^TagWesley J. Smith

^{Type
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 ›

^{Type
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 .

^{Type
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

^{Type
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 ›

^{Type
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.

^{Type
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

^{Type
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

^{Type
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 ›

Powerful Personal Computer Gamer Rig with First-Person Shooter Game on Screen. Monitor Stands on the Table at Home. Cozy Room with Modern Design is Lit with Pink Neon Light.

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
January 20, 2022

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Ethics

Tagged
AI characters (ethical status), gaming (and AI characters), Richard A. Bartle, Wesley J. Smith}

Do AI Entities in Virtual Worlds Have Rights?

_{A professor of game designing argues that they do; Wesley J. Smith disagrees} _{News

January 20, 2022

3

Artificial Intelligence, Ethics}

Pointing to an article at The Conversation, “How to be a god: we might one day create virtual worlds with characters as intelligent as ourselves,” Wesley J. Smith offers, We have enough problems with attaining universal human rights, but activists want animals and “nature” to have human-type rights. Transhumanists and futurists also worry about guaranteeing rights for AI technologies when they attain “consciousness.” The latest example comes in The Conversation from a professor of game designing — who knew that was an academic discipline? — named Richard A. Bartle, at the University of Essex. He believes that “we may one day create virtual worlds with creatures as intelligent as ourselves.” From, “How to Be a God“: “I believe we will Read More ›