Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

CategoryPhilosophy of Mind

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Female robot face, Artificial intelligence concept. Generative AI

Programmer: AI could certainly become conscious

From Casper Wilstrup's perspective, we can't demonstrate that anything is NOT conscious so creating conscious AI is simply a matter of using the scientific method
The reason Casper Wilstrup is so sure is that he has adopted panpsychism — the view that everything participates in consciousness. Read More ›
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Ultrasound of a fetus at 20 weeks

Unborn Child Learns the Accents, Rhythms of Mom’s Native Language

There is, however, a dark, little-told tale about how we learned much of what we know about unborn children today
Although Narayanan frowns on pro-lifers using information to show the individual humanity of the unborn child, that’s clearly where the science points. Read More ›
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Group of neanderthal people walking by river ,

Did the Wily Neanderthal Save Time While Preparing Meals?

An enterprising archaeology team tried cooking birds using methods only available to Neanderthals — and learned some things, including how to avoid burned fingers
The separateness and intellectual inferiority of Neanderthal man was at one time constantly emphasized but the evidence doesn’t support it. Read More ›
creative-brain-stimulation-concept-half-a-human-brain-with-half-a-coffee-bean-on-a-blue-background-stockpack-adobe-stock
Creative brain stimulation concept. Half a human brain with half a coffee bean on a blue background.

Do We Need the Right Half of the Human Brain?

Generally, we do. Yet what happened when one woman lost the right half of her brain as an adult was unexpected

A little-reported 2021 case study published in Neurology Clinical Practice shows how resilient the human brain can be. A 29-year-old woman, CB, with no neurological or psychiatric history had a stroke, possibly due to medication issues. The damage was serious enough that a decision was made, with her consent, to remove almost all of the right side of her brain (hemispherectomy). As the study authors put it, “only a small disconnected right occipital pole was retained.” What impact would that have on her mind? The right hemisphere of the brain is thought by neuroscientists to play a specific role in “nonverbal” cognitive abilities. From Simply Psychology, we learn, Left hemisphere function The left hemisphere controls the right-hand side of the Read More ›

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Comatose male patient in hospital.

Heart attack doctor asks, is death now reversible?

If new findings in resuscitation techniques hold up, says Sam Parnia in his new book, brain conditions now deemed irreversible may be reversible

Resuscitation specialist Sam Parnia, reflects in his new book, Lucid Dying (Hachette, August 6, 2024), on the recent discovery that brains can be resuscitated hours after death. From the sample pages offered at the book’s Amazon site, we learn that in 2019, a writer at prominent science journal Nature sent Parnia a copy of the embargoed results of a study of pig brains from a slaughterhouse, kept alive for hours after death. “I was left totally stunned and speechless” he recounts: For at least a decade, I had tried to draw attention to the fact that our concept of life and death should be redefined. Death should no longer be viewed as a specific black-and-white moment. Instead, it should be Read More ›

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The Threshold of Near-Death Experience, Between Two Worlds

Heart Attack Doctor: Science Shows That Death Is Not the End

Sam Parnia began by wondering how brain cells can give rise to thoughts. He came to see that the message “from science” was not what he had been led to expect
Parnia concludes that science suggests, at a minimum, that our consciousness and selfhood “are not annihilated when we cross over into death.” Read More ›
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My best friend Pepper

Tech Hype Watch: Do Chatbots Really Understand Things?

Well-known author Robert Wright believes they do but he misunderstands how computers work
There is no way to build a computer that does not rely on 1’s and 0’s (computation), so computers that understand meaning are not possible. Read More ›
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AI robot profile, Section showing the brain and internal working system, AI generated.

Science Writer: No Way To Tell If AI Is Conscious

Absent a definition of consciousness, it might not be possible to prove extravagant claims wrong
The difficulty of defining consciousness could very well be one of the reasons why tech moguls can get away with extravagant claims about conscious AI. Read More ›
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Neural landscape with densely packed neurons, selective focus on a synapse releasing neurotransmitters, vibrant blue and white colors, high-resolution digital illustration

Is Panpsychism Putting Francis Crick’s Pack of Neurons to Flight?

