Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

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cyborg-head-with-red-eyes-surronded-by-wires-and-lights-in-a-futuristic-and-ciberpunk-enviroment-stockpack-adobe-stock
Cyborg head with red eyes, surronded by wires and lights in a futuristic and ciberpunk enviroment
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post
Author
News
Date
January 21, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity
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When the Terminator Ran Into Skynet at the Unemployment Office…

In an ID the Future podcast, computer engineering prof Robert J. Marks explores with Casey Luskin the limits of algorithms
News
January 21, 2022
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity

In a podcast at ID The Future, Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks talked with host Casey Luskin about claims, games, and realities around artificial intelligence: In the course of the fast-paced interview, Marks touches on dystopian AI and the limits of computer algorithms (they can never do anything that is inherently non-computable, Marks argues), and discuss celebrity thinkers and entrepreneurs who’ve weighed in on the promises and perils of AI, such as Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Stephen Hawking. Marks calls on Nobel Laureate Roger Penrose to second one of Marks’s central arguments. The occasion for the conversation is Marks’s chapter in the recent Harvest House anthology, The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith. (2021) Marks…

social-but-not-social-stockpack-adobe-stock
Social but not social
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post
Author
Andrew McDiarmid
Date
January 18, 2022
Categorized
Relationships, Social Media
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Relationship Advice: Think Before You App

If the people we are having dinner with matter to us, why are we always checking our phones?
Andrew McDiarmid
January 18, 2022
Relationships, Social Media

This story originally appeared at Newsmax as “You Can Actually Find Joy Outside Your Smartphone.” Recently, I took my family into town to get dinner. We live in a small community, in the country, so it’s a bit of an event to go out to dine in the city. Once there, I called around to see what establishments were open. Before I reached any humans, I was told to visit websites, download apps, and consider ordering online for pickup. One message even hung up on me without transferring me to a person. Finally, I found a place that would take us in and actually feed us. As we moved through the ordering line, one of the workers wore a shirt that made…

matching-keys-made-of-circuits-led-lights-encryption-crypto-stockpack-adobe-stock
matching keys made of circuits & led lights, encryption & crypto
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post
Author
News
Date
January 17, 2022
Categorized
Economics
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Some brute facts about Bitcoin and other cryptos

Crypto is transforming money and finance. Like the computer, you don’t need to use one but you’re wise to know the basics. Start here
News
January 17, 2022
Economics

At Expensivity, Bernard Fickser, who has explained how to sell non-fungible tokens (NFTs) now offers “The Truth About Cryptocurrencies: A Clearheaded Guide to the Crypto World.” (January 15, 2022) For your convenience, we are serializing his work, which can be read in whole here. Here’s Part 1: Even though most people own no cryptocurrency, cryptocurrency still matters to the average person. That’s because crypto (or cryptocurrency) is transforming the world of money and finance, and everyone has a stake in that world. The average person therefore needs a basic grasp of crypto and why it is important. It’s not enough, however, simply to know about crypto. To really understand crypto, you need sound actionable information about investing in crypto and…

choosing which guy
Beautiful woman undecided which man to choose
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post
Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
December 30, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Programming
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New: AI Learns to Simulate Common Sense

It is a simulation because the AI can perform the task but does not “understand” what the concepts mean
Robert J. Marks
December 30, 2021
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Programming

Paul Allen, a co-founder of Microsoft, was concerned AI had no common sense. In early 2018, Allen said “AI still lacks what most 10-year-olds possess: ordinary common sense.” He continued, “If we want AI to approach human abilities and have the broadest possible impact in research, medicine and business, we need to fundamentally advance AI’s common sense abilities.” Billionaire Allen coughed up $125 million and founded the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Seattle. I believed that AI would never simulate common sense but always left the door open. Unlike understanding, creativity and sentience, common sense could possibly be computable. There was no indication that common sense was non-algorithmic. And now AI has simulated common sense. The classic test for…

businesswoman-signing-cheque-stockpack-adobe-stock
Businesswoman Signing Cheque
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post
Author
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
December 29, 2021
Categorized
Economics
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Mental Models for What Government Does With Our Money

