Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

CategoryPhilosophy of Mind

group-of-neanderthal-hunting-a-bison-stockpack-adobe-stock
Group of neanderthal hunting a bison
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post
Author
News
Date
October 11, 2022
Categorized
Archeology, Philosophy of Mind
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Smoke and Drink Too Much? Blame Neanderthal Man!

Besides passing on addictive habits, if you believe a study of casts from fossil skulls, our Neanderthal ancestors couldn’t meditate either…
News
October 11, 2022
6
Archeology, Philosophy of Mind

This from a recent DNA analysis study: Around 40% of the Neandertal genome can still be found in present-day non-Africans, and each individual still carries ~2% of Neandertal DNA. Some of the archaic genetic variants may have conferred benefits at some point in our evolutionary past. Today, scientists can use this information to learn more about the impact of these genetic variants on human behaviour and the risk of developing diseases. Using this approach, a new study from an international team led by researchers from the University of Tartu, Charité Berlin and the Amsterdam UMC analysed Neandertal DNA associations with a large variety of more than a hundred brain disorders and traits such as sleep, smoking or alcohol use in Read More ›

doctor-touching-patient-hand-for-encouragement-and-empathy-in-the-hospital-cheering-and-support-patient-bad-news-medical-examination-trust-and-ethics-stockpack-adobe-stock
Doctor touching patient hand for encouragement and empathy in the hospital, cheering and support patient, Bad news, medical examination, trust and ethics
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post
Author
News
Date
October 11, 2022
Categorized
Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind
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Psychiatry Has Always Been Difficult But …

… it’s unclear how trashing almost every philosophical tradition from which it is approached will really help
News
October 11, 2022
4
Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind

Philosopher Elly Vintiadis at the American College of Greece thinks that psychiatry has a philosophy problem: Psychiatry is caught up in a number of philosophical errors. One is reductionism, as psychiatry tends to seek underlying biological causes for mental disorders. The other is dualism, as it thinks of mental disorders as either caused by our brains or caused by our minds. Both these errors are a result of seeing the world as made up of a hierarchy of things. Instead, if psychiatry saw the world as fundamentally made up of processes, dynamically interacting with each other, a much more nuanced understanding of mental disorders would become available to it, argues Elly Vintiadis. Elly Vintiadis, “Reality and mental disorder: Psychiatry has Read More ›

two-hands-holding-a-paper-with-human-head-and-a-puzzle-piece-finding-a-cure-to-heal-the-disease-mental-health-concept-memory-loss-and-dementia-disease-alzheimers-losing-brain-and-memory-function-stockpack-adobe-stock
Two hands holding a paper with human head and a puzzle piece. Finding a cure to heal the disease. Mental health concept, memory loss and dementia disease. Alzheimer's losing brain and memory function.
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post
Author
News
Date
October 5, 2022
Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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The Human Brain Rewires Itself in Middle Age

After we hit forty, our brains integrate more and compartmentalize less
News
October 5, 2022
4
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

It seems designed to get the best of human longevity: In a systematic review recently published in the journal Psychophysiology, researchers from Monash University in Australia swept through the scientific literature, seeking to summarize how the connectivity of the human brain changes over our lifetimes. The gathered evidence suggests that in the fifth decade of life (that is, after a person turns 40), the brain starts to undergo a radical “rewiring” that results in diverse networks becoming more integrated and connected over the ensuing decades, with accompanying effects on cognition. Ross Pomeroy, “The brain undergoes a great “rewiring” after age 40” at Big Think (September 24, 2022) According to the researchers, when we are young, our brains are modular, suited Read More ›

robot-with-artificial-intelligence-observing-human-skull-in-evolved-cybernetic-organism-world-3d-rendered-image-stockpack-adobe-stock
Robot with Artificial Intelligence observing human skull in Evolved Cybernetic organism world. 3d rendered image
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post
Author
News
Date
October 4, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Transhumanism
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Computer Takeover Won’t Happen, Say a Scientist and Philosopher

Jobst Landgrebe and Barry Smith say that the Singularity advocates are missing something fundamental about computers vs. humans
News
October 4, 2022
3
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Transhumanism

