CategoryPhilosophy of Mind
Will Studio’s New “After Death” Be a Hit Like “Sound of Freedom”?
The new 90-minute film interviews researchers and survivors of near-death experiencesAfter Death (Angel Studios 2023), a look at the many recent accounts of near-death experiences, will premiere October 27. Angel is the studio that produced the recent smash hit Sound of Freedom (2023). There’s a story in that: While SoF was trashed by fashionable media, it outgrossed some of the biggest films at the box office. Will After Death, directed by Stephen Gray and Chris Radtke, meet the same fate? Its basic message is that NDEs are becoming an intersection of science/medicine and faith. It will be interesting to see how the same fashionable media react. The principle reason for exploding interest in near-death experiences in recent decades is that high-tech medicine has been bringing back thousands of people from Read More ›
So AI is “Slightly Conscious” Now?
The AI optimists can't get away from the problem of consciousness.The idea that artificial intelligence could ever become actually “intelligent” is a minority view, but it’s espoused by some brilliant minds, including Jason Lemoine, an ex-Google employee who claimed the company’s developing AI system was sentient. Lemoine isn’t alone. According to Futurism, OpenAI’s top researcher, Ilya Sutskever, claimed in a Tweet this week that “large neural networks are slightly conscious.” Noor Al-Sibai writes, He’s long been preoccupied with artificial general intelligence, or AGI, which would refer to AI that operates at a human or superhuman level. During his appearance in the AI documentary “iHuman,” for instance, he even declared that that AGIs will “solve all the problems that we have today” before warning that they will also present “the potential to create Read More ›
When Science Points Beyond the Physical
The idea that science has somehow shown the irrelevance of the mind to explaining behavior is seriously confused.
The Big Problem for Physicalism
One physicalist theory after another has either ignored or falsified the central characteristics of consciousnessEditor’s note: We are delighted to welcome the new book from Discovery Institute Press, Minding the Brain: Models of the Mind, Information, and Empirical Science, edited by Angus J. L. Menuge, Brian R. Krouse, and Robert J. Marks. Below is an excerpt from Chapter 2. Look for more information at MindingtheBrain.org. By Angus Menuge The history of physicalism is one of extraordinary diversity: a wide variety of theories, with multiple versions, have jockeyed for dominance. Yet it is also a tale of persistent failure. One physicalist theory after another has either ignored or falsified the central characteristics of consciousness, intentionality, and rationality that define our mental life. We will begin by tracing the history of physicalism from the early varieties of behaviorism Read More ›
In Neuroscience Flap, Science Media Tackle “Pseudoscience” Claim
As the leading theory of consciousness is tarred by neuroscientists as “pseudoscience,” science media struggle to outline just WHAT science is
An Introduction to Minding the Brain
Is your mind the same thing as your brain? Or are there aspects of mind that are external to the biology of the brain?Editor’s note: We are delighted to welcome the new book from Discovery Institute Press, Minding the Brain: Models of the Mind, Information, and Empirical Science, edited by Angus J. Menuge, Brian R. Krouse, and Robert J. Marks. Below is an excerpt from the Introduction. Look for more information at MindingtheBrain.org. Is your mind the same thing as your brain? Or are there aspects of mind that are external to the biology of the brain? This question, referred to as the mind-body problem or the mind-brain problem, has been debated for centuries and has captivated curious minds since the dawn of human contemplation. What is the relationship between our mental life and physical body? Intuition suggests our subjective experience of the world is tightly Read More ›
Can Cells Learn? Can Molecules Communicate? What We Are Learning…
We are learning that the world of life is full of intelligence that we just did not know about
Did “Evolution” Wire Human Brains to “Act Like Supercomputers”?
In making such a claim, psychology researchers may have got more than they bargained for
“Minding the Brain” Tops the Amazon Charts
The latest release from Discovery Institute Press is a #1 new release on AmazonThe latest release from Discovery Institute Press is a #1 new release on Amazon, in the bookseller’s “Consciousness & Thought Philosophy” section. Congratulations to the editors of Minding the Brain: Models of the Mind, Information, and Empirical Science — Angus Menuge, Brian Krouse, and Robert J. Marks! The book has scored some terrific endorsements, including this: Materialism about the mind is a deeply entrenched assumption, so much so that alternative viewpoints are shrugged aside as inconsequential. Minding the Brain challenges that mindset, but not by giving a single, knock-down refutation of materialism or a single, obviously superior alternative. Instead, it presents a kaleidoscopic array involving multiple objections and multiple alternatives, authored by highly competent thinkers from neuroscience, consciousness studies, computer science, information theory, and Read More ›
Leading Consciousness Theory Slammed as “Pseudoscience.” Huh?
Integrated Information Theory’s panpsychist leanings are the 124 neuroscientist critics’ real target
Split Mind: The Strangest Theory in Neuroscience?
The idea that we might all have separate, undetected consciousnesses in each half of our brain supports materialism but there’s little evidence for it
The Mind is More than the Brain
A new anthology, out today, features 25 philosophers with fresh insights on the mind-body problem.
Near-Death Experience Study: Brain Is Active After Death
Science media are making surprisingly few efforts to attack or explain away the team’s findings
Another Non-Computable Trait: Spiritual Longing
You can't program spiritual longing into a computer, not matter how savvy the algorithm.
Was Descartes Right About the Mind?
In which a neurosurgeon and anthropologist discuss the nature of the mind
Does Left Brain-Only Thinking Impoverish Our Mental World? How?
A discussion of the left brain vs the right brain that avoids pop science can set us thinking, as psychiatrist McGilchrist and neurologist Dirckx show
Our Essential “I”ness … the Search for Its Address in the Brain
Does “I” — the first person singular — have or need a fixed address in the brain?
Does Consciousness Defeat Materialism?
There is a re-emerging interest in consciousness and the mindWhat would it take for “consciousness,” undoubtedly a nebulous and broad term, to defeat the idea that the mind is no more than the brain? For Dean Radin, a parapsychology researcher who was featured on the Closer to Truth program this month, it depends on what you mean by matter. “If you just look through history about the nature of matter, how has it changed historically, it has become more and more ephemeral. And I will imagine it will continue to become more ephemeral,” he said. For Radin, then, matter is complicated, and if you look closely enough, ends up being “mostly nothing.” If you’ve seen the new Oppenheimer movie, directed by Christopher Nolan, perhaps you’ll remember the scene in Read More ›
