Tag: Reality

Exploring the Building Blocks of Nature - A Visual Representation of Atom and Molecule in Scientific Research

^{Type
podcast

Bruce Gordon and Michael Egnor
Date
May 23, 2024

Tagged
Idealism, Quantum Mechanics, Reality}

Bruce Gordon: Idealism, Quantum Mechanics, and the Fundamentality of Mind

_{Bruce Gordon and Michael Egnor
May 23, 2024

1}

Does quantum mechanics, properly understood, point to the fundamentality of mind in the universe? In this episode, Michael Egnor concludes a conversation with philosopher of physics Bruce Gordon about the relationship between idealism and quantum mechanics. Gordon argues that quantum mechanics points to mind as the fundamental unit of the universe, as it is irreducibly probabilistic and exhibits non-local phenomena. He Read More ›

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podcast

Pat Flynn and Selmer Bringsjord
Date
May 2, 2024

Tagged
Minding the Brain, Reality}

From Math to Mind: Uncovering the Immaterial Nature of Reality

_{Pat Flynn and Selmer Bringsjord
May 2, 2024

1}

If mathematical objects are immaterial, does that mean aspects of human beings are too? On this episode, host Pat Flynn concludes his three-part discussion with Dr. Selmer Bringsjord about his provocative chapter in the recent volume Minding the Brain titled “Mathematical Objects are Non-Physical, so we are too.” They summarize the argument that formal thinking is non-physical and extend this reasoning to Read More ›

Divergence of directions. A wide path in the park is divided into two alleys leading in different directions in the rays of sunset.

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post

Michael Egnor
Date
November 9, 2023

Categorized
Free will

Tagged
Choice, free will, Reality, religion, science}

Why Free Will Denial is Self-Refuting

_{If free will deniers are right, their denial of free will is just a biological ink stain.} _{Michael Egnor
November 9, 2023

4

Free will}

Things that are wholly determined by the laws of physics and chemistry aren’t truth claims. They’re just spilled ink. Read More ›

Sad man getting dislikes and being rejected by audience for social addiction ad

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post

News
Date
August 13, 2023

Categorized
Social Media

Tagged
Andrew McDiarmid, Cal Newport, emotions, mental health, New York Post, Reality, social media, Twitter}

The Benefits of Ditching Social Media

_{Tech writer Cal Newport explains why boredom is actually a good thing} _{News
August 13, 2023

2

Social Media}

Cal Newport ascended into the limelight upon his viral Ted Talk in which he called people to ditch social media. In this video from last year, Newport rehashes some of the main benefits of not having social media. Boredom is on the list, interestingly; Newport notes that most people no longer have moments of boredom, and as a consequence, don’t have any space in their lives to reflect, think, and work through their emotions. Andrew McDiarmid, a contributor at Mind Matters, has written on this in the past. He notes, Mind wandering, or stream of consciousness thought, gives us several mental gains, including the ability to consider obstacles to future goals, generate novel, creative thoughts, and place our experiences in meaningful Read More ›

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post

Peter Biles
Date
July 8, 2023

Categorized
Philosophy, Science

Tagged
Materialism, Philosophy, Physicalism, Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Physics, Reality, Stephen Hawking}

Can the Quantum Realm Explain Reality?

_{If we can uncover the smallest quantum particles in nature, will we have uncovered the fundamental secrets of reality?} _{Peter Biles
July 8, 2023

3

Philosophy, Science}

If we can uncover the smallest quantum particles in nature, will we have uncovered the fundamental secrets of reality? A longstanding philosophical tradition in the sciences claims “yes.” Uncovering the mystery of the world lies in the ability to interrogate the smallest of the small. But is that the right way to approach it? What special status does the tiny have over the large? A paper at IAI News by London philosopher Peter West argues that reality can’t in fact be elucidated simply by observing quantum mechanics. He talks in some length about the 17th century text Micrographia by Robert Hooke, which features various images of insects and other organisms under the microscope. West notes that Hooke set the stage, Read More ›

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

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post

Peter Biles
Date
June 3, 2023

Categorized
Philosophy

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence, Human exceptionalism, J.P. Moreland, Materialism, mind-body dualism, Philosophy, Progress, Reality, science, Technology, theology}

A Return to the Reality of the Soul

_{Materialism has depersonalized the universe, but the evidence for the soul remains} _{Peter Biles
June 3, 2023

5

Philosophy}

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 ›

Deepfake deep learning fake news generator modern internet technology concept.

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post

News
Date
May 19, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Crime, Deepfakes, internet, metaverse, Midjourney, OpenAI, Reality, Technology}

“Suddenly There’s No More Reality”

_{The deepfakes and AI scams abound} _{News
May 19, 2023

2

Artificial Intelligence}

With the proliferation of AI text and images, the issue of deepfakes is of deepening concern. The better AI gets at refashioning reality, will the already murky waters of the Internet become too surreal to navigate? Even real videos, when divorced from their proper context, can be deeply misleading. When entire clips are artificially contrived, then, it seems like the line between fact and fiction dissolves entirely. Some folks are already worried. Victor Tangermann writes at Futurism, [Given] recent developments, the situation is likely to get worse before it can get better. AI tools are making it easier to generate deepfakes every year. These days, an AI can be trained on a relatively small stockpile of audiovisual data to convincingly Read More ›

Retro wave, 80s. Old tv with antenna with neon light. Top view, minimalism

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post

Jonathan Bartlett
Date
October 17, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Media

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence, film, media, Reality, TV shows}