Scientist and entrepreneur Jobst Landgrebe and philosopher Barry Smith published a book last month that directly challenges the claim AI is becoming capable of human type thought and will run our world whether we like it or not. Here’s what critics are saying about Why Machines will Never Rule the World: Artificial Intelligence without Fear (Routledge, 2022) It’s a highly impressive piece of work that makes a new and vital contribution to the literature on AI and AGI. The rigor and depth with which the authors make their case is compelling, and the range of disciplinary and scientific knowledge they draw upon is particularly remarkable and truly novel. – Shannon Vallor, Baillie Gifford Chair, Edinburgh Futures Institute, The University of Read More ›

sea-soul-abstract-marine-backgrounds-with-sun-beam-and-underwater-landscape-stockpack-adobe-stock
Sea soul. Abstract marine backgrounds with sun beam and underwater landscape
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post
Author
News
Date
September 29, 2022
Categorized
Philosophy of Mind
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Why should we believe that the human mind is immortal?

Philosopher Moreland: Think of the soul like a chest of drawers and think of the mind and the spirit like two drawers in the chest of drawers
News
September 29, 2022
3
Philosophy of Mind

Philosopher J. P. Moreland offers some thoughts at Closer to Truth (September 14, 2022) J.P. Moreland: (1:49) Think of the soul like a chest of drawers and think of the mind and the spirit like two drawers in the chest of drawers. I am a soul I’m an immaterial substance. Within me are different faculties, different ranges of powers or abilities. My mind is a faculty of the soul. My spirit is a different faculty of the soul. Now, you can’t separate my mind from my soul like you can [separate] the legs of a table and put them in different places. So the legs of a table would be called “separable parts.” They can be separated from the whole Read More ›

field-of-red-flowers-stockpack-adobe-stock
field of red flowers
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post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 8, 2022
Categorized
Philosophy of Mind, Physics, Science
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Philosophy: Can Red Have “Redness” If No Self Perceives It?

As Closer to Truth’s Robert Kuhn interviews philosopher Julian Baggini, they now tackle the question of “qualia” — part of the nature of conscious experiences
Denyse O'Leary
September 8, 2022
9
Philosophy of Mind, Physics, Science

Yesterday, we looked at philosopher Julian Baggini’s argument that the unified self is an illusion. He spoke about this in the context of a discussion with Closer to Truth’s Robert Lawrence Kuhn. Kuhn, nearly midway through, steers the conversation toward qualia, that is, the inner experience we have of things. Red, an often-used example, is a color in the spectrum but it is also, for many, an experience. Serious and influential books have been written (2005 and 2017) about the history of the color and the experiences it evokes. Questions are interspersed between exchanges in the transcribed dialogue: Robert Lawrence Kuhn: (3:23) Let’s distinguish two factors that are flying around here. One is the concept of self — what it Read More ›

split self glasses
Multiple personality disorder concept
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post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
September 7, 2022
Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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Another Philosopher Argues That the Unified Self Is an Illusion

At Closer to Truth, Lawrence Kuhn interviews Julian Baggini, who claims, in terms reminiscent of Thomas Metzinger, that a unified self is an illusion
Denyse O'Leary
September 7, 2022
7
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

University of Kent philosopher Julian Baggini, author of The Great Guide: What David Hume can teach us about being human and living well (2021), was interviewed recently by Robert Lawrence Kuhn at Closer to Truth (September 1, 2022). In the interview, Dr. Baggini asserted that, while consciousness is not an illusion, a unified self that persists through time is: Here is a partial transcript, interspersed with questions that arise from the discussion: Robert Lawrence Kuhn: Julian, my own internal feeling of awareness my consciousness seems like the most obvious fundamental thing in the world. You tell me it’s an illusion Why? Julian Baggini: (0:11) To be honest, consciousness isn’t an illusion. I mean clearly there’s awareness of the world. I Read More ›

ultrasound-examination-of-the-head-examination-of-a-month-old-baby-stockpack-adobe-stock
Ultrasound examination of the head. Examination of a month old baby
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post
Author
News
Date
September 7, 2022
Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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Woman Missing Her Brain’s Language Lobe Pens New York Times Piece

