^TagWesley J. Smith

Stained glass collage of stores from the Bible

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
September 17, 2023

Categorized
Transhumanism

Tagged
AI, Catholicism, Christianity, First Things, Medievalism, science, transhumanism, Vox, Wesley J. Smith}

AI as Refashioned Religion

_{How AI fits into the transhumanist utopian dream, and where that dream might have come from} _{Peter Biles

September 17, 2023

3

Transhumanism}

You can see it in the discourse surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) over the last year: AI is going to change everything. Some think it’s going to do this for the better. Others think it’s a technological handmaiden for world destruction if its programming goes awry — or worse: AI becomes self-determining and sentient. An insightful article at Vox by Sigal Samuel considers this doomsday/salvific kind of rhetoric and points out that AI developers sound a whole lot like religious priests, prophesying doom, promising salvation, warning the populace to heed the coming armageddon. He writes, These technologists propose cheating death by uploading our minds to the cloud, where we can live digitally for all eternity. They talk about AI as a Read More ›

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post

Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
September 7, 2023

Categorized
Technocracy

Tagged
Assisted Suicide, bioethics, Doctors, Freedom, healthcare, Medicine, Technocracy, Wesley J. Smith}

The Technocracy Continues to Grow

_{We live in a time where individual freedom is under material threat from an emerging technocracy} _{Wesley J. Smith

September 7, 2023

6

Technocracy}

Readers may recall two cases from the UK: Alfie Evans and Charlie Gard, infants with catastrophic illnesses whom the courts did not allow to be taken out of their hospitals — as desired by their parents — to receive treatment elsewhere. Now, also in the UK, a conscious and capable 19-year-old patient, referred to in legal documents as “ST,” with an apparent terminal disease has been told by a court that she can’t decide to continue life-extending treatment after the hospital sued to be able to move her to palliative care against her will. From the legal ruling involving the National Health Service Trust (emphasis added): The Trust’s case is that ST is “actively dying”. It became clear during the course of the oral evidence I heard Read More ›

injecting injection vaccine vaccination medicine flu woman docto

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post

Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
September 3, 2023

Categorized
Medicine and Health

Tagged
COVID 19 censorship, Heterodoxy, Medicine, National Review, science, transgenderism, Wesley J. Smith}

We Need to Keep Medicine “Evidence-Based”

_{A new approach seems to be arriving — so-called science-based medicine. What is the difference?} _{Wesley J. Smith

September 3, 2023

7

Medicine and Health}

We supposedly live in an era of “evidence-based medicine,” in which medical decisions are guided by the published data. But that approach is now being criticized because the “best evidence” is often in the eye of the beholder. A new approach seems to be arriving — so-called science-based medicine. What is the difference? It seems more than a mere shift in terminology, in that science-based medicine would allow fewer heterodox approaches than permitted by the evidence-based model. A new advocacy article, “Evidence-Based Medicine Is Broken but Science-Based Medicine Can Fix It,” published by the American Council on Science and Health (which claims to debunk “junk” in medicine), explains (emphasis in the original): The idea of evidence-based medicine has been around since Read More ›

Tourists at Prague Old Town Square, large group of people gathered at the street looking up towards the camera.

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
September 2, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
Amazon, Andy Crouch, Down Syndrome, Google, Meta, Netflix, The Lord of the Rings, The Social Dilemma, Trisomy 21, Wesley J. Smith}

The Life We’re Looking For: A Book Review

_{Andy Crouch's book on technology and human flourishing calls us to resist the urge to control and open ourselves up to deep relationships} _{Peter Biles

September 2, 2023

5

Arts & Culture}

Every so often a book comes along that puts a finger on the cultural moment in a way that directs, elucidates, convicts, and encourages. Andy Crouch’s book The Life We’re Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World is one such book, and has shaped the way I view technology, human nature, and the centrality of vulnerable relationships to a life well lived. As implied in the title, the book contains pertinent themes to the concerns of Mind Matters: how do we hold on to human uniqueness in the midst of technological change and upheaval? The question is arguably as dire as ever with the emergence of impressive new AI systems like ChatGPT and Midjourney, which pose possibilities as tools Read More ›

