Provocative new research published this month in the journal Geology suggests that oceanic plate subduction was operating from the earliest times in Earth’s history, meaning conditions for the formation of life may have existed up to a billion years earlier than generally thought. via Earth life may have started a billion years earlier | Machines … Continue reading Earth life may have started a billion years earlier | Machines Like Us
Month: February 2014
Thoughts on the Nye-Ham creationism debate
The Bill Nye and Ken Ham debate happened, and by all accounts Nye wiped the floor with Ham. (I watched a few minutes of it, but I've been racing against deadlines all week and had to content myself with the post game write ups.) This doesn't really come as too much of a surprise to … Continue reading Thoughts on the Nye-Ham creationism debate
This View of Life: Why Sam Harris is Unlikely to Change his Mind
The New Atheist Sam Harris recently offered to pay $10,000 to anyone who can disprove his arguments about morality. Jonathan Haidt analyzes the nature of reasoning, and the ease with which reason becomes a servant of the passions. He bets $10,000 that Harris will not change his mind. via This View of Life: Why Sam … Continue reading This View of Life: Why Sam Harris is Unlikely to Change his Mind
The foundations of morality
Last week, I made a post on the fact that we have desires, urges, impulses, motivations, that are inherently not rooted in reason or logic, that while reason and logic are extremely useful, they are tools of these desires, these instincts. And that while reason can have an effect on how we resolve conflicts between … Continue reading The foundations of morality
Opinion: Real Tragedy of Taiji Is Our Inhumanity Toward Animals
Since the 1980s, when commercial whaling was finally banned worldwide, we've come to know a great deal more about the minds of marine mammals and many other animals. What we've learned suggests that, like the human animal, many other species, including all whales and dolphins studied to date, are thinking, emotional creatures, and are conscious. … Continue reading Opinion: Real Tragedy of Taiji Is Our Inhumanity Toward Animals
Existential comics: How philosophy gets made
I would have just shared this on Twitter, but it seemed relevant to our conversation on the 'Philosophy that ignores science' thread, that I decided to highlight on the blog. Click through to read the whole thing. via existentialcomics.com/comic/14
Moral values aren’t absolute, but aren’t arbitrary either
I'm working on another post with details about foundational moral instincts, but after some discussion on the 'Morality arises from instincts' post, I realized that I failed to make a couple of things clear. So, I'm inserting this additional post to do that. First, let me clarify that, in these posts, I'm being descriptive, not … Continue reading Moral values aren’t absolute, but aren’t arbitrary either
Skylon Spaceplane
On the post I made about the Dream Chaser spacecraft, Steve Morris called my attention to the Skylon Spaceplane. It takes off as a plane, but has an jet engine that can switch into rocket mode, allowing it to rocket into orbit. It reenters much as the shuttle did, but still has enough fuel to … Continue reading Skylon Spaceplane
As artificial intelligence grows, so do ethical concerns – SFGate
Now that Google is delving even deeper into artificial intelligence, the minds behind "Don't be evil" might face real questions of right and wrong. This week the Mountain View search titan snatched up DeepMind, which develops artificial intelligence software. The price tag and the specifics of the deal remain unclear, but Google will set up an … Continue reading As artificial intelligence grows, so do ethical concerns – SFGate
The Dream Chaser: What the Space Shuttle should have been
This video shows the Dream Chaser spacecraft. Similar to the old Space Shuttle, it glides down to Earth, although it's a much smaller vehicle, and would launch on top of a rocket rather than the dangerous side mount that the Shuttle used. In many ways, it's what the Space Shuttle should have been, had it … Continue reading The Dream Chaser: What the Space Shuttle should have been
SelfAwarePatterns 