Tag: Featured | Page 54

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News
Date
August 13, 2020

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind, Science

Tagged
___longform, Bernardo Kastrup, Consciousness, Darwinism, Evolution, Featured, god, Intelligent design theory, Jerry Coyne, Jerry Fodor, Materialism, Michael Egnor, Natural selection, Panpsychism, Philosophy, What Darwin Got Wrong (book)}

Why Consciousness Couldn’t Just Evolve from the Mud

_{Kastrup, a panpsychist, is sympathetic to the basic intuitions behind the idea that there is design in nature (intelligent design theory)} _{News
August 13, 2020

10

Philosophy of Mind, Science}

In a recent podcast, “Does the Moon Exist if No One is Looking at It?”, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor interviewed philosopher and computer programmer Bernardo Kastrup. Dr. Kastrup has been, in Dr. Egnor’s words, “leading a modern renaissance of metaphysical idealism”—that is, reality is essentially mental rather than physical.

Why the Mind Can’t Just Be the Brain

_{Thinking it through carefully, the idea doesn't even make sense} _{Michael Egnor
August 11, 2020

12

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

Philosopher Roger Scruton (1944–2020) defined neuroscience thus (I paraphrase): Neuroscience is a huge collection of answers with no memory of the questions. Over the past century, neuroscientists have amassed vast libraries of data. But their interpretation of their data on the mind-brain question shows no meaningful understanding of the genuine questions their research is tasked to answer. These questions are ancient: What is the relationship between the soul (or mind) and the body (or brain)? How is it that matter can think? How is it that third-person stuff gives rise to first-person experience? Answers to such questions from the neuroscience community show little evidence of the profound and subtle nature of the questions. Thus, neuroscientists provide answers to questions they Read More ›

tropical hurricane approaching the USA.Elements of this image are furnished by NASA.

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post

Gary Smith
Date
August 10, 2020

Categorized
Mathematics

Tagged
Featured}

Female Hurricanes: How A Mass of Hot Air Became a Zombie Study

_{When a reporter first asked me about a study claiming that “Female Hurricanes are Deadlier than Male Hurricanes,” I was skeptical} _{Gary Smith
August 10, 2020

7

Mathematics}

It is once again hurricane season on the East Coast and social media are reliably abuzz with reports of a debunked study that claimed that hurricanes given feminine-sounding names are deadlier than those given masculine-sounding names. (Full disclosure: I was one of the debunkers.) When a reporter initially asked me about this study, titled “Female Hurricanes are Deadlier than Male Hurricanes,” I was skeptical. Hurricane names alternate between female and male on a schedule set before the hurricane season begins so any relationship between name and death toll was surely coincidental. I looked at the study and discovered that the authors were not arguing that female hurricanes are inherently deadlier but that sexist humans die because they don’t take female Read More ›

Rear view of Asian woman working and online meeting via video conference with colleague

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Jonathan Bartlett
Date
August 10, 2020

Categorized
Education

Tagged
COVID-19, Featured}

How to Teach and Hold Meetings in “Mixed Mode” in the COVID Era

_{Teachers and facilitators face a challenge when some students are online in quarantine and some are in front of them in person} _{Jonathan Bartlett
August 10, 2020

5

Education}

In the current COVID-19 environment, the economy may be opening up but some people are still sick or in quarantine. This means that more and more meetings are run in a mixed mode — a combination of in-person and online participants.

If New Tech Enhances Our Lives, Why Does It Make Us Crazy?

_{It doesn’t have to. Let’s think this through} _{News
August 9, 2020

5

Artificial Intelligence, Data Privacy, Religion, Social Media}

It has never been easier to connect but somehow we don’t. Andrew McDiarmid, author of the blog Thinking and thriving in the digital age, asks us to consider why loneliness (and suicide) have accompanied the rise of new communications technology. And he offers a challenge: Here are just a few questions to ask yourself about each tech tool you have. Is using this tool a wise use of my time? Does it encourage me to think for myself? Does it enable me to use my God-given abilities and spiritual gifts? Does it help me accomplish what God wants me to do? Does using this tech compromise my witness to others by causing me to stumble or get distracted? Does it Read More ›

Augmented reality application for retail business concept. Hand holding smart phone with A/R application on screen to finding interested product in the store.