Models used by pedantic experts, even if more accurate, confuse instead of clarify the key difference between taxation and government debt
Jonathan Bartlett
December 29, 2021
Economics

We live by mental models. Although we rarely take the time to think about it, any time we reason about something we are using a mental model. Sometimes those models are close to reality, and sometimes they are not. When you turn your steering wheel, it does in fact turn your tires — but power steering adds quite a bit of assistance. So the mental model is close to correct but not exactly true. Similarly, in chemistry, multiple models of the atom are usually taught. In the widely used Rutherford model (also called the “planetary model”), electrons “orbit” the nucleus at different distances. However, this model was not found to be precisely true. A more precise view of the atom…

fetus hands
embryo silhouette in woman hand
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Author
Michael Egnor
Date
December 28, 2021
Categorized
Ethics, Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Relationships, Social Media
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Political Website’s Christmas Gift to Readers: Promoting Abortion

FiveThirtyEight asked readers to share their abortion stories and got something it hadn’t bargained on: Many were glad it didn’t happen
Michael Egnor
December 28, 2021
Ethics, Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Relationships, Social Media
If you want to understand the mindset of the abortion lobby, note that this plea for accounts of killing of children in the womb appeared on Twitter on Christmas Day. Read More ›
3d-rendering-of-human-cell-or-embryonic-stem-cell-microscope-background-stockpack-adobe-stock
3d rendering of Human cell or Embryonic stem cell microscope background.
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post
Author
Eric Holloway
Date
December 27, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Philosophy of Mind, Science
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Are the Brain Cells in a Dish That Learned Pong Conscious?

Human-derived organoids learned faster than AI and always outperformed mouse-derived organoids in terms of volley length, raising troubling questions
Eric Holloway
December 27, 2021
Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Philosophy of Mind, Science

Recently, science media were abuzz with a remarkable story about minibrains (mouse and human brain cells in a dish) learning to play the video game Pong: Scientists have successfully taught a collection of human brain cells in a petri dish how to play the video game “Pong” — kind of. Researchers at the biotechnology startup Cortical Labs have created “mini-brains“ consisting of 800,000 to one million living human brain cells in a petri dish, New Scientist reports. The cells are placed on top of a microelectrode array that analyzes the neural activity. “We think it’s fair to call them cyborg brains,” Brett Kagan, chief scientific officer at Cortical Labs and research lead of the project, told New Scientist. Tony Tran,…

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Problem solving concept. Mixed media
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post
Author
Michael Egnor
Date
December 26, 2021
Categorized
Philosophy of Mind, Science
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Does Superdeterminism Resolve Dilemmas Around Free Will?

If we lack free will, we have no justification whatsoever to even believe that we lack free will
Michael Egnor
December 26, 2021
Philosophy of Mind, Science

The conventional view of nature held by materialists, who deny free will, is that all acts of nature, including our human acts and beliefs, are wholly determined by the laws of nature, understood as the laws of physics. We cannot be free, they assert, because all aspects of human nature are matter, and the behavior of matter is wholly determined by physical laws. There is no “room” for free will. It’s noteworthy that physicists who have studied determinism in nature (specifically, in quantum mechanics) have for the most part rejected this deterministic view of free will and implicitly (if not explicitly) endorsed the reality of free will. There are two reasons for this. First, experiments that have followed from the…

red and blue 3d
Movie at cinema concept. 3D glasses with red and blue lenses with soft colored shadow on dark background.
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post
Author
Gary Varner
Date
December 25, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture
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The Matrix Resurrections: The Studio Is Making Us Do This!

