Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

TagChaitin's unknowable number

an-amazing-fibonacci-pattern-in-a-nautilus-shell-generative-ai-stockpack-adobe-stock
An amazing fibonacci pattern in a nautilus shell Generative AI

Gregory Chaitin’s New Books About Math Make It Actual Fun

He is a favorite podcast guest of ours and, it turns out, a fan of Mind Matters
Chaitin is best known in the math world discovering the remarkable Omega number, which demonstrated the fundamental unknowability of math. Read More ›
teen-boy-posing-as-twin-brothers-stockpack-adobe-stock
Teen Boy Posing As Twin Brothers

The Philosopher’s Zombie Still Walks and Physics Can’t Explain It

Various thinkers try to show that the zombie does not exist because consciousness is either just brain wiring or an illusion, maybe both

Canadian science journalist Dan Falk tells us, the philosopher’s zombie thought experiment, “flawed as it is,” demonstrates that physics alone can’t explain consciousness. Not that many physicists haven’t tried. But first, what is the philosopher’s zombie (sometimes called the p-zombie)?: The experiment features an imagined creature exactly like you or me, but with a crucial ingredient – consciousness – missing. Though versions of the argument go back many decades, its current version was stated most explicitly by Chalmers. In his book The Conscious Mind (1996), he invites the reader to consider his zombie twin, a creature who is ‘molecule for molecule identical to me’ but who ‘lacks conscious experience entirely’.” He does everything he is supposed to do but experiences Read More ›