TagThomas Nagel
Can a Materialist Consciousness Theory Survive Quantum Mechanics?
Quantum mechanics requires that the observer be part of the measurement; thus quantum measurements must include consciousness
Plants Help Each Other. Are They Self-Aware? Can They Suffer?
Recent discoveries that plants can do many things that we used to think only animals could do raise some interesting questionsIn recent decades, we have learned that plants are much more like animals in their use of information than earlier thought. They have nervous systems that use glutamate to speed transmission, as mammals do. And seeking to thrive and grow, they communicate extensively. Recently, environmental journalist Richard Schiffman interviewed forest ecologist Suzanne Simard, author of the just-released Finding the Mother Tree on the intelligence of trees: You also found that birches give sugars to fir trees in the summer through the mycorrhizal networks and that firs return the favor by sending food to birches in the spring and fall, when the birches lack leaves. Isn’t that cool? Some scientists were having trouble with this: Why would a tree send photosynthetic Read More ›
A Physicist and Philosopher Examines Panpsychism
Idealism says everything is an idea in the mind of God. Panpsychism says everything participates in consciousness (thus is not just an idea)
Why Would a Neuroscientist Choose Panpsychism Over Materialism?
It seems to have come down to a choice between “nothing is conscious” and “everything is conscious”
Do Bacteria Warn Others While Dying from Antibiotics?
Scientists are learning more about the complex ways bacteria overcome efforts to control themThat’s what we learn from a new open-access paper in Nature titled “Dead cells release a ‘necrosignal’ that activates antibiotic survival pathways in bacterial swarms.” It’s sometimes described as “screams,” but it’s actually a release of chemicals, which amounts to the same thing: a warning to prepare for an onslaught of antibiotics. The scientists also noted another curious factor: The cascade of genes turned on by necrosignals not only protected the surviving swarm from antibiotics, but promoted future resistance to the compounds that killed their comrades. What’s more, the scientists realized that subpopulations of swarm bacteria were genetically variable; some were more susceptible to the antibiotics than others. Swarms of bacteria may collectively cultivate different subpopulations as an evolutionary survival Read More ›