Mark Zuckerberg, eat your heart out. If there is one word to describe this movie, that word is Meta.
Gary Varner
December 25, 2021
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Let’s address the most contentious issue first. This movie isn’t great, but it’s not The Last Jedi bad. Matrix fans aren’t going to be storming the gates in protest, because their beloved characters were assassinated for “the message.” It’s true that Neo is nerfed so that Trinity can take his place. This is annoying because, as I’ve said before, nobody wants to see a Dragon Ball Z spectacle featuring Neo’s powers just so the poor sap could die in obscurity because nothing he did mattered anyway. They didn’t do this, and that is to the writer’s credit. If there was anybody who deserved a deus ex machina sent by the Social Justice Warriors from on high, it was Trinity. Her…

the-red-human-figure-extends-its-influence-to-the-neighboring-figures-spreading-ideas-and-thoughts-recruiting-new-members-infection-of-other-people-zero-patient-leader-and-leadership-new-team-stockpack-adobe-stock.jpg
The red human figure extends its influence to the neighboring figures. Spreading ideas and thoughts, recruiting new members. Infection of other people, zero patient. Leader and leadership, new team.
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post
Author
William A. Dembski
Date
December 19, 2021
Categorized
Education, Religion
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Why Influence Matters More Than People Realize

How do we go from defending ourselves to persuading others?
William A. Dembski
December 19, 2021
Education, Religion

7 From Apologetics to Rhetoric During my years as a seminary professor, every course I taught had some connection with apologetics. One of the courses I taught that I liked best was rhetoric. Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. Unfortunately, it is an art that Christian apologetics has failed to fully appropriate. Aristotle rightly distinguished three appeals of persuasion. These were logos, ethos, and pathos. You can try to persuade by logical argument. That’s logos, and Christian apologetics is hypertrophied in that department. But you can also try to persuade by the force of your personality, or by your reputation for moral probity, or by your demonstrated expertise and qualifications. That’s ethos, and it speaks to your standing and credibility in the act of persuasion.…

red-pill-blue-pill-concept-the-right-choice-the-concept-of-the-movie-matrix-the-choice-of-tablets-stockpack-adobe-stock
Red Pill Blue Pill concept. The right choice the concept of the movie matrix. The choice of tablets
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post
Author
Gary Varner
Date
December 18, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Philosophy of Mind, Relationships
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The Matrix Trilogy: Some Final Thoughts

I enjoyed the films and am looking forward to the Matrix Resurrections but there are some things I need to say as a reviewer
Gary Varner
December 18, 2021
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Philosophy of Mind, Relationships

While waiting for The Matrix: Resurrections, December 22: I admit, I’ve given this trilogy a hard time. But I do actually enjoy the films… when I’m not thinking about them. There are some good elements, and I want to point those out before going further. First of all, the relationship between Neo and Trinity is solid. It develops with the trilogy and we don’t have to suffer through a bunch of “will they?/won’t they?” tropes. A viewer can get invested in their relationship, so it hurts when Trinity dies. I appreciate any film where this risk is taken, instead of breaking up the characters and then getting them back together just so the writers don’t have to show the relationship’s…

aiartificial-intelligence-concept-stockpack-adobe-stock
AI(Artificial intelligence) concept.
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post
Author
News
Date
December 14, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Global Technology
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Understanding the de Facto Cold War With China

High tech is currently a battlefield between freedom and totalitarianism
News
December 14, 2021
Artificial Intelligence, Global Technology

In “Hyping Artificial Intelligence Hinders Innovation” (podcast episode 163), Andrew McDiarmid interviewed Erik J. Larson, programmer and author of The Myth of Artificial Intelligence (Harvard University Press, 2021) on the wrong path he thinks some analysts are taking in terms of what machines can and can’t do. Plus they discussed Alan Turing’s change of heart. Then they looked at the critical fact that Big Data can easily be the enemy of new ideas. And now, the future …? https://episodes.castos.com/mindmatters/34ce0d74-aa74-4ad9-9599-e9ddf2be56a7-Mind-Matters-News-Episode-163-Erik-Larson-.mp3 This portion begins at roughly 38:23 min. A partial transcript and notes, Show Notes, and Additional Resources follow. They began with: How do we determine that we are not simply manipulated by social media? Larson recommended a book by computer scientist…

