Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

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Education and maths concept
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post
Author
News
Date
May 14, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Mathematics, Philosophy of Mind
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Will AI Change — or Eliminate — the Mind-Body Problem?

Can an artificial intelligence program that calculates really understand mathematics? Or is that a “hard ceiling” for AI?
News
May 14, 2021
6
Artificial Intelligence, Mathematics, Philosophy of Mind

In last week’s podcast, Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks interviewed Concordia University philosopher Angus Menuge on the difficult mind–body problem: Dr. Menuge sees mind–body interaction as a transmission of information between two realms; our minds and bodies are one integrated system with a translation function… like developing and then writing down an idea. But what about artificial intelligence? We are told that artificial general intelligence (AGI) is now pushing towards a machine that can totally duplicate the functions of the human mind. But what if the mind is not simply a mechanical function of the brain? What if it is non-algorithmic and non-computable? This portion begins at 29:04 min. A partial transcript, Show Notes, and Additional Resources follow. Read More ›

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scientific publication
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post
Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
May 13, 2021
Categorized
Media, Peer Review, Science
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Inside the Economics of Science Papers

Here’s an inside look at who pays if you read for free
Robert J. Marks
May 13, 2021
6
Media, Peer Review, Science

When a scholarly paper is published, someone has to pay. Publishers like Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), my professional society, and Springer charge big bucks to read their papers. The fees are billed to individual subscribers and, more commonly, to companies and universities who want to give their employees access to the papers. My own university, Baylor, like most research universities, has a considerable library budget on account of these publisher fees. There is growing pressure to kill these fees in favor of “open access” to scholarly papers. Thus, anyone can read a scholarly paper at any time for free. Free access takes the money from the pockets of publishers so they push back. Someone has to pay, Read More ›

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Podiatry Chiropody Foot Medical Stubbed Toe Ingrown Toenail
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post
Author
News
Date
May 12, 2021
Categorized
Philosophy of Mind
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How Would Angus Menuge Resolve the Mind–Body Problem?

From his background in computer science, he sees mind–body interaction as a transmission of information between two realms
News
May 12, 2021
8
Philosophy of Mind

In last week’s podcast, Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks interviewed Concordia University philosopher Angus Menuge on the difficult mind–body problem: What, exactly, is the connection between wanting a drink of milk and carrying out the actions that produce one? Wants are immaterial but they connect with material things. How? In an earlier post, we looked at Dr. Menuge’s account of how various philosophers have approached this problem. Dr. Marks then asked him, What is your take? Where do you fall in these different models? https://episodes.castos.com/mindmatters/Mind-Matters-133-Angus-Menuge.mp3 This portion begins at 22:31 min. A partial transcript, Show Notes, and Additional Resources follow. Angus Menuge (pictured): I think there is some truth to substance dualism, although I don’t myself entirely like Read More ›

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conceptual image Chinese stock exchange with digital currency, devaluation of bitcoin or growth of Chinese e-rmb
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post
Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
May 12, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Global Technology, Surveillance
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Will China’s Digital Yuan Displace the US Dollar in Global Trade?

The U.S. dollar became the world’s reserve currency because it was stable and easily transferable. It also enabled the U.S. to penalize sponsors of terrorism and genocide
Heather Zeiger
May 12, 2021
6
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Global Technology, Surveillance

China has just launched its Digital Currency Electronic Payment System, called variously the electronic yuan or electronic renminbi (abbreviated e-CNY or e-RMB). It will likely thwart Alipay and WeChat Pay’s dominance in China’s financial tech market and allow the government to track almost all financial transactions in real time. There are, of course, international implications to China being the first country to roll out a digital currency backed by the central bank. Can the Digital Yuan Compete with the Dollar for Global Dominance? Some analysts now see China’s move to a digital currency based on blockchain technology as intended to displace the dollar. Right now, eighty-eight percent of global trade interactions are in U.S. dollars, followed by the euro, and Read More ›

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Drones fly over the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. A natural landscape with drones flying over it. quadrocopter
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post
Author
News
Date
May 11, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Military
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Marks: We Can’t Do Without Autonomous Killer Robots in Combat

As an expert in swarm intelligence, he thinks drone swarms offer specific advantages
News
May 11, 2021
3
Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Military