The Graying of the Art — and AI — World

_{Why is so much modern media made up of rehashes and remakes?} _{Jonathan Bartlett
October 17, 2022

3

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Media}

The world of popular art (TV, movies, etc.) has a problem. I would even go as far as to label it a crisis. The problem is that the art world is becoming increasingly derivative. There are some points where it is obviously derivative—every movie is a remake, and every TV show is a reboot. We are getting the same stories regurgitated instead of novelty. However, there are also more subtle ways that this is happening. TV comedies work largely by including inside jokes from previous TV shows. One of the most popular writers of the 20th century was Louis L’Amour. What I think made L’Amour’s stories so great is that he could draw from a vast amount of personal experience. He could write about a lot Read More ›

NFT virtual land is an own-able area of digital land on a metaverse platform, NFT real estate is parcels of virtual land minted on the blockchain, conceptual illustration

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post

Peter Biles
Date
October 12, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity, Future, Mark Zuckerberg, Metaverse (living in metaverse), Reality, Robert J. Marks, Technology, Virtual Reality, Wesley J. Smith}

The Danger of Deepfakes (and Deepcake)

_{In a metaverse world dominated by AI, life and art is in danger of being eclipsed} _{Peter Biles
October 12, 2022

4

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other optimistic futurists think the metaverse is our collective future. We will exist in virtual nonexistence. We will eat, shop, worship, communicate, and marry in the metaverse. This is where progress is taking us. So, we’d best go along for the ride if we don’t want to get left behind. But “living” in a metaverse may be much more complicated than you might think. The question of identity, and who has the power to distribute identities at will, haunts the metaverse project, and there doesn’t seem to be an easy solution. In September, a Russian deepfake company called “Deepcake” (the name strangely makes me hungry for dessert) pasted the face of Bruce Willis on a Read More ›

young man working freelance in laptop at home

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post

Stephen Berger
Date
May 19, 2021

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence (AI), Featured, Humanity (essence), intelligence, Machine Learning, ontology, Reality, Universe}

Will Humans Ever Be Fully Replaceable by AI? Part 3

_{Data outlines what can be quantified but does not show the comparison between AI and human performance at the most important points} _{Stephen Berger
May 19, 2021

11

Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Philosophy of Mind}

To get the right answer to the question of whether artificial intelligence will ever become capable of replacing man we must get the ontology, epistemology, and metrology right. Ontology seeks to understand the essential nature of things and the relationships between different things. Epistemology looks at what we can know and how accurately we can know what is knowable. Finally, metrology explores how we make measurements and comparisons. To get the right answer we must measure the right things (ontology), select what we will measure (epistemology), and determine how we make our measurements and comparisons with accuracy, precision, and repeatability (metrology). Mistakes in any of these areas will lead to a bad outcome. A common mistake is to measure what Read More ›

Concept of rivalry between robots and humans

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post

Stephen Berger
Date
May 2, 2021

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
intelligence, ontology, Reality, spirituality, String theory, Universe}

Will Humans Ever Be Fully Replaceable by AI? Part 2

_{Particles and energy can be translated into each other. Might man also be a type of duality, with a natural and a spiritual reality?} _{Stephen Berger
May 2, 2021

7

Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

In Part 1, we looked at the many dimensions to our thinking. Now, we ask, What then is man? Is man simply a complex biological machine that is fully explained by analyzing it in the four dimensions of space and time? Is the brain just a biological computer fully contained in four dimensions? Most of the world’s religions hold that man exists beyond the mere physical. Man has a soul, a spirit; these exist outside of the physical universe. There are characteristics, attributes, and values that are very real and have great impact, but which defy direct observation or quantification. String theory, an active research area in modern physics, requires 10 or 11 dimensions to fully explain what we see Read More ›

At the Factory: Automation Engineer Uses Laptop for Programming Robotic Arm. New Era in Automatic Manufacturing Industry.

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post

Stephen Berger
Date
April 27, 2021

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Philosophy of Mind, Science

Tagged
Dimensions, Humanity (essence), Paul Sutter, Reality, senses, Universe}

Will Humans Ever Be Fully Replaceable by AI? Part 1

_{We must first determine, what is a person and what is the nature of the universe in which a person can exist?} _{Stephen Berger
April 27, 2021

15

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Philosophy of Mind, Science}

The title question has been around for quite some time. In this discussion, I would like to take an ontological look at this question. What is the essential nature of being a person? To fully replace humans, what must AI machines become capable of? IF we want to consider the possibility of making humans obsolete, we need to know what is the essence of humanity? What is the ontological nature of a person? What characteristics define being a person? Even before we can address the essential nature of a person, we must identify the essential nature of the universe in which that person exists. What is the universe? How many dimensions does it have? Can the universe, or in it Read More ›

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post

News
Date
January 3, 2021

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind, Religion

Tagged
J. P. Moreland, Reality}

How Do We Know What Is Real? Philosopher J. P. Moreland Can Help

_{News
January 3, 2021

1

Philosophy of Mind, Religion}

This coming August will mark the beginning of a battle that I began with three different forms of cancer that I continue to this day to be fighting. I don’t know how long I have… When is it okay to disagree with what the majority of experts in a field believe? … I’m going to go with the majority of experts, unless something happens. If there are two conditions present, you are justified in going against the vast majority of experts. Number 1: If the majority opinion is based on non-rational factors If there is a small, educated rebel group who publish in peer-reviewed journals and high quality books who have provided an alternative paradigm. (July 9, 2018) Remember Moreland’s Read More ›