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post

News
Date
August 7, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Education

Tagged
___longform, ARToolworks, Augmented Reality, Featured, peripheral vision, QuiverVision, Robert J. Marks, Thomas Furness, Virtual Reality (VR), Virtual World Society}

The Amazing Things We Can Do with Virtual and Augmented Reality

_{The “father of virtual reality,” Thomas Furness, talks to Robert J. Marks about his vision for the future} _{News
August 7, 2020

9

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Education}

In a recent podcast, “Robert J. Marks and Thomas Furness on VR and AR,” Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks continued his discussion with the “grandfather of virtual reality,” Thomas Furness. They focused on the cutting edge of virtual reality today. https://episodes.castos.com/mindmatters/Mind-Matters-094-Thomas-Furness.mp3 Transcript. Partial transcript: Robert J. Marks: So, Dr. Furness, we have been talking about a number of fascinating things, but there’s still some things that I’d like to talk to you about. Another one is ARToolworks. Now, AR stands for augmented reality. Thomas Furness: Now, the difference really is between the VRs generally, where you are completely immersed in a computer-generated environment. That’s all you see is the computer generation of images. AR, on the other hand, Read More ›

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post

News
Date
August 7, 2020

Categorized
Business and Finance, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
__has-video, Commodities, economics, Featured, Gale Pooley, Jay Richards, Julian Simon, Marian L. Tupey, Population growth, Simon Abundance Index, video, wealth}

Business Prof: Stop It! The World is NOT Running Out of Stuff!

_{A famous bet between two top thinkers settled that a long time ago} _{News
August 7, 2020

7

Business and Finance, Philosophy of Mind}

Recently, Jay Richards interviewed Dr. Gale Pooley, Professor of Economics at BYU-Hawaii, on the myth that we are running out of resources and doomed to future scarcity. Even though media pundits often claim it is true, the numbers say it is a myth. The story begins with a famous bet between two professors… From the interview: The bet was whether basic commodity prices would rise between September 29, 1980 and September 29, 1990. The professors who made the bet were Stanford insect biologist Paul Ehrlich (1932–), author of bestseller The Population Bomb (1968), and economist Julian Simon (1932–1998) Ehrlich bet yes and Simon bet no. Gale Pooley: First of all, what was interesting about Julian Simon, he reads Ehrlich’s book Read More ›

The Atomic Bomb Dome Panorama in Hiroshima and the surounding garden in autumn at sunset on the side of Motoyasu River in Japan, with the Peace Memorial Park

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post

Robert J. Marks
Date
August 6, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Military

Tagged
Atomic bomb, Featured, Hiroshima, The Case for Killer Robots, Vladimir Putin, Xinjiang}

Stark Lessons from the 75th Anniversary of the Atomic Bomb

_{Nuclear weapons have not been used to destroy a city since Hiroshima and Nagasaki} _{Robert J. Marks
August 6, 2020

5

Artificial Intelligence, Military}

Seventy-five years ago today an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Einstein’s equation E=mc2 showed that 700 milligrams of mass (m), less than a third of the weight of a US dime, could be converted to enough energy (E) to destroy a Japanese city. The atomic bomb ended WWII. Advanced technology such as the atomic bomb not only wins wars but gives pause to otherwise aggressive adversaries. For this reason, I argue in my book, The Case for Killer Robots,that the United States must continue to develop cutting edge lethal AI for military use. As described in John Hersey’s essay “Hiroshima” in the New Yorker (1946), the effects of the atomic bomb were horrifying for the civilian population. Human beings Read More ›

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post

Eric Holloway
Date
August 4, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Science