Over a year ago, Robert J. Marks argued in The Case for Killer Robots for developing autonomous military weapons. As an expert in swarm intelligence, he thinks drone swarms should be given priority: Two battling drone swarms can have numerous agents who, in order to be effective in combat, individually require reaction times in the milliseconds. Humans cannot react quickly enough for one, let alone hundreds, of interacting swarm agents. Autonomous operation can be appropriate. Marks asks us to picture two gunslingers in the Old West, facing each other on Main Street. The faster draw wins. The second fastest draw is usually dead. Military strategists call the response to a threat the OODA loop: observe–orient–decide–act. Swarm conflict, in Marks’s view, Read More ›

ideas-escape-from-brain-of-pensive-african-man-stockpack-adobe-stock.jpg
Ideas escape from brain of pensive african man
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post
Author
News
Date
May 11, 2021
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Philosophy of Mind
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How Have Various Thinkers Tried To Solve the Mind–Body Problem?

Philosopher Angus Menuge explains why traditional physicalism (the mind is just what the brain does) doesn’t really work
News
May 11, 2021
8
Philosophy of Mind

In last week’s podcast, Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks interviewed Concordia University philosopher Angus Menuge on one of philosophy’s biggest headscratchers, the mind–body problem. In the second part, they looked at a big question, if the mind and body are so different, how can they interact? We know we are not just bodies, and a number of models of the relationship are offered. Menuge offers a look at some of them: https://episodes.castos.com/mindmatters/Mind-Matters-133-Angus-Menuge.mp3 This portion begins at 15:50 min. A partial transcript, Show Notes, and Additional Resources follow. Some philosophers don’t think the mind–body problem is as big a challenge as it is made out to be. Angus Menuge (pictured): Well, there are some like Richard Swinburne, who is Read More ›

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Frozen British traditional post office mailbox
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post
Author
News
Date
May 10, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Ethics, Law, Work
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Who Will Your Boss Believe? You or That Glitzy New Computer?

In the largest miscarriage of justice in decades, the British Post Office chose to believe the computer, resulting in bankruptcies, jail, and suicide. At last the truth emerged…
News
May 10, 2021
6
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Ethics, Law, Work

Texas State professor of electrical engineering Karl Stephan (pictured) has the story, reprinted with permission from his blog Engineering Ethics. Dr. Stephan is the author of Ethical and Otherwise: Engineering in the Headlines, a collection of his writings on ethics and technology: Suppose you enjoy a secure government job at which you work diligently, and you have advanced to the managerial position of a sub-postmaster in Post Office Ltd, the quasi-public organisation that provides postal services in most of the UK.  Then your organisation installs a new computerised system called Horizon that promises to eliminate a lot of paperwork accounting and make things easier for everybody.  But soon after it is installed, you find that your accounts are not matching up with Read More ›

circle-of-people-teamwork-business-meeting-negotiations-reaching-consensus-in-disagreements-joint-problem-solving-conflict-resolution-through-dialogue-compromise-cooperation-and-collaboration-stockpack-adobe-stock.jpg
Circle of people. Teamwork. Business meeting. Negotiations, reaching consensus in disagreements. Joint problem solving. Conflict resolution through dialogue. Compromise. Cooperation and collaboration
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post
Author
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
May 10, 2021
Categorized
Machine Learning, Mathematics
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Consensus Gives Us Information Only If We Are Free to Doubt

Jonathan Bartlett
May 10, 2021
3
Machine Learning, Mathematics

There are so many credentialed people on the internet with sufficiently differing views that it sometimes seems as if we could find an expert somewhere to support almost any harebrained idea. So how does a non-expert figure out the truth? Most of us lack the time, training, and inclination to investigate most subjects sufficiently so we are often urged to adopt the consensus opinion. While an individual expert may have wild and crazy ideas, the consensus will most likely be an average informed view. But it’s not that simple. Most of the time it is impossible for the public to determine the consensus opinion. What is usually labeled as consensus opinion is what media believe it to be. And the Read More ›

young-bearded-man-opens-the-bottle-of-milk-standing-near-fridge-at-home-stockpack-adobe-stock.jpg
young bearded man opens the bottle of milk standing near fridge at home
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post
Author
News
Date
May 7, 2021
Categorized
Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Science
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If the Mind and Body Are So Different, How Can They Interact?