COSM-2021-Panel-Silicon-Valley-174A3867
Walter Myers III at COSM 2021 on Silicon Valley
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post
Author
John G. West
Date
December 14, 2021
Categorized
Events
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Walter Bradley Center: Year in Review 2021

John G. West
December 14, 2021
Events

Mind Matters News is sponsored by the non-profit Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence at Discovery Institute. Will you help Mind Matters News continue by supporting the work of the Bradley Center with an end-of-year donation? In a world awash with over-hyped claims (both pro and con) about artificial intelligence, the work of the Bradley Center couldn’t be more timely and important. People know at a fundamental level that they are not machines. But faulty thinking can cause people to adopt views that in their heart of hearts they know to be untrue. The Bradley Center seeks to help individuals — and our society at large — to realize that we are not machines, while at the same…

atom-particle-stockpack-adobe-stock
Atom Particle
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post
Author
News
Date
December 12, 2021
Categorized
Philosophy of Mind, Science
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Discovering the Non-Materialist Dimension in Science

Hint: Stephen Hawking was a fine physicist and writer but not a very good philosopher
News
December 12, 2021
Philosophy of Mind, Science

Rounding out their discussion at Theology Unleashed, neuropsychologist Mark Solms and neurosurgeon Michael Egnor talk about physicists who point a way forward: A partial transcript of this portion, along with some notes, follows. Summary to date: In the first portion, Solms, author of The Hidden Spring (2021), began by asserting in his opening statement that “the source of consciousness in the brain is in fact in the brain stem,” not the cerebral cortex, as is almost universally assumed. Dr. Egnor then responded that his clinical experience supports the view that brain is not mind. Then Solms pointed to the reality that discussing the fact that the brain is not the mind can be a career-limiting move in neuroscience — even…

shell-nautilus-pearl-fibonacci-sequence-symmetry-cross-section-spiral-shell-structure-golden-ratio-background-nature-pattern-mollusk-nautilus-pompilius-copy-space-half-split-stock-photo-photograph-stockpack-adobe-stock
shell nautilus pearl Fibonacci sequence symmetry cross section spiral shell structure golden ratio background nature pattern mollusk (nautilus pompilius) copy space half split stock, photo, photograph
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post
Author
News
Date
December 10, 2021
Categorized
Events
Tagged

Help Mind Matters News Continue in 2022

Have you ever wondered whether machines can easily replace you? No, of course not, but in these times it really helps to know WHY not
News
December 10, 2021
Events

Please help Mind Matters News thrive in 2022 by donating to our sponsor. We live in a culture where human uniqueness is increasingly questioned, where claims about“intelligent” machines replacing human beings are embraced without serious skepticism, andwhere technology is now being used to censor divergent views on social media. So where canyou go to separate fact and fiction when it comes to current debates about AI, technology,censorship, and human uniqueness? If you are reading this article, you know where: Mind Matters News! We supply news, analysis, and weekly podcasts that explore issues relating to mind, brain,neuroscience, personal responsibility, free speech, automation, censorship by Big Tech, and theuse and abuse of new technologies. We do this all from the perspective that…

information-theory-shannon-equation-stockpack-adobe-stock
Information Theory - Shannon Equation
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post
Author
News
Date
December 9, 2021
Categorized
Information Theory, Philosophy of Mind
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Why Neuroscientist Solms Is No Materialist: Information Theory

He points out that, to begin with, Einstein’s famous equation — E equals MC squared — makes the point that matter is derivative. It’s a state of energy
News
December 9, 2021
Information Theory, Philosophy of Mind