Helen Santoro’s parents were told she would “never speak and would need to be institutionalized.” She became a science writer instead
News
September 7, 2022
4
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Children who suffer perinatal strokes may be left with large holes or lesions where brain regions should be. Many are severely disabled. But some are not disabled at all. One woman, Helen Santoro, was so little affected by the lack of a left temporal lobe that she got dropped from a research study of the aftermath. Now a science writer, she published an article last week in the New York Times about her efforts to understand and unravel the mystery. Perinatal stroke is often discovered, as in her case, when the newborn child has trouble with breathing or sucking reflexes. A brain scan showed “a huge hole’ where her left temporal lobe should have been, just above the ear. Because Read More ›

the-little-chimpanzee-monkey-put-his-human-friends-hand-on-his-head-hugged-him-made-a-grimace-sits-in-a-green-stroller-wearing-blue-shorts-walk-down-the-street-in-the-background-palms-stockpack-adobe-stock
The little chimpanzee monkey put his human friend's hand on his head, hugged him. made a grimace. Sits in a green stroller, wearing blue shorts. Walk down the street. in the background palms,
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post
Author
News
Date
August 31, 2022
Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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Researchers Find More Ways That Human and Ape Brains Differ

Underlying the significant differences in brain — to say nothing of the vast difference in mind — is a genetic mystery…
News
August 31, 2022
4
Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Yale University researchers have identified more specific ways the human brain differs from the brains of all other primates. Using “hundreds of thousands of cells collected from the dlPFC of adult humans, chimpanzees, macaque, and marmoset monkeys,” they found After grouping cells with similar expression profiles they revealed 109 shared primate cell types but also five that were not common to all species. These included a type of microglia, or brain-specific immune cell, that was present only in humans and a second type shared by only humans and chimpanzees. The human-specific microglia type exists throughout development and adulthood, the researchers found, suggesting the cells play a role in maintenance of the brain upkeep rather than combatting disease… An analysis of Read More ›

invisible-man-wearing-black-bowler-surreal-concept-of-absence-of-identity-stockpack-adobe-stock
invisible man wearing black bowler, surreal concept of absence of identity
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post
Author
Michael Egnor
Date
August 30, 2022
Categorized
Philosophy of Mind
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Philosopher: I’m Neither Me, Myself nor I… Yet I Give Interviews!

Theoretical philosopher Thomas Metzinger tells his interviewer “Nobody ever had or was a self. Selves are not part of reality.”
Michael Egnor
August 30, 2022
4
Philosophy of Mind

It’s remarkable that given the abysmal logical state of modern neuroscience, modern philosophy of mind seems to be in a heated contest to be even more absurd. Secular meditation teacher Michael W. Taft interviewed leading theoretical philosopher Thomas Metzinger. Here is one set of Taft’s and Metzinger’s questions and answers, and my observations: Michael W. Taft: You’ve written at great length about the experience of selfhood in human beings. So let’s start off by asking, What is the self? Thomas Metzinger: The first thing to understand, I believe, is that there is no thing like “the self.” Nobody ever had or was a self. Selves are not part of reality. Selves are not something that endures over time. The first Read More ›

chocolate-and-vanilla-bourbon-ice-creams-stockpack-adobe-stock
Chocolate and vanilla bourbon ice creams
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post
Author
Eric Holloway
Date
August 29, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Philosophy of Mind
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How We Know the Mind Is About Information, Not Matter or Energy

The computer program’s world is one of binary 0 or 1 decisions but the physical world is one of many different shades of more or less
Eric Holloway
August 29, 2022
4
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Philosophy of Mind

It’s really hard to picture the “mind,” isn’t it? You might think of wavy ghosts, or a spectral light. But nothing very definite. The brain, on the other hand, is very easy to visualize. Images and videos are just a Google away. That’s why it’s easy to assume that our brains are the entities that do our thinking for us. The brain is not only easy to image, it is physical. We can (in theory) touch it. Poke it. The brain even runs off electricity, just like your computer. But what makes a computer run Windows? It isn’t just the transistors on silicon wafers. It isn’t just the electricity coursing through the circuits. Windows itself is a ghostly being, like Read More ›

abstract-fractal-patterns-and-shapes-beautiful-abstract-background-solored-wavesspirals-lines-and-circles-infinite-universe-stockpack-adobe-stock
Abstract fractal patterns and shapes. Beautiful abstract background. Сolored waves,spirals, lines and circles. Infinite universe.
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post
Author
News
Date
August 28, 2022
Categorized
Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Physics, Religion
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Is Ours One of a Few Working Universes Among Countless Flops?