A look at different models of the mind–body problem
News
May 7, 2021
5
Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Science

In this week’s podcast, Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks interviewed Concordia University philosopher Angus Menuge on the notoriously difficult mind–body problem. In the first part, they talked about we know we are not just bodies, citing the immateriality and indivisibility of the mind and the evidence from near-death experiences. But then how does the immaterial mind interact with the material body? Menuge offers some initial thoughts: https://episodes.castos.com/mindmatters/Mind-Matters-133-Angus-Menuge.mp3 This portion begins at 12:30 min. A partial transcript, Show Notes, and Additional Resources follow. Angus Menuge: Many philosophers, materialists like Hobbs, but even people sympathetic with Descartes, raised this issue — they couldn’t really see what was the mechanism or the medium by which mind and matter could interact. When Read More ›

double-multiply-exposure-abstract-portrait-of-a-dreamy-cute-young-woman-face-with-galaxy-universe-space-inside-head-human-spirit-astronomy-life-zen-concept-elements-of-this-image-furnished-by-nasa-stockpack-adobe-stock.jpg
Double multiply exposure abstract portrait of a dreamy cute young woman face with galaxy universe space inside head. Human spirit, astronomy, life zen concept Elements of this image furnished by NASA.
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post
Author
News
Date
May 6, 2021
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Philosophy of Mind
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How Do We Know We Are Not Just Physical Bodies?

The mind–body problem is one of the most difficult issues in modern philosophy
News
May 6, 2021
8
Philosophy of Mind

In this week’s podcast, Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks interviews Concordia University philosopher Angus Menuge on the notoriously difficult mind–body problem. Dr. Marks asks, “Is there a part of you that is not physical? Are we meat puppets limited to scientific analysis described totally by the laws of nature? “ That’s the mind–body problem! It’s more complex today because some claim we will build computers that have minds like humans (but not bodies like humans). But first, how do we know we are not just bodies? https://episodes.castos.com/mindmatters/Mind-Matters-133-Angus-Menuge.mp3 This portion begins at 04:06 min. A partial transcript, Show Notes, and Additional Resources follow. Angus Menuge (pictured): Well, the real question is how two such different realms can relate. If Read More ›

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Artificial intelligence concept. Robotic hand is holding human brain. 3D rendered illustration.
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post
Author
News
Date
May 5, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Medicine and Health
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Failed Prophecies of the Big “AI Takeover” Come at a Cost

Like IBM Watson in medicine, they don’t just fail; they take time, money, and energy from more promising digital innovations
News
May 5, 2021
4
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Medicine and Health

Surveying the time line of prophecies that AI will take over “soon” is entertaining. At Slate, business studies profs Jeffrey Funk and Gary Smith offer a whirlwind tour starting in the 1950s, with stops along the way at 1970 (“In from three to eight years we will have a machine with the general intelligence of an average human being”) and at 2014: In 2014, Ray Kurzweil predicted that by 2029, computers will have human-level intelligence and will have all of the intellectual and emotional capabilities of humans, including “the ability to tell a joke, to be funny, to be romantic, to be loving, to be sexy.” As we move closer to 2029, Kurzweil talks more about 2045. Jeffrey Funk and Read More ›

boy gears.jpg
boy standing and looking at broken golden gear wheels, digital art style, illustration painting
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post
Author
Michael Egnor
Date
May 2, 2021
Categorized
Ethics, Philosophy of Mind, Science
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Trying To Disprove Free Will Shows That Materialism Doesn’t Work

If you have a metaphysical theory and it contradicts science, logic, and everyday experience, then your metaphysics should be abandoned
Michael Egnor
May 2, 2021
5
Ethics, Philosophy of Mind, Science

Biologist Jerry Coyne, who is also an atheist activist, offers another post denying free will. Journalist Oliver Burkeman published an essay at the The Guardian last week, asking, “The clockwork universe: is free will an illusion?”, quoting Coyne among others. Coyne, who believes that free will is indeed an illusion, offers support at his blog. Read at your leisure but note: He ignores critical science issues around free will, including the following: 1. Nature is not deterministic. The fact that nature is not predetermined in detail has been shown quite convincingly by the experimental confirmation of Bell’s theorem in quantum mechanics. Succinctly, over the past 50 years, at least 17 teams of researchers have asked and answered the question: does Read More ›

spread-your-influence-and-opinions-to-other-people-good-cultural-and-powerful-bad-effect-undue-unwholesome-sway-business-leader-concept-stockpack-adobe-stock.jpg
Spread your influence and opinions to other people. Good cultural and powerful bad effect. Undue unwholesome sway. Business leader concept.
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post
Author
News
Date
April 30, 2021
Categorized
Creativity, Programming, Social Media
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How Erik Larson Hit on a Method for Deciding Who Is Influential

