Tag: John Archibald Wheeler

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post

News
Date
December 12, 2021

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind, Science

Tagged
Consciousness, Featured, John Archibald Wheeler, Karl Friston, Mark Solms, Markov blanket, Michael Egnor, Physicists (as philosophers), Stephen Hawking (view of philosophy), Steven Weinberg (philosophical viewpoint), Theology Unleashed}

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

8

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 Read More ›

Information technology background. Network business infographics. it computer technology concept.

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post

News
Date
May 20, 2021

Categorized
Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Science

Tagged
Bruce Gordon, Featured, Informational realism, It from bit concept, John Archibald Wheeler, Quantum eraser experiment (delayed choice), Rachel Thomas, William Dembski}

It From Bit: What Did John Archibald Wheeler Get Right—and Wrong?

_{In a chapter in a forthcoming book, William Dembski explores the strengths and weaknesses of Wheeler’s perspective that the universe is, at bottom, information} _{News
May 20, 2021

7

Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Science}

In his chapter in a forthcoming book, Mind and Matter: Modern Dualism, Idealism and the Empirical Sciences (Discovery Institute Press), information theorist William Dembski looks at the ways physicist John Archibald Wheeler (1911–2008, pictured) changed our understanding of reality. What did Wheeler, an early atomic bomb theorist who coined the terms “black hole” and “wormhole,” get right? What did he get wrong? Wheeler is probably best known for a catchphrase, “it from bit,” introduced in a 1989 paper where he explains, It from bit symbolises the idea that every item of the physical world has at bottom — at a very deep bottom, in most instances — an immaterial source and explanation; that what we call reality arises in the Read More ›

Artificial Intelligence. Composition on the subject of Future Technologies. 3d rendered graphics.

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post

News
Date
October 23, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
Analog computers, Big Data, Charles Sanders Peirce, Featured, Gaming AI (book), Gary Smith, George Dyson, George Gilder, Interpretant, John Archibald Wheeler, Map vs. territory, Microcosm (book), Quantum Computing, Quantum Zeno effect, Robert J. Marks}

Why AI Geniuses Haven’t Created True Thinking Machines

_{The problems have been hinting at themselves all along} _{News
October 23, 2020

7

Artificial Intelligence}

As we saw yesterday, artificial intelligence (AI) has enjoyed a a string of unbroken successes against humans. But these are successes in games where the map is the territory. Therefore, everything is computable. That fact hints at the problem tech philosopher and futurist George Gilder raises in Gaming AI (free download here). Whether all human activities can be treated that way successfully is an entirely different question. As Gilder puts it, “AI is a system built on the foundations of computer logic, and when Silicon Valley’s AI theorists push the logic of their case to a “singularity,” they defy the most crucial findings of twentieth-century mathematics and computer science.” Here is one of the crucial findings they defy (or ignore): Read More ›

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post

News
Date
August 1, 2019

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
___longform, Christof Koch, David Chalmers, Featured, Giulio Tonioni, Gregory Matloff, John Archibald Wheeler, Panpsychism, Philip Goff, Roger Penrose}

Why Some Scientists Believe the Universe Is Conscious

_{They’re not mystics. But materialism is not giving good answers so they are looking around} _{News
August 1, 2019

8

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

These prominent thinkers are driven to panpsychism because materialism about the mind doesn’t really work. So if panpsychism ends up seeming absurd, dualism—there really is an immaterial world—is also worth considering.