Arjuna, the host of the Theology Unleashed broadcast with South African neuropsychologist Mark Solms and Stonybrook neurosurgeon Michael Egnor on the mind vs. the brain (October 22, 2021) begins this portion by offering a Hindu (Hare Krishna) perspective view of the whole question of mind vs. matter… and he finds considerable common ground with the other two non-materialists! The true implications of quantum mechanics and information theory in refuting materialism are only beginning to be understood. Summary to date: In the first portion, Solms, author of The Hidden Spring (2021), began by asserting in his opening statement that “the source of consciousness in the brain is in fact in the brain stem,” not the cerebral cortex, as is almost universally…

turing's machine
Turing machine close-up
Type
post
Author
News
Date
December 8, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Philosophy of Mind
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Did Alan Turing’s Change of Heart Set AI on the Wrong Path?

Erik Larson, author of The Myth of Artificial Intelligence, thinks Turing lost track of one really important way minds differ from machines
News
December 8, 2021
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Philosophy of Mind

In the earlier part of this episode of “Hyping Artificial Intelligence Hinders Innovation” (podcast episode 163), Andrew McDiarmid interviewed Erik J. Larson, author of The Myth of Artificial Intelligence (Harvard University Press, 2021) discussed the big switch in computer science, roughly around 2000, from deductive to inductive logic — because Big Data made inductive logic more productive. Now they look at what machines still can’t do: This portion begins at about 12:39 min. A partial transcript and notes, Show Notes, and Additional Resources follow. Andrew McDiarmid: I found some of your podcasts on the web and in one of them you say, “I don’t know what a mind is, but I know what a machine is.” So how does that…

big-data-futuristic-visualization-abstract-illustration-stockpack-adobe-stock
Big data futuristic visualization abstract illustration
Type
post
Author
News
Date
December 7, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Global Technology, Machine Learning, Philosophy
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How AI Changed — in a Very Big Way — Around the Year 2000

With the advent of huge amounts of data, AI companies switched from using deductive logic to inductive logic
News
December 7, 2021
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Global Technology, Machine Learning, Philosophy

In “Hyping Artificial Intelligence Hinders Innovation” (podcast episode 163), Andrew McDiarmid interviewed Erik J. Larson, author of The Myth of Artificial Intelligence: Why Computers Can’t Think the Way We Do (2021) (Harvard University Press, 2021) on the way “Machines will RULE!” hype discredits — and distracts attention from — actual progress in AI. Erik Larson has founded two two DARPA-funded artificial intelligence startups. Inthe book he urges us to go back to the drawing board with AI research and development. https://episodes.castos.com/mindmatters/34ce0d74-aa74-4ad9-9599-e9ddf2be56a7-Mind-Matters-News-Episode-163-Erik-Larson-.mp3 This portion begins at 01:59 min. A partial transcript and notes, Show Notes, and Additional Resources follow. Andrew McDiarmid: Can you paint a picture first for us of what the AI landscape looks like today and why it’s not…

agla-is-a-magical-name-of-god-stockpack-adobe-stock
AGLA is a magical name of God
Type
post
Author
News
Date
December 5, 2021
Categorized
Philosophy, Religion, Science
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Egnor and Solms: What Does It Mean To Say God Is a Person?

Mark Solms and Michael Egnor discuss and largely agree on what we can rationally know about God, using the tools of reason
News
December 5, 2021
Philosophy, Religion, Science

Last time out, as South African neuropsychologist Mark Solms and Stonybrook neurosurgeon Michael Egnor continued to discuss the mind vs. the brain at Theology Unleashed (October 22, 2021). Solms said that he believed in Spinoza’s God — so did Albert Einstein, actually. Now he asks Egnor about the idea that God is a Person. Summary to date: In the first portion, Solms, author of The Hidden Spring (2021), began by asserting in his opening statement that “the source of consciousness in the brain is in fact in the brain stem,” not the cerebral cortex, as is almost universally assumed. Dr. Egnor then responded that his clinical experience supports the view that brain is not mind. Then Solms pointed to the…