CategoryPhysics
Research: Our Brains Float Between Two Phases, Dodging Disorder
Our minds just never quite get used to that
Does Time Exist? That’s Not As Clear As We Might Think
We picture a clock when we think of time but, physicists note, that’s not how we experience it as living beings
Interstellar Space Travel: But Why Not Dream?
What would we need to trim the daunting energy requirement for space travel down to size? It's a challenge
Interstellar Travel: Fantasy or Destiny?
The energy required to power a spaceship to a nearby star, given current tech, is 4,800 times the total energy consumption of the United States in the year 2022
What Drives the Belief That We Live in a Computer Sim Universe?
The lack of evidence for the sim is admitted — but then we are challenged to prove that it ISN’T true…
Astrophysicist: Electricity Can Account For Human Consciousness
Ethan Siegel set out to show that there is no design in the universe and that included reducing consciousness to electricity, with the details still to be ironed out
Science Team Argues, Consciousness Came Before Life
Can the authors take issue with Darwinian evolution claims while maintaining a materialist stance?
Consciousness Observes Different Laws From Physics
At Closer to Truth, British philosopher and pastor Keith Ward provides an example to host Robert Lawrence Kuhn
A Physicist Tries to Avoid the Fact of Design in Our Universe…
Physicist Alexander Vilenkin of Tufts University argues, against apparent fine-tuning, that our universe’s cosmological constant should have a special value like zero, but doesn’tIn his discussion with Robert Lawrence Kuhn at Closer to Truth, Tufts physicist and cosmologist Alexander Vilenkin addresses the question, “Is the Universe Fine-Tuned for Life and Mind?”: If the deep laws of the universe had been ever so slightly different human beings wouldn’t, and couldn’t, exist. All explanations of this exquisite fine-tuning, obvious and not-so-obvious, have problems or complexities. Natural or supernatural, that is the question. Vilenkin — who is also a professor of evolutionary science — concedes the main point: Alexander Vilenkin: [0:40] Well yeah that’s right. It appears that the Universe is fine-tuned in the sense that there are about 30 constants of nature which take some specific value: if you look at these numbers, they look Read More ›
How Quantum Theory Relates To Consciousness
Experimental physicist Rob Sheldon explains the background to Hameroff and Penrose’s contested quantum consciousness theory, which is beginning to be tested
The Theory That Consciousness Is a Quantum System Gains Support
Hameroff and Penrose’s Orch Or Theory sees consciousness as the outcome of a quantum collapse of a wave function
Will the Driving Force for Space Exploration Be a Religious Cult?
A Biochemist Begins To Sense the Limits of Materialism
William Reville seems both confident and uncertain at the same time that science can crack the problem of consciousness
If Science Were Just Bookkeeping, Fine-Tuning Wouldn’t Matter
Astrophysicist Marcelo Gleiser wishes we would just quit asking questions about why the universe is fine-tuned — as if we could…
The Multiverse: Better in Fiction Than in Real Life?
The multiverse may be “unscientific nonsense” or a “religious” belief, as some physicists assert but the rules of storytelling are not the laws of nature
Why are eccentric theories of consciousness tolerated?
Even prominent theorists have held eccentric theories of consciousness. It stems from the apparent impossibility of deriving human consciousness from the material substances of the brain
Can Roger Penrose Explain Consciousness Through Physics?
The Nobel Laureate physicist makes clear that he only wants a theory of human consciousness if the explanation comes down to physics
Does the Evidence for Our Universe’s Fine-Tuning Mean Anything?
Why is a divine Mind not “scientific” if the evidence points in that direction?
The Universe and its Mathematical Structure
Do humans project mathematics upon nature or vice versa?This past June, we published an article featuring a conversation between physicist Lawrence Krauss and novelist Cormac McCarthy, where they discussed whether mathematics was “discovered or invented.” Robert J. Marks went on to write his own thoughts on the question shortly thereafter. If you’re further interested in mathematics and whether there is an actual correspondence between math and the natural world, consider watching new podcast episode featuring Dr. Melissa Cain Travis. Do humans project mathematical order onto nature? Or was it there all along? On a new episode of ID the Future, I conclude a three-part conversation with Dr. Melissa Cain Travis about her recent book Thinking God’s Thoughts: Johannes Kepler and the Miracle of Cosmic Comprehensibility. In Part 3, we look Read More ›