes us the subjects of our experiences.
Yes, the Placebo Effect Is Real, Not a Trick
But the fact that the mind acts on the body troubles materialists. Such facts, they say, require revision
Panpsychism: You Are Conscious but So Is Your Coffee Mug
Materialists have a solution to the problem of consciousness, and it may startle you
Noted Astronomer Envisions Cyborgs on Mars
Sir Martin Rees thinks of this “post-human evolution” as going beyond Darwin to “secular intelligent design.”
Brains are not billions of little computers
Despite the hype. Also, life forms are not machines and neurons are not neural networks
Did AI show that we are “a peaceful species” triggered by religion?
No, but this episode shows how science media sometimes help mislead the public
Hamlet: Did his perplexing neurotransmitters cause the tragedy?
The neuroscientist working from a mechanical perspective would study the material and efficient causes of Hamlet’s act of revenge.
Yes, your brain is a machine—if you choose to see it that way
As a Nobel Prize physicist pointed out, our method of study determines what we learnAnil Seth, a Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex, gave a TED talk recently (linked below) in which he asserted that “the combined activity of many billions of neurons—each one a tiny biological machine—is generating our conscious experience…” So, is your brain really a biological “machine”? Or is that just an analogy, like saying that a restaurant kitchen is a “hive” of activity? If so, how good is the analogy? Why do we select the analogy of a “machine” rather than a different one? It’s an important question, as we will see, because the questions we ask of nature constrain the answers we obtain. A machine is an artifact. It is a human-built assembly of Read More ›
