CategoryPhilosophy of Mind
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 ›
How a Computer Programmer looks at DNA
And finds it to be "amazing" code
Brain hacks
Do we understand the brain better if we see it as a computer?
A Short Argument Against the Materialist Account of the Mind
You can simply picture yourself eating a chocolate ice cream sundae.
Does brain stimulation research challenge free will?
If we can be forced to want something, is the will still free?
Is Free Will a Dangerous Myth?
The denial of free will is a much more dangerous myth
Knowledge is power, sort of…
If that’s ALL knowledge is, the resulting science is bound to be limited, says Michael Egnor