Tagged
Biology, economics, Engineering, Featured, Fine-tuning, Physics}

Why Engineering Can’t Be Reduced to the Laws of Physics

_{When we reduce the engineer’s mind to a computer, the source of innovation disappears} _{Eric Holloway
August 4, 2020

3

Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Science}

The fundamental problem of modern science is the problem of innovation. Where does novelty come from? This problem shows up in physics, biology, artificial intelligence, and economics. Within physics, the problem is how to account for the fundamental constants of reality. They are all precisely tuned to make sentient and intelligent life—life that can learn about itself and the universe—possible through science. Within biology, the problem is accounting for the source of highly complex genetic sequences that express finely tuned biological functions. In artificial intelligence, the challenge is identifying solutions that are relevant to a given scenario. In economics the problem is identifying the right products for the market. What do all these situations have in common? In each case, Read More ›

Incognito warrior in iron helmet and red cloak.

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post

Michael Egnor
Date
August 3, 2020

Categorized
Ethics, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
___longform, Aristotle, Darwinism, democracy, Edward Feser, Featured, government, Hannah Arendt, Karl Marx, Plato, soul, Spirit, totalitarianism, Tyranny}

What would Plato Say About Antifa? Or Darwin?

_{A careful reading of Plato and Arendt goes a long way toward explaining the current scene—but it is unsettling reading} _{Michael Egnor
August 3, 2020

8

Ethics, Philosophy of Mind}

In college, I hated Plato. We read his Republic, and, as a patriot and an idealistic young (small “d”) democrat, I was appalled at the hegemony of the Guardians and at Plato’s disdain for democracy. It seemed to me that his Guardians were the archetypal totalitarians, and that it was a fundamental human right — enshrined in the Constitution — to be ruled only by consent of the governed. In my dotage, I am more sympathetic to Plato — it’s remarkable how much smarter the old philosopher has gotten in the past 40 years! I am still uncomfortable with Guardians, at least of the secular sort. But I think John Adams got it right when he observed that “our Constitution Read More ›

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Gary Smith
Date
August 3, 2020

Categorized
Business and Finance, Science

Tagged
COVID-19 Recession, data, employment, Featured, Great Depression, John Maynard Keynes, Theory, Unemployment}

Beware of Geeks Bearing Formulas—It’s Often Pseudoscience

_{Pseudoscience based on data without theory and theory without data undermine the credibility of real science, which is the key to human progress} _{Gary Smith
August 3, 2020

6

Business and Finance, Science}

Elsewhere I have warned of the perils of making decisions based on data without theory. For example, the patterns discovered by data-mining computer algorithms are often nothing more than meaningless coincidences. It is also perilous to go to the opposite extreme—to make decisions based on theory without data. Once upon a time, for example, economists were fond of sketching labor demand and supply curves and assuming that the economy was at their intersection. That is, labor demand is equal to supply, so that everyone who wants to work is working. The unemployed have chosen to be unemployed because they value leisure more than income. True believers were fond of this theory and little troubled by reality. Between 1929 and 1933, Read More ›

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News
Date
August 2, 2020

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind, Religion, Science

Tagged
___longform, Dualism, Featured, John Burke, Monism, Near-death experiences, Robert J. Marks, Walter Bradley}

Why Reasonable People Think Near-Death Experiences Are Real

_{Distinguished engineers Walter Bradley and Robert J.Marks sift through the evidence} _{News
August 2, 2020

17

Philosophy of Mind, Religion, Science}

In a recent podcast, “Walter Bradley on Near-Death Experiences,” Center director Robert J. Marks discusses these experiences with Walter Bradley, after whom the Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence is named. Dr. Bradley is an emeritus distinguished professor at Baylor University, formerly professor and mechanical engineering head at Texas A&M University. https://episodes.castos.com/mindmatters/Mind-Matters-093-Walter-Bradley.mp3 Here are some selections from the transcript: (You can download the entire transcript here.) Marks and Bradley started with first principles: Is it reasonable to believe that there is anything out beyond the material world? Many people assume that science exists to defend materialism. But Walter Bradley has defended the idea that there is also an immaterial world, of which we are a part, in a Read More ›