The author of The Myth of Artificial Intelligence decided to apply an algorithm to Wikipedia — but it had to be very specific
News
April 30, 2021
5
Creativity, Programming, Social Media

Here’s another interview (with transcript) at Academic Influence with Erik J. Larson, author of The Myth of Artificial Intelligence: Why Computers Can’t Think the Way We Do (2021). The book was #2 at Amazon as of 11:00 am EST today in the Natural Language Processing category. In this interview, Larson talks about how he developed an algorithm to rank people by the amount of influence they have, using Wikipedia. That was one of the projects that got him thinking about myths of artificial intelligence. It began with his reading of Hannah Arendt, a philosopher of totalitarianism: Excerpt (0:04:25.0) Erik Larson: And she has a whole philosophy of technology that I was reading as background to write The Myth of Artificial Read More ›

chat-bot-concept-stockpack-adobe-stock.jpg
Chat bot concept
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post
Author
William A. Dembski
Date
April 25, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind
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Here’s a Terrific Video Featuring Myth of AI Author Erik Larson

Larson, an AI professional, explains why the popular noise we hear about AI “taking over” is hype
William A. Dembski
April 25, 2021
1
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

I’ve been reviewing philosopher and programmer Erik Larson’s The Myth of Artificial Intelligence. See my earlier posts, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Here’s a terrific video interview that Larson did with Academic Influence. It was done before his book was released and gives a succinct summary of the book. It’s short (15 minutes, compared to the hour-long interview with Brookings described in my previous post). For not only the full video of this interview with Larson but also a transcript of it, go to the Academic Influence website here. For a nice period-piece video on Joseph Weizenbaum’s ELIZA program, check out this YouTube video:

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Villa Melzi - Dante e Beatrice
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post
Author
Michael Egnor
Date
April 25, 2021
Categorized
Ethics, Philosophy
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One of the Greatest Poets Asks, Can We Be Good Without Free Will?

As a centuries old poem shows, materialism is a logical mistake and not really a coherent system of belief
Michael Egnor
April 25, 2021
6
Ethics, Philosophy

Medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri, exiled for life from his native Florence, took the opportunity to write a magnificent trilogy — the Divine Comedy — in which he tours Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. The Comedy is more than a poetic masterpiece. It is a profound philosophical and theological reflection on this life and on eternity. Remarkably, although Dante’s immediate guides through the unseen worlds are, famously, the Roman poet Virgil (70 BC–19 BC) and later, a childhood sweetheart Beatrice (who died young), his philosophical guide is the philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas. The metaphysics, the ethics, and the theology of the Divine Comedy deeply reflect Thomas’s influence. That is remarkable, considering that Dante (1265–1321 AD), who was only a child Read More ›

detective-board-with-photos-of-suspected-criminals-crime-scenes-and-evidence-with-red-threads-stockpack-adobe-stock.jpg
Detective board with photos of suspected criminals, crime scenes and evidence with red threads
Type
post
Author
William A. Dembski
Date
April 24, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy
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Why Computers Will Likely Never Perform Abductive Inferences

As Erik Larson points out in The Myth of Artificial Intelligence, what computers “know” must be painstakingly programmed
William A. Dembski
April 24, 2021
5
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy

I’ve been reviewing philosopher and programmer Erik Larson’s The Myth of Artificial Intelligence. See my earlier posts, here, here, here, here, and here. Larson did an interesting podcast with the Brookings Institution through its Lawfare Blog shortly after the release of his book. It’s well worth a listen, and Larson elucidates in that interview many of the key points in his book. The one place in the interview where I wish he had elaborated further was on the question of abductive inference (aka retroductive inference or inference to the best explanation). For me, the key to understanding why computers cannot, and most likely will never, be able to perform abductive inferences is the problem of underdetermination of explanation by data. This may seem like a mouthful, but the idea is straightforward. Read More ›

Digital Brain
Digital brain and mind upload or uploading human thinking concept as a neurological organ being tranformed to digitalized pixels uploaded to virtual space or a cloud server as an artificial intelligence symbol or neuroscience technology in a 3D illustration style.
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post
Author
William A. Dembski
Date
April 23, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind
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Are We Spiritual Machines? Are We Machines at All?

