How apraxia got my son suspended from school – Michael Graziano – Aeon

I've written before about Michael Graziano and his attention schema theory of consciousness, which seem to me to be the best candidate right now for a scientific theory that actually explains consciousness without resorting to magic steps or simply asserting that it doesn't exist. But this article isn't about that.  It's a sobering tale of … Continue reading How apraxia got my son suspended from school – Michael Graziano – Aeon →

Using distant quasars to close the “free will” loophole

Given the conversations some of us have had over determinism and the possibility of quantum hidden variables, I thought this was particularly interesting. In a paper published this week in the journal Physical Review Letters, MIT researchers propose an experiment that may close the last major loophole of Bell's inequality—a 50-year-old theorem that, if violated … Continue reading Using distant quasars to close the “free will” loophole →

Free will and determinism are separate issues

Jerry Coyne as a new post up on free will. One of the recurrent arguments made by free-will “compatibilists” (i.e., those who see free will as being compatible with physical determinism), is that those of us who are incompatibilists—in my case, I think people conceive of free will as reflecting a dualistic “ghost in the … Continue reading Free will and determinism are separate issues →

Quantum Entanglement Explained

A nice video.  I've read about quantum decoherence and entanglement several times, but seeing it animated helped.  At least for me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zD1U1sIPQ4 Confused by how particles can be in two places at once? Wondering how particles can instantly communicate with each other no matter what the distance? Quantum physics is a field of study that … Continue reading Quantum Entanglement Explained →

Did Neanderthals have religion?

It's been a while since Coolidge and Wynn posted an entry.  Now they've done one looking at whether Neanderthals intentionally buried their dead. What did Neandertals do with dead people? And what does this tell us about Neandertal behavior? These questions are perennial favorites for undergraduates and lay persons interested in human evolution. Indeed, one … Continue reading Did Neanderthals have religion? →

Are Parallel Universes Unscientific Nonsense?

If you’re a multiverse skeptic, you should know that there are many potential weaknesses in the case for parallel universes, and I hope you’ll find my cataloging of these weaknesses below useful. To identify these weaknesses in the pro-multiverse arguments, we first need to review what the arguments are. via Are Parallel Universes Unscientific Nonsense? … Continue reading Are Parallel Universes Unscientific Nonsense? →

Free will and the value of compatibilism

With the essays traded between Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris, free will is back in the web conversation.  I wasn't planning on making another free will post myself, having been mostly satisfied with my previous statement on it.  But I've had a few conversations lately, both here on the site and in some other mediums, that … Continue reading Free will and the value of compatibilism →

What’s the largest number we can really comprehend? It’s smaller than you think

This guy is awesome! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOsXjYKvCZ8 I think I've mentioned before that we don't really understand the very large and very small, we just equate it with metaphors of our "normal" scale existence.  Nick Lucid gives one of the reasons why.  Without abstract frameworks, we can't really do numbers. BTW, he has a Tumblr site.

Hertling says singularity closer than appears, and a brief comment

Ramez Naam, author of Nexus and Crux (two books I enjoyed and recommend), has recently put together a few guest posts for Charlie Stross (another author I love). The posts are The Singularity Is Further Than It Appears and Why AIs Won't Ascend in the Blink of an Eye. They're both excellent posts, and I'd recommend reading … Continue reading Hertling says singularity closer than appears, and a brief comment →