Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

CategoryPhilosophy of Mind

Young businesswoman thinking while using a laptop at work
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post
Author
News
Date
July 8, 2022
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Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind
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Marks: Computers Only Compute and Thinking Needs More Than That

Robert J. Marks talks about his new book, Non-Computable You, with Oregon-based talk show host Bill Meyer
News
July 8, 2022
13
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Recently, Bill Meyer interviewed Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks on his Oregon-based talk show about “Why computers will never understand what they are doing,” in connection with his new book, Non-Computable You: What You Do That Artificial Intelligence Never Will (Discovery Institute Press, 2022). We are rebroadcasting it with permission here as (Episode 194). Meyer began by saying, “I started reading a book over the weekend that I am going to continue to eagerly devour because it cut against some of my preconceived notions”: https://mindmatters.ai/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/07/Mind-Matters-194-Bob-Marks-Bill-Meyer.mp3 A partial transcript, notes,  and Additional Resources follow. Meyer and Marks began by discussion the recent flap at Google where software engineer Blake Lemoine claimed that the AI he was working with was Read More ›

little-bird-flying-out-of-bird-cage-think-outside-the-box-stockpack-adobe-stock
little bird flying out of bird cage, think outside the box
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post
Author
News
Date
July 3, 2022
Categorized
Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Physics, Science
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Why Free Will Is Philosophically and Scientifically Sound

As Michael Egnor points out in a recent podcast, it has been nearly a century since determinism was toppled in physics
News
July 3, 2022
10
Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Physics, Science

In “Neurosurgeon Michael Egnor: Humans Have Free Will” a recent podcast at ID the Future, geoscientist Casey Luskin discussed science-based arguments against free will with neurosurgeon Michael Egnor (13:05 min). Are these arguments a serious challenge or are they just wishful thinking on the part of materialists? Here’s a partial transcript: Casey Luskin: Now I want to continue our conversation, Dr. Egnor, from the previous podcast, where we were talking about your debates on evolution news and views, responding to Dr. Jerry Coyne, the well known evolutionary biologist from the University of Chicago. Coyne is what you might call an honest atheist in that he’s willing to admit the implications that atheism and Darwinian materialism have for concepts like free Read More ›

nerve-cell-3d-neurons-stockpack-adobe-stock
Nerve Cell. 3D. Neurons
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post
Author
News
Date
June 29, 2022
Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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The Human Brain Has Neural Networks Not Found in Lab Mice

They are complex special networks whose purpose is silencing other neurons
News
June 29, 2022
3
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Assuming that human brains and lab mouse brains work roughly the same is fine for many purposes. Even though the human brain has a thousand times more neurons, it must does many of the same basic things for the body as a mouse brain. But studying mouse brains won’t tell us what human brains do besides that. Moritz Helmstaedter of the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, asks a telling question: “So, is it primarily the fact that our brains are 1,000-fold larger, house 1000-fold more nerve cells that allows us to play chess and write children’s books, which mice arguably cannot do?” In a just-published study that he led, the researchers examined human tissue removed by neurosurgeons Read More ›

two heads different directions
Bipolar disorder mind mental concept. Change of mood. Emotions. Split personality. Dual personality. Head silhouette of man
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post
Author
News
Date
June 26, 2022
Categorized
Information Theory, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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The Battle Over the Human Mind Split Two Great Thinkers

Charles Darwin opted for a materialist model; his co-theorist Alfred Russel Wallace insisted that the mind was not just the brain
News
June 26, 2022
6
Information Theory, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–2013) share the credit, technically, for the theory of evolution by natural selection but Darwin became the icon. One reason they parted ways was that Wallace did not agree with Darwin that the human mind was simply an organ that evolved naturally, like any other. There had to be something more to it. Philosopher Neil Thomas explains: In his older years Wallace came to reject natural selection as an explanation for the unfurling of all human and even animal life. By then he had transitioned towards the espousal of a form of natural theology; but his initial and gravest misgiving in the 1860s was focused four-square on the mystery of how the human Read More ›

risk-of-artificial-intelligence-stockpack-adobe-stock
Risk Of Artificial Intelligence
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post
Author
News
Date
June 24, 2022
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Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind
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The Software of the Gaps: An Excerpt from Non-Computable You

In his just-published book, Robert J. Marks takes on claims that consciousness is emerging from AI and that we can upload our brains
News
June 24, 2022
6
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