Baby girl in surprise talking on a vintage phone

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post

Michael Egnor
Date
August 1, 2020

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
___longform, Aristotle, Behaviorism, Featured, Language, Noam Chomsky, semantics, Syntax}

Why Linguist Noam Chomsky Is a Great Scientist of Our Era

_{He singlehandedly rid linguistics of a stultifying (and technically mistaken) behaviorism} _{Michael Egnor
August 1, 2020

9

Philosophy of Mind}

Noam Chomsky (right, in 2017) is, in my view, the best scientist of the past half-century. His work fascinates me, which is not a necessary criterion for being a great scientist—but it helps! I hasten to add that I do not share his politics—I’m of a conservative bent. But his theory of linguistics is brilliant and represents an anthropological, biological, and even metaphysical insight unrivaled in science since relativity and quantum mechanics. A case can be made that Chomsky’s insights are more profound than even those of modern physics, because they plumb the human soul in ways that physics cannot. To understand Chomsky’s achievement, it’s helpful to understand what linguistics was until Chomsky transformed it in the 1950s. Philosophers and Read More ›

into the deep woods, atmospheric landscape with archway and ancient trees, misty and foggy mood

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post

Adam Nieri
Date
August 1, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
Dreams, Featured, Mindreading}

Is Sci Fi Brain Decoding Becoming a Reality?

_{To what extent can the inner workings of thought and dream be measured through correlation?} _{Adam Nieri
August 1, 2020

4

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

Today I want to look at something slightly different. After stumbling upon a piece by Cassidy Ward titled “Inception’s dream-reading technology is becoming reality” over at SYFY Wire, I started thinking more about the idea of reading our dreams. He’s talking about Inception, a 2013 film from Christopher Nolan, of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight fame: The protagonist, Dominick Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), is a thief who makes his living stealing corporate secrets by invading a target’s dreams. Our dreams are meant to be safe, untouchable. They are constructed of our most private thoughts, unbidden even by our own conscious selves. To invade them is to invade the most sanctified halls of our minds. If we’re not safe in our Read More ›

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post

News
Date
July 31, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Ethics, Technocracy

Tagged
Bob Kelly, China, Featured, George Gilder, Jay Richards, Trade war, United States}

Tech Investment Analysts Strategize How to Deal With China Today

_{China’s assertions of power in recent years have left many uncertain about the future of business relationships} _{News
July 31, 2020

5

Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Ethics, Technocracy}

Recently, Jay Richards interviewed Dr. Bob Kelly, Managing Partner of Ignition Partners, focusing on the panel he moderated at COSM 2019,“The Crisis of Big Tech: The US and China.” They explored the technological competition between the U.S. and China and what it means for the future. The panelists were futurist George Gilder, Wendy Liu, China market strategy analyst at multinational investment bank UBS, and Gary Rieschel, a venture capitalist in China and the United States. From the interview: Jay Richards: So what was the core controversy if you had to summarize it neutrally? Bob Kelly: I guess I’d say the core controversy really is what stance do we as Americans, or in the technology arena, take towards China? And there’s Read More ›

Binary code with China flag, data protection concept

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post

Heather Zeiger
Date
July 30, 2020

Categorized
Surveillance

Tagged
China, Christopher Wray, COVID-19, Cybercrime, Cyberespionage, Featured, hacking, Iran, Made in China 2025, Russia}

Charges Reveal Extent of China-Sponsored Hacking in the West

_{Targets have included COVID-19 labs, dissidents, and religious groups} _{Heather Zeiger
July 30, 2020

7

Surveillance}

What’s new about the most recent indictment is the acknowledgment that China is working with known cybercriminals.

