Empiricism, the idea that sensory experience is a source of knowledge, is ancient. People have obviously learned through sensory experience as long as there have been people. Studying the night skies gave ancient humans insight into the flow of the seasons, crucial knowledge as the agricultural revolution kicked into gear. And farming techniques, medicinal practices, food … Continue reading The evolution of the scientific method.
Month: October 2014
The simulation hypothesis. Is life an illusion?
Seth Shostak takes a look at the simulation hypothesis, the idea that we are in a computer simulated reality: Is Life an Illusion? | Seth Shostak. ...a future historian (or curious teenager) wielding programming skills and access to a honking big computer could construct SimEarth on steroids. They could, for example, run a simulation of 15th century European society to … Continue reading The simulation hypothesis. Is life an illusion?
Good News Most People Don’t Believe
Saying that mind uploading will never be possible is unwarranted
This question came up on Quora: 3 What percent chance is there that whole brain emulation or mind uploading to a neural prosthetic will be feasible by 2048? - Quora. After seeing a number of skeptical responses, many claiming that mind uploading was inherently impossible or even incoherent, I posted the following reply: I think mind … Continue reading Saying that mind uploading will never be possible is unwarranted
Chaos theory and doubts about determinism
I've mentioned a few times before that I'm not a convinced determinist, at least not of the strict or hard variety. I have three broad reasons for this. The first is that I'm not sure how meaningful it is to say something is deterministic in principle if it has no hope of ever being deterministic … Continue reading Chaos theory and doubts about determinism
xkcd: Marriage
This is interesting. I'm not entirely sure what to conclude from it, but it is interesting. via xkcd: Marriage.
Does evolutionary theory need a rethink?
Biologists debate whether evolutionary theory needs to be revised: Does evolutionary theory need a rethink? : Nature News & Comment. There seems to be two broad camps. Those that feel that the traditional view of evolution: random unguided mutation plus natural selection, remains sufficient, and those who feel that a fundamental rethink is in order. Does … Continue reading Does evolutionary theory need a rethink?
The Paraphrase Challenge: How to understand what your opponent is saying
Earlier today, John Zande clued me into an awesome science fiction novella by David Brin called 'Stones of Significance', which I highly recommend to anyone interested in AI, post-singularity fiction, and the nature of reality. By coincidence, the author, David Brin, tweeted this video earlier which, given the epic online fights that have happened recently, … Continue reading The Paraphrase Challenge: How to understand what your opponent is saying
Who was the first person to have an afterlife?
Click through for full sized version and the red button caption. via Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. The idea that only humans have an afterlife has always been one that I find interesting. If only humans have them, at what point in our evolutionary history did we obtain them? Did Neanderthals have them? What about Homo-erectus? If … Continue reading Who was the first person to have an afterlife?
Rescuing Aristotle
An excellent article! I think the tendency to judge historical figures by modern standards is one we always have to be cautious of. Aristotle was amazing for his times. Criticizing him for not understanding the world as well as we do, without understanding the intervening 2300 years, is facile. Criticizing Aristotle is a tradition that … Continue reading Rescuing Aristotle
SelfAwarePatterns 