TagRobert J. Marks
Methodological Naturalism: Neutral Principle or Self-Refuting Philosophy?
In this episode, hosts Robert J. Marks and Angus Menuge interview Dr. Robert Larmer about his chapter on methodological naturalism in the recently published volume Minding the Brain. Larmer explains that methodological naturalism is the assumption that when pursuing knowledge, one must always posit a physical cause and never appeal to a non-physical cause. Larmer argues that methodological naturalism is not Read More ›
Pink Dancing Hippos: Don’t Tell ChatGPT-4 Not to do Something
Can OpenAI fix this flaw in GPT4? Absolutely. Time will tell if they do or not.Can AI Ever Be Sentient? A Conversation with Blake Lemoine
AI can mimic sentience, but can it ever be sentient? On this episode, we return to our conversation with former Google engineer Blake Lemoine. Host Robert J. Marks has a lively back and forth with Lemoine, who made national headlines when, as an employee of Google, he claimed that Google’s AI software, dubbed LaMDA, might be sentient. Lemoine recounts his experience at Google and Read More ›
AI and Wall Street’s Hype Curve
Almost all new tech has a hype curve. Here are the stages.Is Your Mind Bigger Than the Universe? Well, Look At It This Way…
Surprisingly, there is a way to measure the mind that shows it IS bigger than the universe — informationImagine you’re sitting at home, relaxing in your favorite easy chair. Go on, kick your legs up. Feel your limbs releasing the stress of the day, starting from the extremities, and progressing up your core to your head. Now, let your mind expand. Let go of what is holding your mind down. Feel it become free, outside of everything around it. Let the feeling continue until your mind is bigger than the universe. Now consider the question: if your mind is bigger than the universe, can it be within the universe? If a ball is bigger than a bag, can it be contained by the bag? Of course not. If the mind is bigger than the universe, then it must Read More ›
Beyond the Physical: Embracing an Idealistic Worldview
In this episode of the Mind Matters Podcast, Hosts Robert J. Marks and Brian Krouse conclude their discussion with Dr. Doug Axe about idealism. They explore the question of where the mind exists in an idealistic worldview and how it differs from physicalism and substance dualism. They also discuss the implications of idealism for various scientific fields, such as neuroscience Read More ›
From Material to Mind: Understanding Idealism
In this episode of the Mind Matters News podcast, host Robert J. Marks and co-host Brian Krouse continue their discussion of idealism with Dr. Doug Axe. In his chapter on the topic for the recent volume Minding the Brain, Axe presents four conundrums that support the move away from physicalism and dualism towards idealism. Axe discusses these conundrums with Marks and Krouse. The Read More ›
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 MattersGregory Chaitin has been busy recently. He has produced two new short books, which can be downloaded free: Building the World out of Information and Computation (2021), which he summarizes as According to Pythagoras: All is Number, God is a Mathematician. Modern physics is in fact based on continuous mathematics, dierential and partial dierential equations, validating Pythagoras’ vision. In this essay we shall instead discuss a neo-Pythagorean ontology: All is Algorithm, God is a Programmer. In other words, can there be discrete computational models of the physical world? This is sometimes referred to as digital philosophy. There are in fact two books on digital philosophy, both in Italian: • Ugo Pagallo, Introduction to Digital Philosophy, from Leibniz to Chaitin • Read More ›
Napster, Spotify, and AI: How Will AI Escape Copyright Woes?