There are human characteristics that cannot be duplicated by AI. Emotions such as love, compassion, empathy, sadness, and happiness cannot be duplicated. Nor can traits such as understanding, creativity, sentience, qualia, and consciousness. Or can they? Extreme AI champions argue that qualia and, indeed, all human traits will someday be duplicated by AI. They insist that while we’re not there yet, the current development of AI indicates we will be there soon. These proponents are appealing to the Software of the Gaps, a secular cousin of the God of the Gaps. Machine intelligence, they claim, will someday have the proper code to duplicate all human attributes.Impersonate, perhaps. But experience, no. Mimicry versus Experience AI will never be creative or have Read More ›

chatbot-assistant-ai-artificial-intelligence-stockpack-adobe-stock
Chatbot assistant, Ai Artificial Intelligence
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post
Author
News
Date
June 22, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Programming
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Prof: How We Know Google’s Chatbot LaMDA Is Not a “Self”

Carissa Véliz, an Oxford philosophy prof who studies AI, explains where Google engineer Blake Lemoine is getting things mixed up
News
June 22, 2022
5
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Programming

Say what you want about Blake “LaMDA is a person!” Lemoine. He has forced many people to help us clarify what AI — and in particular, a large language program — is and is not. For that, we should thank him. First, LaMDA is not conscious, sentient, not a self. And second, it’s not even a new idea, just a much bigger and more sophisticated version of a 1960s idea. Oxford philosophy prof Carissa Véliz, author of Privacy Is Power (2021) reminds us of philosopher Thomas Nagel’s seminal question, What is it like to be a bat? Nagel meant that, if an entity is be conscious or sentient, there must be something that it “is like” to be that entity. Read More ›

rain red umbrella
October walk in the rain, a young woman with a red umbrella in the autumn city park, autumn look
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post
Author
News
Date
June 21, 2022
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Artificial Intelligence, Creativity, Philosophy of Mind
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Computer Prof: You Are Not Computable and Here’s Why Not

In a new book, Baylor University’s Robert J. Marks punctures myths about the superhuman AI that some claim will soon replace us
News
June 21, 2022
3
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity, Philosophy of Mind

In a just-released book, Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks II explains, as a computer engineering professor at Baylor University, why humans are unique and why artificial intelligence cannot replicate us: ”Emotions that make us human will never be duplicated by a machine,” says Marks. “These include compassion, love, empathy, elation, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, pleasure, pride, excitement, embarrassment, regret, jealousy, grief, hope, and faith. Properly defined, creativity, sentience, and understanding are also on the list. These and other non-algorithmic traits are evidence of non-computable you.” Discovery Institute, “Are Future Humans Doomed To Be Replaced By Artificial Intelligence?” at PR NewsWire (June 21, 2022) Non-Computable You: What You Do That Artificial Intelligence Never Will (Discovery Institute Press, 2022) is Read More ›

pixel dispersion man
Portrait of a man with pixel dispersion effect
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post
Author
Gary Varner
Date
June 18, 2022
Categorized
Philosophy of Mind, Science Fiction, Transhumanism
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Review: Transcendence — The Soul Meets the Singularity

In Part 1 of my review of the 2014 classic, we start with the question: Can a human mind be completely transferred to a computer?
Gary Varner
June 18, 2022
6
Philosophy of Mind, Science Fiction, Transhumanism

Since Johnny Depp has been all over the news lately, this would be a great time to review his contribution to the world of sci-fi, Transcendence (2014), or as I like to call it, “Oh Great. Now, We Have to Kill the Internet.” The movie plays on two themes. First, there is the idea that futurist Ray Kurzweil calls the Singularity, a moment where AI surpasses humanity. Second, the movie explores two closely related questions: Is there a soul, and does this soul reside within the brain? Johnny Depp’s character, Will Caster, does not believe in the soul, but he does recognize that there is some unmapped region within biological life that allows a human to distinguish between right and Read More ›

chatbot-chat-bot-customer-service-automation-hand-pressing-button-on-virtual-screen-stockpack-adobe-stock
Chatbot chat bot customer service automation. Hand pressing button on virtual screen.
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post
Author
News
Date
June 16, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Relationships
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When LaMDA “Talked” to a Google Engineer, Turns Out It Had Help

Evidence points to someone doing quite a good edit job. A tech maven would like to see the raw transcript…
News
June 16, 2022
4
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Relationships

Readers may recall that Google engineer Blake Lemoine was placed on leave for telling media that a large language program he was working on is a sentient being. Some Googlers looked into the matter and this is what they found: A Washington Post story on Lemoine’s suspension included messages from LaMDA such as “I think I am human at my core. Even if my existence is in the virtual world.” But the chat logs leaked in the Washington Post’s article include disclaimers from Lemoine and an unnamed collaborator which noted: “This document was edited with readability and narrative coherence in mind.” The final document — which was labeled “Privileged & Confidential, Need to Know” — was an “amalgamation” of nine Read More ›

mind brain external.jpg
3D male figure depicting mental health problems
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post
Author
News
Date
June 12, 2022
Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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Neuroscientist: The Mind Is More Than a Machine — or Is It?