Science writer John Horgan remembers Crick in the ‘90s when reductionism was riding high in neuroscience. What’s happened since?
As the years wear on, consciousness will likely remain irreducible and the neuroscientists may end up having to address plausible claims for dualism soon too. Read More ›
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Empty cave looking out

Can We Really Study the Minds of Ancient Humans?

The design inference helps sort things out in human paleontology
It’s progress, perhaps, that researchers are defending the role of parsimonious inference. It’s possible to see too much in scattered beads — or too little. Read More ›
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Colorful wooden puzzle brain model. Neurodiversity concept, human mind complexity. Creativity, brainstorming and emotional intelligence.

Neuroscientist: The Mind Is Just the Brain

He cites studies using transcranial magnetic stimulation, which caused subjects to see flashing lights
The fatal flaw in identity theory, as his view is called, is that there is no point of contact between the laws of logic and those of electrochemistry. Read More ›
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AI generated view of the multiverse

What Is Pseudoscience? A Philosopher Tries To Sort It Out

Finding little to go on, Massimo Pigliucci suggests relying on popular skeptic sites and, er, … himself
Speaking of Skeptical Inquirers, perhaps we should be much more skeptical of the very concept of pseudoscience, at least as it plays out. Read More ›
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Crashing Ocean Wave with view inside the wave

New Podcast Asks, Is the World Really Enchanted—or Disenchanted?

At Created Souls and The Banquet of Souls, I want to explore the fact that human consciousness is not about to be made obsolete by AI or explained away by neuroscience
The tide is turning. The idea that science will soon explain away human consciousness is ceasing to be a live discussion. Let’s hear the new discussions! Read More ›
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humanoid AI robot assists old senior woman in her household. serving drink and food, replacing human caregiver

Why AI Will Not and Cannot Think Our Thoughts

How can a robot ever have a spiritual vision of reality? How can it even be emotional?
Could an android at a child's funeral read the mourners' thoughts and emotions? Or would it view the death as a mere rearrangement of atoms in a wooden box? Read More ›
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Inside the brain. Concept of neurons and nervous system.

A Third Big Consciousness Theory: Each Neuron Is a Computer

Dendritic information theory (DIT) may not explain consciousness any better than other theories but it may shed light on how anesthesia produces LOSS of consciousness
What we are really learning is that even the individual cells that mediate consciousness are very complex — even in the lab rats used in the experiments. Read More ›
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man standing in front of various paths, needing to make a decision to move forward in life. Generative Ai.

Philosopher: Why Brain Science Does Not Eliminate Free Will

Tim Bayne looks at what we can logically deduce from the famous Libet experiments
The logical argument for free will coincides with recent neuroscience research findings. Read More ›
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A digital tablet casting a hologram of a chatbot icon, symbolizing advanced customer service technology.

Is It Sinking In? Chatbots Will *Not* Soon Think Like Humans

Tech writer Gary Marcus: Even futurist Ray Kurzweil, a fount of optimism on the topic, is sounding less sure now
Problems like model collapse, hallucination and innumeracy may be inherent in chatbots, which would curtail progress toward thinking like humans. Read More ›
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Bearded neanderthal man sits by fire in cave at night, caveman and bonfire on dark background. Concept of Homo sapiens, prehistoric era, primitive, ancient, Stone Age

Evolutionary Theorists Stymied by the Human Mind

No one actually knows how our ancestors began to think like humans
If man is biologically — but not cognitively — like an animal, the obvious implication is that some aspect of the human mind is not biological. Read More ›
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Human brain and Active receptor

Consciousness Wars: Researcher Tries Negotiating a Truce

Witch hunts against leading theories are bad for a discipline’s reputation; Johan Storm thinks that all the prominent theories of consciousness are a little bit right
The fate of the discipline may depend on how committed researchers are to finding out the facts vs. protecting a materialist view of consciousness. Read More ›
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Person is looking for way out of psychedelic maze. A surreal labyrinth in magical forest. Human consciousness is at dead end, searching for solutions. Created with Generative AI

From a Philosopher: Philosophy of Consciousness Is “Bizarre”

Eric Schwitzgebel admits to his host at Closer to Truth that “every single view in the history of the philosophy of mind is bizarre”…
He blames our “folk intuitions” for the problem. Some thinkers would say that the problem arises from seeking a materialist solution to an immaterial reality. Read More ›