Laboratory technician checking CDC specimen submitting form, laboratory testing for SARS-CoV-2 COVID-19 Coronavirus disease infection,global pandemic crisis,swab collection patient specimen procedure

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post

Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
August 21, 2023

Categorized
Medicine and Health

Tagged
Assisted Suicide, CDC, Euthanasia, Health, Statistics, suicide, The National Review, Wesley J. Smith}

CDC Neglects to Include Assisted Deaths in Official Suicide Report

_{Assisted dying is a form of suicide, regardless of the ways our culture has euphemized the term} _{Wesley J. Smith

August 21, 2023

2

Medicine and Health}

2021 was among the worst years ever for suicides in the U.S., with 2022 looking to have been even worse. According to the CDC, in 2021, 48,183 people killed themselves. That number is projected to increase to 49,449 for 2022 once the data are tabulated. That’s a terrible tragedy. But it is even worse than that because assisted suicides are not included in the suicide statistics. Why? Because the laws legalizing assisted suicide in most states — which is euphemistically referred to as “medical aid in dying” (MAID) or “death with dignity” — redefine a doctor-prescribed overdose as other than what it is: suicide. Indeed, most of these laws require doctors to lie about the actual cause as the underlying disease Read More ›

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post

Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
July 12, 2023

Categorized
Ethics, Medicine and Health

Tagged
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Assisted Suicide, Canada, CBC, Euthanasia, Medicine, Ontario, Wesley J. Smith}

Patients Opting for Euthanasia in the Face of Painful Circumstances

_{Receiving assistance takes a long time. But to be made dead? Not so much.} _{Wesley J. Smith

July 12, 2023

3

Ethics, Medicine and Health}

So much compassion! A disabled woman with quadriplegia named Rose Finlay in Canada has asked to be euthanized because she is destitute, and the disability benefits she applied for would not arrive in time for her to be properly housed and cared for. From the CBC story: A quadriplegic woman in Bowmanville, Ont., has applied for medical assistance in dying (MAID), saying it’s easier to access than the support services she needs to live her life comfortably. Receiving assistance takes a long time. But to be made dead? Not so much: The single mother of three boys previously supported her family with earnings from disability advocacy work through her company, Inclusive Solutions. That’s also how she could afford to hire her own support Read More ›

equipment and medical devices in modern operating room

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post

Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
June 22, 2023

Categorized
Ethics

Tagged
bioethics, Canada and Euthanasia, Daily Mail, Euthanasia, Hippocratic Oath, Medical Ethics, National Review, Quebec, Wesley J. Smith}

Medical Association is “Neutral” on Assisted Suicide

_{This is a matter of the gravest ethical concern} _{Wesley J. Smith

June 22, 2023

3

Ethics}

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 ›

Beauty injection concept. Syringe with violet liquid for hypodermic injection.

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post

Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
June 12, 2023

Categorized
Medicine and Health

Tagged
Assisted Suicide, bioethics, Culture War, Depression, Euthanasia, Legislation, mental health, Politics, Portugal, suicide, Wesley J. Smith, Western Culture}

This Country Just Legalized Euthanasia

_{The law isn't even limited to those who are terminally ill} _{Wesley J. Smith

June 12, 2023

2

Medicine and Health}

Alas. The president of Portugal just signed into law a bill legalizing euthanasia by lethal injection. It is not limited to the terminally ill — which is at least honest, since that is not what euthanasia/assisted suicide is really all about. From the Reuters story: The law specifies that people would be allowed to request assistance in dying in cases when they are “in a situation of intense suffering, with definitive injury of extreme gravity or serious and incurable disease.” It establishes a two-month gap between accepting a request and the actual procedure and makes psychological support mandatory. Strict guidelines and all that jazz. Not only are they unlikely to be strictly enforced but will soon be redefined from protections to barriers, Read More ›

Reflection of mountain range in lake, Grand Teton National Park

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post

Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
May 31, 2023

Categorized
Panpsychism, Science

Tagged
Environmentalism, Human exceptionalism, Law, Nature, Nature Rights, Panpsychism, Politics, science, Wesley J. Smith}

Should We Give Nature “Rights”?

