Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

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an-ape-observes-the-apocalyptic-city-after-a-human-disaster-stockpack-adobe-stock
An ape observes the apocalyptic city after a human disaster

Hurry Up, Let Me Evolve Already

A review of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
The film, in keeping with the previous three in the series, is smart, exciting, and provocative. It forces the viewer to confront what it really means to be human. Read More ›
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Data reflecting on eyeglasses on man's face. Computrer programmer big data and ux designer concept

AI’s Illusion of Rapid Progress

It always seems to be on the verge of perfection
Too many people are extrapolating from the systems that are purportedly automated, even though they aren’t yet working properly. Read More ›
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Comparison. Portrait of beautiful woman with problem and clean skin, aging and youth concept, beauty treatment

Anti-Aging: Is it Possible or a Pipe Dream?

A brand-new video on the topic of anti-aging technologies from the 2023 COSM conference

The Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence is pleased to be able to share the videos from the 2023 COSM conference, now available on YouTube. This annual conference explores the status and the future of our era-defining technologies, from artificial intelligence to electric vehicles to new developments in biotech. Today’s video features a discussion on anti-aging, and whether this is even a possibility. Matt Scholz, CEO of Oisin Biotechnologies, leads a discussion with Vered Caplan, CEO of Orgenesis, and Elena Sergeeva, Neuroscientist at Tufts and Harvard and co-founder of Tiamat Labs, about anti-aging biotechnologies — how genetic reprogramming of cells could negate the effects of aging and even allow a person to stay in perfect health indefinitely, essentially Read More ›

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Titanic at Belfast. Date: 1912

The Titan and the Titanic: Bookends of Progressivism

Nature, despite all our technological innovations, remains extremely powerful

I read, with great sadness, of the wreck of the Titan. There were, undoubtedly, technical reasons why this submersible, carrying five human souls, broke up, lying now in the same graveyard as the Titanic. We pray that the impacted families might find peace in this moment—and in the coming times when lawsuits are filed, and horrible things are spoken about their loved ones. There is a great lesson to learn from this disaster—not the obvious lessons about the all-to-human failings of individual engineers or managers. The lesson we take from this should be broader. We should learn a lesson about man’s confidence in his own abilities, in our ability to overcome nature, and in a certain kind of progress. The Read More ›

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Catch the star. A person is standing next to the Milky Way galaxy pointing on a bright star.

A Return to the Reality of the Soul

Materialism has depersonalized the universe, but the evidence for the soul remains

Contemporary Western culture is disillusioned. Under the mainstream narrative of materialism, moderns struggle to connect their lives with a transcendent meaning beyond the self. In the United States, we enjoy a level of privilege and wealth foreign to the majority of prior generations, and yet we see “deaths of despair,” frightening rates of anxiety and depression, and heightened political tensions. None of this is news to you, I’m guessing. I’ve personally written a variation of that paragraph in other articles a number of times. The question behind our collective disillusionment is, frankly, why? Why do we struggle to make something of our lives? Why do we enjoy technological and scientific progress but lack the moral and cultural means to enjoy Read More ›