CategoryScience
View: Universities Should Not Speak Up Against Dissenting Profs!
Jay Bhattacharya and Wesley J. Smith respond to an article in a medical journal arguing that universities SHOULD censure dissenters on the faculty
Dembski Asks the Chatbot: Is Intelligent Design Testable?
ChatGPT4o’s tour through the internet on the topic suggests that there may be some improvement in rational discussion out there
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
Bill Dembski: Einstein’s Advice to Bright Young University Grads
His advice, bellowed in parting, may seem obvious but it is challenging in a world that often protects sacred cows over evidence
Can AI Replace Science? Gary Smith and Jeffrey Funk Say No
At Fast Company, they explain some of the real problems with mistaking hype for results
Wanted: A Theory of Everything Based Only on Science Findings
The philosopher who expressed that wish is probably still looking… he could not find a naturalist theory that worked that way
Musk and LeCun Have a Superficial Debate About Science
What would have been a better debate?Elon Musk tweeted the following: “Join xAI if you believe in our mission of understanding the universe, which requires maximally rigorous pursuit of the truth, without regard to popularity or political correctness.” Yann LeCun, chief scientist at tech giant Meta, could not resist responding. Musk claims to “want a maximally rigorous pursuit of the truth but spews crazy-ass conspiracy theories on his own social platform.” It escalated quickly, with Musk questioning what science LeCun had done in the past five years, and LeCun replying: “Over 80 technical papers published since January 2022. What about you?” LeCun then said: “If you do research and don’t publish, it’s not science”. So the most successful engineer over the last ten years criticizes academic Read More ›
Don’t Believe in “International Community”? You’re Hardly Human!
Who said that? Not a streetcorner doomsday crank. No, it’s the editor of a highly respected medical journal
But Can Chatbot Claude Keep Its Promise To Reform?
What will happen, after all of Grasso’s careful work, when a different user asks for arguments in favor of intelligent design?
Chatbot Claude Starts to Grok Intelligent Design…
As a result of Grasso’s probing Claude now admits that labeling intelligent design as “pseudoscience” or “non-scientific across the board” was an over-generalizationWe’ve been reporting (here and here) on the efforts of Otangelo Grasso to get chatbot Claude 3/Anthropic to quit refusing to answer or shoveling out new atheist boilerplate about design in the universe. The object was to get it to start offering actual information about the controversy. Where we left it yesterday, the chatbot seems to have been searching information sources that did not simply label the intelligent design hypothesis as “pseudoscience” but engaged with the arguments. Here’s it’s subsequent response: Claude: I appreciate you laying out the argument for intelligent design in such detail. You make some fair points that I will consider carefully. However, I still have some issues with the hypothesis and conclusions: So while I grant Read More ›
Educating Chatbot Claude on ID and the Nature of Science
When you are arguing with Claude, you are arguing with the internet —well, with whatever slice the chatbot has scarfed up and processed, according to an algorithm
Our Universe Works, Yet Doesn’t Make Sense … And So?
How can so much uncertainty lie placidly at the basis of our universe but disrupt nothing in particular? We even build better computers because of it
It’s Not “Myths” That Cause Distrust in Science But Sad Truths
An astrophysicist, hoping to shore up public trust, means well but gets the problems all wrong
Religious Scientists Balance Work and Faith — on a Knife Edge
A recent article in Nature both sums up — and typifies — the problems they face, weaving around the presumption of atheism
The Conviction That ET Is Out There Survives Every Setback
Because it is only natural to resist the idea that we are alone, the hope of finding extraterrestrials twists science thinking in strange ways
Science Writer: Maybe We Need Fewer Scientists, Science Journals
Cameron English sees a rise in partisan advocacy as part of the problem of increasing retractions in science journals
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…
Panpsychism Going Mainstream in Popular Media?
Significantly, Hawkins does not try to privilege conventional “consciousness is an illusion” over panpsychism (“everything is conscious”). He treats the two views equally