Free will? It’s a no brainer
Month: February 2014
SMBC: A fable
As is often the case, Zach Weiner hits it out of the park with this observation. I've read a lot of history, and I'm struck by how often this type of pattern emerges. Click through to see the full sized version. via Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.
The scope of objective facts and morality
Our recent discussions, particularly on the thread about Jonathan Haidt's response to Sam Harris's challenge, left me thinking about the various scopes of objective facts. In retrospect, it's a bit obvious to me now that a key question in moral philosophy is, if morality is objective, at what scope is it objective? Haidt used the … Continue reading The scope of objective facts and morality
Are we nearing the end of science? – The Washington Post
Are we nearing the end of science? That is, are we running out of answerable questions, leaving us with only some mop-up duty, working around the edges of the great scientific achievements of Darwin, Einstein, Copernicus, et al.? via Are we nearing the end of science? - The Washington Post. This seems tangentially related to … Continue reading Are we nearing the end of science? – The Washington Post
Will the age of science end?
A while back, I became interested in the history of science, particularly the early history, including people like Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Johanne Kepler, Andreas Vesalius, and many others. In reading about them, one of the things I was struck by was how small scale science was back then. In its beginnings, modern science was mostly … Continue reading Will the age of science end?
It’s Darwin Day, a celebration of science and reason | Machines Like Us
Darwin Day, according to the International Darwin Day Foundation, is “a global celebration of science and reason held on or around Feb. 12, the birthday anniversary of evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin." The idea of the celebration arose in 1993 as part of the activities of the Stanford Humanist Community, then headed by biologist Robert Stephens. … Continue reading It’s Darwin Day, a celebration of science and reason | Machines Like Us
Deep history, and deep future?
John Schellenberg has an article up on Aeon noting that, while we seem to have no problem accepting deep time in the past, there isn't much discussion of deep future, that is, the future millions or billions of years in the future. It's an interesting article (aside from an unfortunate plea for us to take Thomas … Continue reading Deep history, and deep future?
Neptune’s Brood, a review
This is a review of Charlie Stross's science fiction novel, 'Neptune's Brood'. It's a sequel of sorts to another book of his that I reviewed a couple of weeks ago, 'Saturn's Children'. Both of these books envisage a post-human robotic civilization. (In both books, the robots have very human like personas, having been modeled after … Continue reading Neptune’s Brood, a review
Why I think Sam Harris is wrong about morality | The Righteous Mind
Several commenters have said I should not just critique the excessive certainty of the New Atheists. I should respond directly to Sam Harris’s Moral Landscape Challenge. I should say why I think the argument he makes about a science of morality are wrong. (Harris argues that what is right and wrong can be determined scientifically, … Continue reading Why I think Sam Harris is wrong about morality | The Righteous Mind
IBM to make Jeopardy winning Watson available for commercial use
Remember the IBM Watson, the computer system that won at Jeopardy? Well IBM is getting ready to make the technology available for use in cloud platforms. I'd imagine we can expect web applications to suddenly get much more intelligent. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_nSX7uystw
SelfAwarePatterns 