Interview With a Woman (or Women) Formerly Called Susan Blackmore

_{A professor of psychology argues that there is no continuity between our present selves and our past selves} _{Michael Egnor
July 27, 2020

6

Philosophy of Mind}

Much of modern philosophy of mind is a compendium of New Age gibberish. An exemplar of this mess is Susan Blackmore, a Visiting Professor (Psychology) at the University of Plymouth. She is an atheist, a “skeptic,” and a prolific author. When she was interviewed in 2016 about her philosophy of mind, remarkably, in addition to the usual atheist denial of immortality of the soul and of free will, she denied personal continuity over time. How does Blackmore account for the doggedly persistent sense we have of personal continuity? “Parallel processing” is her explanation. Blackmore points out that there are many brain pathways that are active simultaneously when we perceive, think, and act. What does that have to do with personal Read More ›

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Jonathan Bartlett
Date
July 27, 2020

Categorized
Data Privacy, Social Media

Tagged
bitcoin, Blue Checkmark (Twitter), Featured, Hackers, Twitter}

What’s the Main Thing We Should Learn from the Big Twitter Hack?

_{Yes, Twitter got control of its platform back but not before its credibility in security matters was significantly weakened} _{Jonathan Bartlett
July 27, 2020

5

Data Privacy, Social Media}

As we reported at the time, on July 15, hackers gained control of a number of Twitter “Blue Checkmark” accounts. Twitter hands out Blue Checkmarks to accounts that exert heavy influence and have verified identities. That status permits many parody accounts to operate without generating confusion over who is really tweeting, the account or the parody. In any case, on Twitter, the Blue Checkmarks have quite a bit of power. They get access to analytics on their posts so they can measure (and manipulate) their engagement with their followers. Many influencers look for “Blue Checkmark” status to see if an account is worth engaging with. Twitter even allows the “Blue Checkmarks” to filter their conversations so as to limit them Read More ›

Senior man in a wheelchair using a virtual reality device

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News
Date
July 23, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Medicine and Health

Tagged
Chinese medicine (traditional), exercise, Featured, Helicopters, RATLAB, Robert J. Marks, Thomas Furness, Virtual Reality (VR)}

VR Pioneer Founded Off-Campus Lab to Work On Practical Uses

_{RATLab, founded in 2005, gave unlikely students a chance to work on serious virtual reality projects} _{News
July 23, 2020

10

Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Medicine and Health}

In a recent podcast, “Rats in the Technology lab” Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks continued his discussion with the “grandfather of virtual reality” Thomas Furness. Furness shares his tribulations and triumphs with RATLab (Rats in the Technology lab), which is an “incubator” for innovative ideas in technology. All the employees are RATs (Rocking and Thinking). Furness is, of course, King Rat. So how did it get started and what happened then? https://episodes.castos.com/mindmatters/Mind-Matters-092-Thomas-Furness.mp3 Transcript. Partial transcript: Thomas Furness (right): Well, I was enjoying my activity at the university, certainly a wonderful place to do research. But it is a bureaucracy, and I’ve found that sometimes having worked for the Air Force for the Department of Defense for 23 years, Read More ›

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post

Jonathan Bartlett
Date
July 23, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Programming

Tagged
Featured, GPT-3, Kevin Lacker, Natural Language Processing, OpenAI}

Built to Save Us from Evil AI, OpenAI Now Dupes Us

_{When combined with several metric tons of data, its new GPT-3 sometimes it looks like it is “thinking.” No, not really} _{Jonathan Bartlett
July 23, 2020

4

Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Programming}

OpenAI started life in 2015 as a non-profit organization whose mission was to safeguard humanity from malevolent artificial intelligence (AI). The founders’ goal was to ensure that when superhuman AI arrived, its inborn purpose was to serve humanity rather than subjugate it. In 2019, OpenAI transitioned to a for-profit company based in San Francisco and secured a one billion dollar investment from Microsoft. Things seem to have moved on from there. There’s a good question whether superhuman AI is even possible, as we have pointed out repeatedly here at Mind Matters News. While some of the AI tasks seem impressive, oftentimes when you look under the hood, what you find is a very expensive party trick or a staged demo. Read More ›