_{The nature rights movement is more ideological than rational} _{Wesley J. Smith

May 31, 2023

5

Panpsychism, Science}

The major science journals are growing increasingly hard left politically. The prestigious journal Science, in particular, has swallowed progressive ideology–including supporting the “nature rights” movement. The rights of nature–which include geological features–are generally defined as the right to “exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution.” Nature is, of course, not sentient. So, this campaign is really about granting environmental extremists legal standing to enforce their policy desires through litigation as legal guardians serving nature’s best interests. But the movement has a problem. It is clearly ideological rather than rational. So now, three law professors and a biologist writing in Science urge scientists to promote the agenda by giving courts a scientific pretext to enforce nature rights laws, or even, impose the Read More ›

Doctor hand holding a stethoscope listening to heartbeat

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post

Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
May 21, 2023

Categorized
Ethics

Tagged
bioethics, Canada, Euthanasia, Health Care, Medical Ethics, The Corner, Wesley J. Smith}

“Harm Reduction” is Euthanasia’s New Euphemism

_{Bioethics is growing increasingly monstrous. And that matters.} _{Wesley J. Smith

May 21, 2023

5

Ethics}

Once killing the sufferer becomes a societally acceptable means for ending suffering, there is no end to the “suffering” that justifies human termination. We can see this phenomenon most vividly in Canada, because it is happening there more quickly than in most cultures. For example, a recent poll found that 27 percent of Canadians polled strongly or moderately agree that euthanasia is acceptable for suffering caused by “poverty” and 28 percent strongly or moderately agree that killing by doctors is acceptable for suffering caused by homelessness. I can’t imagine that being true ten years ago before euthanasia became legal. Euthanasia mutates a society’s soul. Killing as “Harm Reduction” This kind of abandonment thinking finds enthusiastic, albeit not unanimous, expression among secular bioethicists. In fact, two Canadian bioethicists just Read More ›

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post

Author
News
Date
May 11, 2023

Categorized
Economics

Tagged
Cato Institute, Climate change, Discovery Institute, Doomsday, economics, Human exceptionalism, Population growth, Scarcity, superabundance, Wesley J. Smith}

Gale Pooley on the Humanize Podcast

_{Are we really living on a dying planet?} _{News

May 11, 2023

2

Economics}

Are we living on a dying planet? Are the doomsday prophecies of scarcity and widespread starvation due to population growth real? It’s the mainstream assumption, parroted by a number of influential voices. But not everything has taken the bait. Dr. Gale L. Pooley, senior fellow at Discovery Institute’s Center on Wealth & Poverty and co-author of the groundbreaking 2022 book Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing, talked with Wesley J. Smith on the Humanize podcast on his work in economics and the ideas behind the book. Pooley co-wrote Superabundance with Marian Tupy of the Cato Institute. Smith and Pooley enjoyed a conversation pushing back against the widespread pessimism that is inherent in the scarcity narrative. Their Read More ›

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post

Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
May 9, 2023

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Ethics

Tagged
Abortion, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Consciousness, Human exceptionalism, infanticide, Moral value, National Review, Peter Singer, Princeton, transhumanism, Wesley J. Smith}

Abortion: Switching Off a Computer?

_{This is the kind of thinking that results from rejecting the intrinsic moral value of human life} _{Wesley J. Smith

May 9, 2023

3

Artificial Intelligence, Ethics}

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 ›

A room with round glass window overlooking beautiful landscape background . Hotel futuristic showroom with modern interior . Sublime Generative AI image .

