Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

TagNational Review

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Aerial view of coal power plant high pipes with black smoke moving up polluting atmosphere at sunset.

Medical Journal Crosses a Whole New Line

Is blaming commercialism for global warming genuine science? Or just ideology?

The Lancet is at it again. Having previously strived mightily to transform global warming into a planetary health emergency, it has now published a screed attacking “commercialism” for killing the planet. Besides repeating the usual bromides about the need to drastically reduce the use of fossil fuels and transform food production into “regenerative agriculture” — which probably means no more meat — the piece uses the usual politically progressive anti-clarity lexicon that turns the prose of leftist advocacy into impenetrable gobbledygook. From “Climate Change Mitigation: Tackling the Commercial Determinants of Planetary Health Inequity,” by Australian National University’s professor of “health equity” Sharon Friel: Taking this bold mitigation action requires disrupting the consumptogenic system — the system of institutions, actors, multisectoral policies, commercial activities, and norms Read More ›

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Group of people with posters protesting against climate change outdoors, closeup

More Ideological Alarmism in Yet Another Top Journal

Ideology continues to harm the scientific endeavor.
I can’t think of anything more harmful to people’s respect for “science” than hysterical scientists in (say) lab coats. Read More ›
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injecting injection vaccine vaccination medicine flu woman docto

We Need to Keep Medicine “Evidence-Based”

A new approach seems to be arriving — so-called science-based medicine. What is the difference?
Trust must be earned, not imposed. Information gatekeepers can be wrong. The danger of censorship in the name of “science” is growing. Read More ›
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Portrait close up of one young beautiful attractive blonde young girl holding camera and taking selfie picture at the beach enjoying outdoors free time with sunset in the background.

National Review: Let AI Take Over Social Media Influencing

AI influencers are revealing how vapid social media really is

We’ve recently commented on the AI influencer phenomenon, which seems to be taking social media by storm. With advanced AI imaging, more AI influencers are popping up, and they already look comparable to the likes of Kim Kardashian. The social media influencing world depends on primarily women selling their bodies for revenue. Instagram has tended heavily in this direction, and with the advent of OnlyFans, the temptation to flaunt oneself so provocatively is tangible for many. National Review writer Haley Strack thinks that the AI influencer horde will out-compete real-life influencers and eventually rule out the need for humans at all. She writes, Some criticize AI for giving young men another possibly perverse, sexual outlet online — but men who Read More ›

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Shelves with books in a bookstore. Education and development. Blurred. Horizontal photo. A great background for your design.

Don’t Censor Western Books

For thousands of men and women, the Western canon served as a lifeline
Today, people on the Left and Right worship politics. What if more conservatives put their wallets toward culture? Read More ›
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equipment and medical devices in modern operating room

Medical Association is “Neutral” on Assisted Suicide

This is a matter of the gravest ethical concern

How in the world can a medical association be neutral on granting doctors a license to kill or assist the suicide of their patients? This is a matter of the gravest medical ethical concern, an action, remember, that was strictly proscribed 2,500 years ago in the Hippocratic Oath. Utter Cowardice But yield to the pressures of the activists is what the UK’s Royal College of Surgeons has done, in an act of utter cowardice based on a survey answered by only 19 percent of its members. From the Daily Mail story: The Royal College of Surgeons is no longer opposed to assisted dying and is now ‘neutral’, it has been announced. The organisation’s council members voted after discussing survey results, which showed an appetite for change, a Read More ›

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Newborn baby holding mother's hand.

Abortion: Switching Off a Computer?

This is the kind of thinking that results from rejecting the intrinsic moral value of human life

This is the kind of thinking that results from rejecting the intrinsic moral value of human life. Princeton University bioethicist Peter Singer — who is most famous for secularly blessing infanticide — just compared abortion to turning off a computer. He first claims that should an AI ever become “sentient,” turning it off would be akin to killing a being with the highest moral value (which for him, as described below, need not be human). From the Yahoo News story: We asked internationally renowned moral philosopher Professor Peter Singer whether AI should have human rights if it becomes conscious of its own existence. While Professor Singer doesn’t believe the ChatGPT operating system is sentient or self-aware, if this was to change he argues it should be given some moral status. Read More ›

Text Terms and Conditions typed on retro typewriter

The true cost of “free” social media

It’s free but… are we? George Gilder points a way forward.
He thinks that expected massive increases in computing power will enable blockchain technologies that allow users to safely bypass the global data monopoly that Google and similar firms represent. Read More ›