Inventor Ray Kurzweil proposed in 1999 that within the next thirty years we will upload ourselves into computers as virtual persons, programs on machines
William A. Dembski
April 23, 2021
3
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

I’ve been reviewing philosopher and programmer Erik Larson’s The Myth of Artificial Intelligence. See my earlier posts, here, here, here, and here. The event at which I moderated the discussion about Ray Kurzweil’s The Age of Spiritual Machines was the 1998 George Gilder Telecosm conference, which occurred in the fall of that year at Lake Tahoe (I remember baseball players Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire chasing each other for home run leadership at the time). In response to the discussion, I wrote a paper for First Things titled “Are We Spiritual Machines?” — it is still available online at the link just given, and its arguments remain current and relevant. According to The Age of Spiritual Machines , machine intelligence is the next great step in the evolution of intelligence. That man Read More ›

in-the-futuristic-laboratory-creative-engineer-works-on-the-transparent-computer-display-screen-shows-interactive-user-interface-with-deep-learning-system-artificial-intelligence-prototype-stockpack-adobe-stock.jpg
In the Futuristic Laboratory Creative Engineer Works on the Transparent Computer Display. Screen Shows Interactive User Interface with Deep Learning System, Artificial Intelligence Prototype.
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post
Author
William A. Dembski
Date
April 22, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning
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A Critical Look at the Myth of “Deep Learning”

“Deep learning” is as misnamed a computational technique as exists.
William A. Dembski
April 22, 2021
2
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning

I’ve been reviewing philosopher and programmer Erik Larson’s The Myth of Artificial Intelligence. See my earlier posts, here, here, and here. “Deep learning” is as misnamed a computational technique as exists. The actual technique refers to multi-layered neural networks, and, true enough, those multi-layers can do a lot of significant computational work. But the phrase “deep learning” suggests that the machine is doing something profound and beyond the capacity of humans. That’s far from the case. The Wikipedia article on deep learning is instructive in this regard. Consider the following image used there to illustrate deep learning: Note the rendition of the elephant at the top and compare it with the image of the elephant as we experience it at the bottom. The image at the bottom is rich, Read More ›

computer questions.jpg
Businessman with a computer monitor head and question marks
Type
post
Author
William A. Dembski
Date
April 21, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind
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Artificial Intelligence Understands by Not Understanding

The secret to writing a program for a sympathetic chatbot is surprisingly simple…
William A. Dembski
April 21, 2021
4
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

I’ve been reviewing philosopher and programmer Erik Larson’s The Myth of Artificial Intelligence. See my two earlier posts, here and here. With natural language processing, Larson amusingly retells the story of Joseph Weizenbaum’s ELIZA program, in which the program, acting as a Rogerian therapist, simply mirrors back to the human what the human says. Carl Rogers, the psychologist, advocated a “non-directive” form of therapy where, rather than tell the patient what to do, the therapist reflected back what the patient was saying, as a way of getting the patient to solve one’s own problems. Much like Eugene Goostman, whom I’ve already mentioned in this series, ELIZA is a cheat, though to its inventor Weizenbaum’s credit, he recognized from the get-go that it was a cheat. Read More ›

mad-wide-smile-with-many-teeth-on-black-background-deco-element-card-flyer-base-clip-art-stockpack-adobe-stock.jpg
Mad wide smile with many teeth on black background. Deco element, card-, flyer- base, clip art
Type
post
Author
News
Date
April 21, 2021
Categorized
Mathematics, Philosophy, Science
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IS the Moon There If No One Looks? Or Is There No “There” There?

Elementary particles do not need to be in a particular place until they are observed and then that's where they are
News
April 21, 2021
7
Mathematics, Philosophy, Science

In last week’s podcast,,” our guest host, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor, interviewed idealist philosopher of science and physicist Bruce Gordon on how the quantum physics that underlies our universe makes much more sense if we have a non-materialist view of reality. Even then, it challenges our conventional view of how nature “must” work: We were introduced to the quantum eraser experiment, which showed that what happens at the level of individual particles depends on whether you choose to measure or not. This segment looks at non-locality, the science of being in no one particular place. Elementary particles can do that too: https://episodes.castos.com/mindmatters/Mind-Matters-130-Bruce-Gordon.mp3 This portion begins at 12:36 min. A partial transcript, Show Notes, and Additional Resources follow. Bruce Gordon: So another Read More ›