Pew has a number of articles up today showing poll results of Americans' views on end-of-life medical treatments, suicide, and related issues. I have to say that I'm pleasantly surprised to see the enlightened views held by a majority of Americans, most of whom believe it would be acceptable to allow someone in a great deal … Continue reading Views on End-of-Life Medical Treatments | Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project
Month: November 2013
A Society Without Marriage? | Psychology Today
Nigel Barber has a post up discussing a society without marriage, at least as we understand it, and its implications for the future of marriage in western societies. Anthropologists are constantly pointing out that the range of human behavior is vast. Whenever people start thinking they've figured out the human condition, it always pays to … Continue reading A Society Without Marriage? | Psychology Today
Consciousness is in the eye of the beholder
Alan Turing was a pioneer in the field of computer science. One of the things he is famous for is the Turing test. At its core, this is a test about whether or not a machine, a computer, can convince a human that the machine is another human. The details of the specific test that … Continue reading Consciousness is in the eye of the beholder
Countering emotion with logic is often not effective
Massimo Pigliucci posted yesterday: Rationally Speaking: Irrationality, a personal study, his personal frustration in a conversation with a relative who, despite being a fairly rational person, had an emotional aversion to gay marriage. Massimo lamented the difficulty in convincing people to approach things rationally. I think trying to counter emotional positions with logic is a tricky … Continue reading Countering emotion with logic is often not effective
Mystics and/or Atheists
James McGrath, a theologically progressive Christian, has a post up discussing the many varied conceptions of God: Mystics and/or Atheists. As I indicated on another post, the word 'God' can be used to refer to so many things, that it is accurate to say that we are all theists and all atheists in relation to some … Continue reading Mystics and/or Atheists
The Varieties Of Scientific Experience
There are currently a lot of books on the market which deal with the question of God. Most of them are either polemical, apologetic, or philosophically dense. One that often gets overlooked is Carl Sagan's book, The Variety of Scientific Experience. This book is a transcript of Sagan's Gifford lectures in the 80s, edited by Sagan's … Continue reading The Varieties Of Scientific Experience
Random Brain Waves Save Free Will? – Neuroskeptic | DiscoverMagazine.com
The Neuroskeptic has a post up about an experiment which seems to contradict the famous Libet experiment: Random Brain Waves Save Free Will? - Neuroskeptic | DiscoverMagazine.com. I've personally never found the Libet experiment particularly compelling when it comes to free will arguments, but many do. Related articles The Hand-Waver's Guide to The Brain (jfnet.wordpress.com) The … Continue reading Random Brain Waves Save Free Will? – Neuroskeptic | DiscoverMagazine.com
Buzz Blog: Getting Einstein to Say “I Was Wrong”
Buzz Blog: Getting Einstein to Say "I Was Wrong". An interesting post about how slow Albert Einstein was to accept the expanding universe cosmology. It demonstrates that all of us, no matter how brilliant, are often unable to see past our own blind spots. Of course, most of us would love to have Einstein's hit … Continue reading Buzz Blog: Getting Einstein to Say “I Was Wrong”
Why an AI revolt is unlikely
From time to time, articles or blog posts appear expressing anxiety about what will happen when we finally achieve artificial intelligence. The thinking goes that such a mind would quickly be able to design and build a better version of itself and in no time we'd be facing an overwhelmingly superior intelligence which may or … Continue reading Why an AI revolt is unlikely
8 Incredible Facts You May Not Know About Human Evolution
An interesting article at io9: 8 Incredible Facts You May Not Know About Human Evolution. For most of the time that modern humans have existed on the planet, we've been hunter gatherers. It's not until about 10,000 or so years ago that people started settling down and farming, with civilization cranking up around 5000 years ago. … Continue reading 8 Incredible Facts You May Not Know About Human Evolution
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