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post

Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
April 10, 2023

Categorized
Transhumanism

Tagged
Artificial Intelligence, Atheism, Christianity, Easter, Eastern Orthodox, Materialism, Nihilism, religion, Technology, transhumanism, Wesley J. Smith, Wesley J. Smith on transhumanism}

Transhumanism’s Vain Search for Immortality

_{Transhumanism promotes its own defeat-of-death eschatology} _{Wesley J. Smith

April 10, 2023

2

Transhumanism}

April 9th was Easter Sunday for the Western churches. Next Sunday, for Eastern Orthodox churches. For believing Christians, whether Eastern or Western, celebrating Christ’s Resurrection joyfully commemorates the permanent defeat of death and entrance into eternal life. Transhumanism, which is a quasi-religion that worships at the altar of technology, promotes its own defeat-of-death eschatology. Instead of the New Jerusalem for which Christians yearn, transhumanists hope to live indefinitely — if not forever — in the corporeal world through the wonders of AI and other human-invented methods of technologically defeating death. And it could be here by 2050! From the Daily Mail story: Despite the setback, that same year, a prominent futurist predicted that ‘electronic immortality’ would be available to humans by 2050. Dr Read More ›

View of the Great Salt Lake at sunset, at Antelope Island State Park, Utah

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post

Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
March 30, 2023

Categorized
Human exceptionalism, Panpsychism

Tagged
Consciousness, Conservation, Great Salt Lake, Mysticism, Nature, Nature Rights, New York Times, Panpsychism, Terry Tempest Williams, Wesley J. Smith}

Should Great Salt Lake Have Rights?

_{The nature rights movement keeps making inroads into establishment thinking — and people keep ignoring the threat} _{Wesley J. Smith

March 30, 2023

5

Human exceptionalism, Panpsychism}

The nature rights movement keeps making inroads into establishment thinking — and people keep ignoring the threat. The concept has now been advocated in a major opinion piece in the New York Times. Utah’s Great Salt Lake is shrinking — a legitimate problem worthy of focused concern and remediation. Utah native and Harvard Divinity School’s writer-in-residence Terry Tempest Williams — who focuses on “the spiritual implications of climate change” — makes a strong case that the lake is in trouble. A Conservationist Approach Her proposed remedies reflect a proper conservationist approach worthy of being debated: Scientists tell us the lake needs an additional one million acre-feet per year to reverse its decline, increasing average stream flow to about 2.5 million acre-feet per year. A Read More ›

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post

Author
News
Date
March 1, 2023

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, Arts & Culture, Culture, Dean Koontz, fiction, Modernity, transhumanism, Wesley J. Smith}

Wesley J. Smith on Why You Should Read Dean Koontz

_{The bestselling novelist's work is both entertaining and profoundly insightful into our cultural moment} _{News

March 1, 2023

2

Arts & Culture}

Wesley J. Smith, Chair of Discovery Institute’s Center for Human Exceptionalism, wrote an article praising the prolific literature of his friend Dean Koontz, whose books have sold more than 500 million copies worldwide. Smith finds Koontz both a unique writer and a remarkable person with a powerful story of redemption. Born in poverty in Pennsylvania under the hand of an abusive father, Koontz persevered and pursued novel writing with the help of his wife’s encouragement. The rest is history. Through daily discipline, keen research, and profound imagination, Koontz has written dozens of bestsellers. First and foremost, his books entertain and delight. In addition, however, they deliver their fair share of social commentary and critique. Much of his work explores the Read More ›

Programming code script abstract screen of software developer.