Robert J. Marks on AI and learning from past copyright cases.Copyright lawsuits are abounding against generative AI. Since the advent of ChatGPT in late 2022, various companies, artists, and writers have raised concerns over AI’s plagiaristic tendencies. Robert J. Marks, host of the Mind Matters podcast, has the story over at Newsmax. Marks recalls the debacle of Napster, a music streaming service that provided music for “free” without payment to the artists. Not surprisingly, it was soon shut down. So how will it fare with generative AI? What’s the solution to all the impending legal woes in the realm of AI? Marks writes, Today’s Spotify keeps automatic records of song frequency and, from subscriber’s payments, distributes royalties accordingly. Similar methods could be applied to compensate content creators by generative AI. It’s not Read More ›
Robert J. Marks on the Copyright Lawsuits Against the Chatbots
Essentially, the salad of material that the chatbot produces for users contains thousands of ingredients lifted without compensation from copyright holdersWalter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks published an article today at Newsmax on the swamp of litigation the chatbot developers are finding themselves in. Both the New York Times and Authors’ Guild are suing OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT for copyright infringement. Artists are suing generative AI firms. Essentially, the salad of material that the chatbot produces for users contains thousands of ingredients lifted without compensation from copyright holders. Marks, a Distinguished Professor of Engineering at Baylor University, points to the fate of Napster, an online music service that tried something similar at the turn of the millennium: It revolutionized the way people shared and downloaded music over the internet and allowed users to connect their computers to share Read More ›
Unpacking Idealism: Animals and Consciousness
In this episode, co-hosts Robert J. Marks and Brian R. Krouse continue to discuss the concept of idealism with guest Dr. Doug Axe. The topic this time is idealism and its implications for animals and quantum mechanics. Idealism suggests that reality consists of thinkers and their thoughts, with physical objects perhaps being the thoughts of God. When it comes to Read More ›
Robert J. Marks to speak at Big Sky Conference in Billings, Montana
He will focus on the way in which, while AI offers exciting possibilities, many claims for AI are provably overblownWalter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks will be speaking in Billings, Montana, at the Big Sky Conference, “Artificial Intelligence and Transhumanism: Unraveling Science from an Ideology Driven Agenda” held January 26–27, 2024, at Emmanuel Baptist Church Gym. His topic will be “Artificial Intelligence, Transhumanism, and Our Future.” Dr. Marks is also a distinguished professor of engineering at Baylor University and the author of, among many other works, Non-Computable You: What You Do That Artificial Intelligence Never Will (Discovery Institute Press, 2022), a defense of human uniqueness in the age of artificial intelligence. He will focus on the way in which, while AI offers exciting possibilities, many claims for AI are provably overblown and there are some powers AI will Read More ›
ChatGPT: You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby
Reviewing the bot's progress (and problems) from over the last yearChatGPT is an example of “large language model” (LLM) generative artificial intelligence. LLMs like ChatGPT[i] have come a long way this year. Many writers, including me, have previously identified hurdles thought too high for AI to jump in the near future. In some cases, we were wrong. Let’s review some of these claims and see how LLM’s have broken through. Can ChatGPT write jokes? Like Commander Data on Star Trek, AI doesn’t understand humor. Joke writing is hit-or-miss with ChatGPT. I wrote about this in May 2023 where I became impressed with ChatGPT’s hits. I started all my joke writing queries with: “Complete the following to make it funny.” Here are some of the more jocular responses with Q for Read More ›
Can AI Write Screenplays for Films You’d Want to See?
That issue was the heart of the Hollywood writers’ strike. How was it resolved? Or WAS it resolved?Spanish model agency owner Rubén Cruz was having a tough time recruiting models so he created one. They created Aitana, an exuberant 25-year-old pink-haired woman from Barcelona whose physical appearance is close to perfection. The virtual model can earn up to € 10,000 a month, according to her creator, but the average is around € 3,000. “We did it so that we could make a better living and not be dependent on other people who have egos, who have manias, or who just want to make a lot of money by posing,” said Cruz. Laura Llach, “Meet the first Spanish AI model earning up to €10,000 per month,” EuroNews, December 2, 2023 Aitana doesn’t look quite real, of course, but Read More ›
Hope & Energy: Empowering Haiti Through Appropriate Technology
In the fall of 2022, the country of Haiti was facing a fuel and energy crisis, and in the intervening months, the situation has unfortunately not improved. In this episode of Mind Matters from the archive, host Robert J. Marks interviews Brian Thomas and Kayla Garrett from JustEnergy, a nonprofit organization that works in Haiti to provide solar energy systems Read More ›
Marks: AI Creating More AI Equals Nonsense
AI "inbreeding" will always lead to model collapse.After You Die: Near-Death Experiences With Glimpses of Heaven and Hell
Can near-death experiences provide evidence that the mind is greater than the brain? On today’s episode from the archive, host Robert J. Marks interviews Walter Bradley about near-death experiences. Dr. Bradley discusses the mind-body problem and delves into near-death experiences, including common threads, stand-out examples, and even some discussion of near-death experiences in the ancient world. Near-death experiences have gained Read More ›
Minding the Brain: Unraveling the Mystery of Consciousness
Are the mind and brain distinct? What is the connection between our physical brain and our mental thinking? On today’s episode, podcaster Pat Flynn concludes his conversation with the editors of the new book Minding the Brain: Models of the Mind, Information, and Empirical Science. After discussing an overview of the philosophy of mind and the range of physicalist perspectives in previous Read More ›
So AI is “Slightly Conscious” Now?
The AI optimists can't get away from the problem of consciousness.The idea that artificial intelligence could ever become actually “intelligent” is a minority view, but it’s espoused by some brilliant minds, including Jason Lemoine, an ex-Google employee who claimed the company’s developing AI system was sentient. Lemoine isn’t alone. According to Futurism, OpenAI’s top researcher, Ilya Sutskever, claimed in a Tweet this week that “large neural networks are slightly conscious.” Noor Al-Sibai writes, He’s long been preoccupied with artificial general intelligence, or AGI, which would refer to AI that operates at a human or superhuman level. During his appearance in the AI documentary “iHuman,” for instance, he even declared that that AGIs will “solve all the problems that we have today” before warning that they will also present “the potential to create Read More ›