Is that probable? How would we know? Philosopher Stephen C. Meyer offers some suggestions
News
August 28, 2022
12
Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Physics, Religion

In this fourth and final portion of a talk at the Dallas Conference on Science and Faith (2021), philosopher Stephen C. Meyer takes on the claim that the fine-tuning of our universe for life can be explained by the multiverse, that is, “there are many other universes with different laws and concepts of physics and different initial conditions, different arrangements that matter in energy at the beginning of those universes. And there are enough such universes to make the improbable features of our universe probable on a mega cosmic scale.” Dr. Meyer is the author of The Return of the God Hypothesis (Harper One, 2021). (A sample of the book is here.) The first portion is here, the second here, Read More ›

Chatbot / Social Bot mit Quellcode im Hintergrund
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post
Author
News
Date
August 23, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind
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Could Better Software Make Chatbot LaMDA a Person?

John Stonestreet looks at the materialist philosophy that underlies the conviction that a well-designed AI chatbot can become a person
News
August 23, 2022
4
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

On Friday, John Stonestreet, president of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, offered a Breakpoint commentary on the recent episode at Google in which software engineer Blake Lemoine claimed that the chatbot LaMDA had become a real person. Google, of course, denied that and placed him on administrative leave. The topic is complicated by three different factors: At various stages, Lemoine probably was talking to human beings (colleagues standing in for LaMDA during its development, as is the custom. In any event, much interaction with the chatbot was edited for coherence before a draft was publicly available. Third — and more basically — a chatbot produces responses by sifting through many millions of human interactions in fractions of a second, Read More ›

brain anatomy
Real human half brain anatomy isolated on black background
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post
Author
News
Date
August 19, 2022
Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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A Neurosurgeon on Why Some People Function With Only Half a Brain

The study results are reassuring and they point to two larger truths
News
August 19, 2022
4
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Yesterday, we ran a story about a recent study in which 40 people who had half of their brains removed (hemispherectomy) as children — due to intractable epilepsy — did unexpectedly well on psychological tests. Some say that it’s easy to explain because the brain has so many redundant elements. But is that all we need to know? We asked pediatric neurosurgeon Michael Egnor for some thoughts on that approach and he replied: The means by which people with major parts of their brains removed maintain function are not understood. It’s nonsense to say, as some do, that “The brain is massively parallel and recursive and functions under network rules and laws.” That’s typical neuroscience gibberish. The fact is that Read More ›

brain waves test
Brain model on human brain wave background
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post
Author
News
Date
August 18, 2022
Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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People With Half Their Brains Removed Do Well on Psych Tests

In a recent study, adults who had had hemispherectomies as children — to combat severe epilepsy — performed within 10% of other study subjects on face and word recognition
News
August 18, 2022
4
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

At Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Institute, researchers recently found that people who had had half their brains removed as children (due to serious epilepsy) “scored surprisingly well on face and word recognition tests”: The researchers expected that those volunteers who had only their right hemisphere would do well at face recognition but not as well at word recognition, since the right hemisphere is generally used to process images while the left hemisphere processes words; they expected the opposite results for those who still had just their left hemisphere. Instead, the researchers found that both groups performed nearly equally well and both were on average 86% accurate on the tests compared to a control group consisting of Read More ›

these-two-are-little-genius-mixed-media-stockpack-adobe-stock
These two are little genius . Mixed media
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post
Author
News
Date
August 12, 2022
Categorized
Biology, Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind, Science Fiction, Transhumanism
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Why Breeding Smarter Humans Won’t Work: Basic Genetics 101

Biochemist Michael Denton explains that, in human genetics, everything is connected to everything else; geneticists call it pleiotropy
News
August 12, 2022
4
Biology, Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind, Science Fiction, Transhumanism