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post

Author
News
Date
December 9, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Alexander Lukashenko, Algorithms, Computers as persons, Featured, Non-Computable You (book), Robert J. Marks, Wesley J. Smith}

Computers Are Not Persons Because Computing Is Not Thinking

_{Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks discusses the issues with human dignity advocate Wesley J. Smith} _{News

December 9, 2022

5

Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

Recently, Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks interviewed human dignity advocate Wesley J. Smith on the seeming science fiction question of “Can a computer be a person?” (November 10, 2022, podcast 212): https://mindmatters.ai/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/Mind-Matters-212-Robert-Marks.mp3 Here are a couple of highlights: About Alexa: Wesley J. Smith: I was going to ask you about Alexa because she may come on in behind me. Of course, she’s not a she. That’s just a female-sounding voice. But I can ask, we’ll call her A, so she doesn’t come on, what time it is and she’ll tell me immediately. I can tell her to play certain music and she’ll play it immediately. How does that operate? I mean, she’s not… That program is not intelligent, Read More ›

Evil robot, glowing lights, shiny metalic parts

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post

Author
News
Date
November 19, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Common sense and AI, Computers and irrationality, Featured, Non-Computable You (book), Robert J. Marks, Wesley J. Smith, Winograd Schema (and common sense)}

So, Can a Computer Really Be Irrational?

_{Computer prof Robert J. Marks tells Wesley J. Smith: No, and here’s why … from his experience} _{News

November 19, 2022

4

Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

In a recent episode at Mind Matters News podcasting, “Can a computer be a person?” (November 10, 2022), Robert J. Marks and Wesley J. Smith discussed that in connection with Marks’s new book, Non-Computable You: https://mindmatters.ai/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/Mind-Matters-212-Robert-Marks.mp3 Some excerpts: Wesley J. Smith: Let me ask the question in a different way. Can an AI ever be irrational? Robert J. Marks: Yes. Irrational in the sense of being irrational from the point of an observer. A classic example, and this happened a number of years ago, was that the Soviets during the Cold War developed a high technology to decide whether the US was being attacked by… I’m sorry, whether the Soviet Union was being attacked by the United States. And so Read More ›

A salesperson working in an office on a virtual call

^{Type
podcast

Author
Wesley J. Smith and Robert J. Marks
Date
November 10, 2022

Tagged
AI, Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, Computers, Consciousness, Humanize, immortality, Non-Computable You (book), Robert J. Marks, Sentience, transhumanism, Wesley J. Smith}

Can a Computer Be a Person?

_{Wesley J. Smith and Robert J. Marks

November 10, 2022

1}

Are we on the verge of the era of machines? Is AI destined to supplant most human endeavors and activities? Can a computer be deemed a person? And if so, should that computer be granted rights as part of the moral community? Will we ever attain immortality by uploading our minds into computers as transhumanists predict? And what the heck 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

Author
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 ›

^{Type
post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
September 16, 2022

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Human exceptionalism

Tagged
Animal rights, Christianity, Creativity, Dean Koontz, Dogs, Human exceptionalism, Human rights, transhumanism, Wesley J. Smith, Wesley J. Smith on transhumanism}

Human Exceptionalism is a Central Theme for Novelist Dean Koontz

_{Bestselling author Dean Koontz talks fiction, human exceptionalism, and transhumanism with Wesley J. Smith in new podcast episode (Part II)} _{Peter Biles

September 16, 2022

6

Arts & Culture, Human exceptionalism}

In Part I of this two-part series, we looked at Dean Koontz’s remarks on the purpose of art and the unique role of the novelist in today’s “everything is political” environment. But that’s not all he and Smith discussed on the Humanize Podcast on September 12th. Both had a lot to say about human exceptionalism, authoritarianism, and also…dogs! Koontz spoke about his love for the pups at the end of the episode, but first, discussed how the “animal rights” movement has gone wrong, and how a materialistic worldview can lead to despair. Smith commented how human exceptionalism is a central theme in Koontz’s novels and asked the reason, to which Koontz responded, “There’s no civilization if we don’t recognize Read More ›