Why Memories Cannot Really Be “Stored” Anywhere
A song might capture the immaterial nature of memoryWhere exactly is a popular song located? It lives in memory, human and recorded, in many forms. But it occupies no spatial location.
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Philosopher: Memories Are Not “Stored” in the Brain
Memory is a function of time, not place, says Oxford's Victoria TrumbullNeurosurgeon Michael Egnor agrees; the image of storing and erasing memories is popular due to computer technology but not relevant to memory.
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What Do People Who Are Conscious But Lack a Cortex Demonstrate?
Consciousness does not necessarily reside in the cortex, as is commonly assumedNeuroplasticity is a very interesting and important area of research. But the careless and casual attribution of unexpected mental states to it is junk science.
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The Pope Just Weighed In On AI
If your religious organization doesn’t yet have a theology of AI, start building one because the conversation is already happening without youThe question isn’t whether AI will harm us. The question is actually whether we will remain human.
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Ancient Humans Have Been Getting Smarter, It Seems
That’s the conclusion I drew from reading about recent research in paleontologyTechnology has a history but the human mind does not. We see it where we see it.
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Why Egnor Finds Neuroscientists’ Lack of Curiosity “Unbelievable”
It seems as if they simply do not want to know about findings that challenge materialismUnfortunately, some of them spend a lot of time trying to discredit people who are willing to look at these questions.
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We need to catch up with the Neanderthals!
A number of interesting new findings and discussions have appeared — on everything from their dentistry to bear worshipSome of the Neanderthals’ practices around skulls suggest that they followed a belief system.
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Do People With Split Brains Have Back Door Communications?
Some neuroscientists think that split brain communications can thus be explained that way. Michael Egnor disagreesThe simpler explanation, he says, is that percepts, perceptions travel through axons. Conceptions don’t travel through axons because they’re not material.
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The Astonishing Fact That Split Brain Patients Reveal
Perception (what we take in from the world around us) can be split but conception (ideas) are not split. And no one has two mindsA misguided article in Popular Mechanics gave neurosurgeon Michael Egnor a chance to shed light on a unique fact about people with split brains here.
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Another ‘Scientific’ Attack on Free Will
We know free will exists because we each experience it every day.Accepting that we are merely flesh marionettes dancing to the strings pulled by our various biological processes would doom human decency.
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What Is Consciousness Actually Supposed To Do?
The Royal Society offers sixteen theories of the evolutionary function of consciousness. The trouble is, it's not clear what consciousness even isSome of the theories of animal mind are interesting but no one really has any idea how consciousness originated.
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Understanding the Atheist’s Mind
Naturalism is the belief that everything in the universe is a blind accident, with no ultimate purpose.In a Godless universe, love, self-sacrifice, friendship, relationships, pro-creation, art and literature are nothing more than relatively subjective illusions to pass the time and avoid boredom with no ultimate purpose or objective meaning.
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How Much Does the Mind Weigh? How Long Is It?
A recent article at Popular Mechanics provides a chance to reflect on mind vs. matter — and materialismPeople are entitled to their own definitions of materialism, of course. But once we focus on a standard one, we see that it is false to the reality of the human mind.
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Who Expected Richard Dawkins To Blow Up Darwinism?
To the astonishment and dismay of a computer pro who once admired him, Dawkins, who has a materialist view of human consciousness, has convinced himself that a chatbot is consciousIf this is what happens when people think that human consciousness has a purely material evolutionary origin, it is a strong argument for the opposite view.
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Thoughts on Theology in Science by Kenneth Francis: Berkeley Vs Solipsism
A fascinating book that covers a variety of topics from quantum theory to the dream life of spiders.Even if reality were an illusion only perceived by spirits, then there is still a source of order for that illusion, a core source of reality.
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The Colonized Hive Mind
Most thinking people have all seen the hive-mind types staring blankly into their iPhones.Those with empty lives only believe in things that they like, usually spoken by those in authority who mirror their ideological preferences.
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Boredom Eats the Soul
Are we entering the darkest night in history?Boredom can also be a proxy for other risk factors, leading to self-destructive behaviours such as drug/alcohol abuse, hardcore pornography addiction, unbridled promiscuity, crime, and, in the worst-case scenario, suicide.
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Demons from the Id
One such strange condition of mental turmoil is schizophrenia.A retired psychotherapist from Arizona who spent some 40 years working in hospitals and prisons with schizophrenic patients, was quite disturbed when his analysis of some patients pointed to the supernatural.
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Six Theories of Consciousness
Everybody talks about AI becoming conscious, but no one ever defines what consciousness is.Who gave consciousness and creativity to whoever or whatever is responsible for simulating us, and who simulated our simulator?
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Is Berkeley’s Universe a Spiritual Hologram
Berkeley looks from within as his starting point.For Berkeley, God is the basis for improving one’s life, not damaging it, and a common-sense view of life is the best path to achieving such a goal.
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