I just finished reading Ann Leckie's new novel, Ancillary Justice, after reading about it on John Scalzi's site. I found it one of the most absorbing books I've read in a while. If you enjoy space opera science fiction, with AIs, strange societies, and generally mind bending ideas, then you owe it to yourself to … Continue reading Ancillary Justice: an excellent read
Why extraterrestrial civilizations may be exceedingly rare
There's been a lot of news lately about the estimate of habitable planets in our galaxy. It sounds like there may be 40 billion planets in the habitable zones around their stars. This is cool stuff! The nearest one might be only 12 light years away. It's very tempting from this news, to conclude that … Continue reading Why extraterrestrial civilizations may be exceedingly rare
Evaluating God scientifically
Victor Stenger has a post up at Huffington Post on how science disproves God. He goes through many of the attributes of the popular conceptions of God and shows how scientific evidence contradicts them. And he's right, to a degree. But he then concludes with: The hypothesis of God is not confirmed by the evidence. … Continue reading Evaluating God scientifically
Will we be able to upload our minds?
I’m pretty much a subscriber to the computational theory of mind (broadly speaking), which holds that the mind is information in the brain. If this theory of mind is accurate, then there should be no barrier to someday uploading a copy of our mind into a computer, providing we can find a way to record … Continue reading Will we be able to upload our minds?
Patterns who have achieved consciousness
Are you the same person today that you were yesterday? Or last week? Or last year? What about ten years ago? Let's look at it in two ways: physically and mentally. Physically, our bodies are constantly performing maintenance. Waste is being flushed away and the food that we eat is constantly being transformed into tissue, … Continue reading Patterns who have achieved consciousness
SelfAwarePatterns 