Recently, we looked at the question of whether human IQ could be artificially increased via genetic engineering. One proposal was to mass produce human embryos, implanting only the smart ones and discarding the rest. All other issues aside, it’s unclear how to determine which kids will turn out to be the smart ones. Now biochemist Michael Denton, author of a number of books including the recent Miracle of Man (2022), writes to tell us that the idea won’t work due to fundamental genetics. Noting that theoretical physicist Stephen Hsu, who advanced the idea of discarding embryos above, is not a medical geneticist, he told Mind Matters News, Its true there are many genes involved in brain development but most genes Read More ›

spanish-jumping-spider-saitis-barbipes-with-fruit-fly-stockpack-adobe-stock
Spanish jumping spider Saitis barbipes with fruit fly
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post
Author
Michael Egnor
Date
August 11, 2022
Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind
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Yes, Spiders Dream — But That Doesn’t Make Them Leggy People

We don’t know where on the tree of life “mind,” in the most basic sense, begins. It might include bacteria but not viruses
Michael Egnor
August 11, 2022
10
Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

A recent research article from Germany, which has made quite a splash in the popular press, raises some very interesting questions about animal minds. Animal behaviorist Daniela C. Rößler and co-authors studied 34 young spiders while they slept and found that their eye movements seemed analogous to the eye movements of human beings and other higher animals that occur during REM sleep and are associated with dreaming. They pointed out that this seems to suggest that arachnids may have mental states and dreams that are more akin to those of human beings then previously thought. The article, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is open access. The research is fascinating in its own right but I Read More ›

peek-a-boo-bee-close-up-stockpack-adobe-stock
Peek-a-boo bee close up
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post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 11, 2022
Categorized
Human exceptionalism, Natural Intelligence, Panpsychism, Philosophy of Mind
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What Does It Mean To Say Bees “Feel and Think”?

The New Scientist reviewer is unsure that we are ready for such a radical message. Unsure? At one time, it would have been branded “NOT science!”
Denyse O'Leary
August 11, 2022
5
Human exceptionalism, Natural Intelligence, Panpsychism, Philosophy of Mind

Behavioral ecologist Lars Chittka’s book, The Mind of a Bee (Princeton University Press, 2022), is a fascinating detailed description of bee behavior that will cure us of believing that the insect world is devoid of intelligence or sensation. Indeed, in a 2018 essay with Catherine Wilson, Chittka offers many research findings in a shorter format. It’s only in Chapter 11, toward the book’s end, that he makes a controversial claim: From the very start, early in evolution, nervous systems were inseparable from movable bodies with sensors, and developed in order to integrate perception and action. The challenges of survival and self-replication (reproduction) that a moving organism faces are most efficiently met when brain and body are intimately connected, enabling the Read More ›

black-metal-spiral-staircase-in-grayscale-photography-stockpack-unsplash
black metal spiral staircase in grayscale photography
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post
Author
Eric Holloway
Date
August 8, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Programming
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How AI Neural Networks Show That the Mind Is Not the Brain

A series of simple diagrams shows that, while AI learns faster than the human brain, the human mind tackles problems that stump AI
Eric Holloway
August 8, 2022
11
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Programming

Recently, I’ve been arguing (here and here, for example) that we can use artificial neural networks (ANNs) to prove that the mind is not the brain. To recap, here is the logic of my argument: Premise A: neural networks can learn better than the brainPremise B: the human mind can learn better than a neural networkConclusion: the human mind can learn better than the brain, therefore it is not the brain This means if we can conclusively show the human mind can learn better than a neural network, then the mind is not the brain. For Premise A, I’ve argued that the differentiable neural network is a superior learning model compared to the brain neuron’s “all or nothing principle”. The Read More ›

crystal-prism-stockpack-adobe-stock
Crystal Prism
Type
post
Author
News
Date
August 2, 2022
Categorized
Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Physics
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Schrödinger Believed That There Was Only One Mind in the Universe

The quantum physicist and author of the famous Cat Paradox believed that our individual minds are not unique but rather like the reflected light from prisms
News
August 2, 2022
5
Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Physics

Consciousness researcher Robert Prentner and cognitive psychologist will tell a prestigious music and philosophy festival in London next month that great physicist Donald Hoffman, quantum physicist Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961) believed that “The total number of minds in the universe is one.” That is, a universal Mind accounts for everything. In a world where many scientists strive mightily to explain how the human mind can arise from non-living matter, Prentner and Hoffman will tell the HowtheLightGetsIn festival in London (September 17–18, 2022) that the author of the famous Cat paradox was hardly a materialist: In 1925, just a few months before Schrödinger discovered the most basic equation of quantum mechanics, he wrote down the first sketches of the ideas that he Read More ›