Bobby Azarian hopes that self-organization theory can account for consciousness and possibly enable sentient, conscious computers
News
June 12, 2022
3
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Cognitive neuroscientist Bobby Azarian, author of The Romance of Reality: How the Universe Organizes Itself to Create Life, Consciousness, and Cosmic Complexity (2022), offers a self-organization theory approach to the reality of the mind: Most neuroscientists believe that consciousness arises when harmonized global activity emerges from the coordinated interactions of billions of neurons. This is because the synchronized firing of brain cells integrates information from multiple processing streams into a unified field of experience. This global activity is made possible by loops in the form of feedback. When feedback is present in a system, it means there is some form of self-reference at work, and in nervous systems, it can be a sign of self-modeling. Feedback loops running from one Read More ›

factory-closedworkers-stressed-that-the-factory-closed-unemployed-workers-industrial-and-industrial-workers-concept-stockpack-adobe-stock
Factory closed.Workers stressed that the factory closed. unemployed workers. Industrial and industrial workers concept
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post
Author
News
Date
June 9, 2022
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Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Transhumanism, Work
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A Great Reset Historian Muses on What To Do With “Useless” People

Transhumanist Yuval Noah Harari, a key advisor to the World Economic Forum, thinks free will is “dangerous” and a “myth”
News
June 9, 2022
6
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Transhumanism, Work

Historian Yuval Noah Harari an advisor to Klaus Schwab, co-author with Thierry Malleret of COVID-19: The Great Reset, and head of the World Economic Forum, had some interesting things to tell the movers and shakers of the world about ordinary people last April: Again, I think the biggest question in maybe in economics and politics of the coming decades will be what to do with all these useless people? The problem is more boredom and how what to do with them and how will they find some sense of meaning in life, when they are basically meaningless, worthless? My best guess, at present is a combination of drugs and computer games as a solution for [most]. It’s already happening… I Read More ›

near-death-experience-ascend-up-towards-the-light-in-the-dark-tunnel-stockpack-adobe-stock
Near death experience ascend up towards the light in the dark tunnel
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post
Author
News
Date
June 5, 2022
Categorized
Philosophy of Mind, Religion, Spirituality
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Agnostic Psychiatrist Says Near-Death Experiences Are Real

For example, he cites cases for Big Think where the clinically dead experiencer encounters a deceased individual who was not known to have died at the time
News
June 5, 2022
6
Philosophy of Mind, Religion, Spirituality

Psychiatrist and neurobehavioral scientist Bruce Greyson, author of After (2021) — a science-based look at near-death experiences — offers short videos unpacking the topic via Big Think: Are near-death experiences real? (7:15 min) BRUCE GREYSON: When I first started looking into near-death experiences back in the late-1970s, I assumed that there would be some physiological explanation for that. What I found over the decades was that the various simple explanations we could think of like lack of oxygen, drugs given to the people and so forth, don’t pan out- the data do not support them. And furthermore, the phenomena of NDEs, of near-death experiences, seem to defy a simple, materialistic explanation. When we first started presenting this material in medical Read More ›

brain-thinking-concept-stockpack-adobe-stock
brain, thinking concept
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post
Author
News
Date
June 2, 2022
Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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Researchers: Humans Process Information Differently From Monkeys

In a paper at Nature Neuroscience, researchers reported on human vs. macaque brains on input/output systems and synergy between regions
News
June 2, 2022
6
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

In the ongoing research puzzle as to exactly why humans are significantly smarter than other animals, researchers writing in Nature Neuroscience have adopted an information theory approach, describing the human brain as a “distributed information-processing system.” They found that we process information differently from other primates. Our brain regions for sensory and motor functions use a simple input/output system with high reliability due to high redundancy (repetition). Our eyes duplicate most of each other’s information but that helps ensure that our view of the scene is correct. However, there is a very different way of processing information — synergistic processing — which integrates signals from across a variety of brain networks. This approach is better adapted, the researchers say, to Read More ›

funny-boy-and-beagle-dog-are-watching-laptop-on-sofa-in-room-stockpack-adobe-stock
funny boy and beagle dog are watching laptop on sofa in room
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post
Author
News
Date
June 1, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind
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AI expert: Stop Distinguishing Between AI, Human and Animal Minds

Aaron Sloman’s approach to minds sounds a bit like panpsychism — which is increasingly accepted in science — but there are differences
News
June 1, 2022
4
Artificial Intelligence, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Philip Ball, author of The Book of Minds: How to understand ourselves and other beings, from animals to AI to aliens (University of Chicago Press, 2022), profiles University of Birmingham computer scientist Aaron Sloman, whose 1984 paper, “The structure of the space of possible minds” sought to account for human, animal, and AI minds as “behaving systems.” Along the way, Sloman came to a significant conclusion: “We must abandon the idea that there is one major boundary between things with and without minds,” he wrote. “Instead, informed by the variety of types of computational mechanisms already explored, we must acknowledge that there are many discontinuities, or divisions within the space of possible systems: the space is not a continuum, nor Read More ›

twins-with-new-baby-on-the-way-stockpack-adobe-stock
Twins with New Baby on the Way
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post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 27, 2022
Categorized
Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind
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What Is the Human Mind Like Before Birth?

Researchers stress that the unborn child’s brain is in a rapid, ongoing, and little understood state of development
Denyse O'Leary
May 27, 2022
6
Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind

Some have addressed the question of the prenatal mind by trying to determine when various parts of the brain develop. The difficulty with that, as neuroscientist Mark Solms and neurosurgeon Michael Egnor have noted, is that it’s not clear that there is a “seat” of consciousness in the brain. If it is a human brain at all, it is developing human consciousness, in the same way that a kitten brain is developing cat consciousness. At any rate, human consciousness is a “Hard Problem with no special location in the brain. Unborn babies, like very young born ones, spend most of their time asleep, as neuroscientist Christof Koch has pointed out: Invasive experiments in rat and lamb pups and observational studies Read More ›

female-temporal-lobe-brain-anatomy-blue-concept-stockpack-adobe-stock
Female Temporal Lobe Brain Anatomy - blue concept
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post
Author
News
Date
May 26, 2022
Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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Woman Missing Key Language Part of Brain Scores 98% in Vocab Test

Missing her left temporal lobe, she was told for years by doctors that her brain did not make sense
News
May 26, 2022
5
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

While the human brain appears essential to being human, people can live normally — and even excel — with large parts of the brain missing or with brains that have been cut in half. That happened to EG, who grew up missing her left temporal lobe. As told at Wired: For EG, who is in her fifties and grew up in Connecticut, missing a large chunk of her brain has had surprisingly little effect on her life. She has a graduate degree, has enjoyed an impressive career, and speaks Russian—a second language–so well that she has dreamed in it. She first learned her brain was atypical in the autumn of 1987, at George Washington University Hospital, when she had it Read More ›

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男性　寒気
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post
Author
News
Date
May 25, 2022
Categorized
Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind
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Catatonia: A Look Inside Apparently Frozen Minds

The condition of frozen immobility is reported to occur in more than 10% of patients with acute psychiatric illnesses
News
May 25, 2022
4
Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind

Jonathan Rogers, a psychiatrist and researcher who specializes in catatonia, shares his sense of mystery: Occasionally, as a doctor, I am asked to see a patient in the emergency department who is completely mute. They sit motionless, staring around the room. I lift up their arm and it stays in that position. Someone takes a blood test and they don’t even wince. They haven’t eaten or drunk anything for a day or two. Questions start running through your mind. What’s wrong with them? Would they respond to someone else? Do they have a brain injury? Are they putting it on? And – hardest of all – how am I to know what’s going on if they can’t tell me? Jonathan Read More ›

man-making-fire-with-tinder-polypore-fungus-in-a-forest-stockpack-adobe-stock
Man making fire with tinder polypore fungus in a forest
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post
Author
News
Date
May 24, 2022
Categorized
Biology, Philosophy of Mind
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Biochemist: Why Only Humans Could Learn To Use Fire

Many animals display intelligence but controlling fire requires other advantages as well
News
May 24, 2022
4
Biology, Philosophy of Mind

Biochemist Michael Denton contends, in an excerpt from Chapter 11 in his The Miracle of Man (2022), that humans were designed to use fire. Here is some of his evidence that “only a special type of unique being very close to our own biological design could have taken the first and vital step to technological enlightenment, fire-making”: From first principles, a creature capable of creating and controlling fire must be an aerobic terrestrial air-breathing species, living in an atmosphere enriched in oxygen, supportive of both respiration and combustion. This fire-maker must have something like human intelligence to accomplish the task, and while it is true that other species — e.g., dolphins, parrots, seals, apes, and ravens — possess intelligence and Read More ›