There's been a lot of celebration this holiday season of the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 8 mission, the first time humans went into (relatively) deep space and orbited another body, the moon. I'm glad to see Apollo 8 getting some recognition. It's usually overshadowed by Apollo 11, the first mission to actually land on … Continue reading The difficulty of going to Mars
Merry Christmas
As some of you know, the last year was a tough one for me. My blogging frequency crashed to virtual nonexistence in late 2017 and early 2018, a result of switching to a new job and dealing with the fallout from my father's death. During that period, although I keenly missed our conversations, I had … Continue reading Merry Christmas
Do all quantum trails inevitably lead to Everett?
I've been thinking lately about quantum physics, a topic that seems to attract all sorts of crazy speculation and intense controversy, which seems inevitable. Quantum mechanics challenges our deepest held most cherished beliefs about how reality works. If you study the quantum world and you don't come away deeply unsettled, then you simply haven't properly … Continue reading Do all quantum trails inevitably lead to Everett?
Dogs have metacognition, maybe
Last year in a post on panpsychism, I introduced a hierarchy I use to conceptualize the capabilities of systems that we intuitively see as conscious. This isn't a new theory of consciousness or anything, just my own way of making sense of what is an enormously complicated subject. That hierarchy of consciousness was as follows: … Continue reading Dogs have metacognition, maybe
On imagination, feelings, and brain regions
The last post on feelings generated some excellent conversations. In a couple of them, it was pointed out that my description of feelings put a lot of work on the concept of imagination, and that maybe I should expand on that topic a bit. In their excellent book on animal consciousness, The Ancient Origins of … Continue reading On imagination, feelings, and brain regions
The construction of feelings
I've had a number of conversations lately on the subject of feelings, the affective states of having valences about conscious perception, such as fear, pain, joy, hunger, etc. Apparently a lot of people view feelings as a very mysterious phenomenon. While I'll definitely agree that there are a lot of details still to be worked … Continue reading The construction of feelings
Doctor Who: The Woman Who Fell to Earth
I've noted before that I'm a long time fan of Doctor Who, so naturally I tuned in to watch the first episode of the new Doctor played by Jodie Whittaker. I'll be honest here, I wasn't sure what to expect with a female Doctor. As a progressive, I was certainly for it in principle, but … Continue reading Doctor Who: The Woman Who Fell to Earth
SETI vs the possibility of interstellar exploration
Science News has a short article discussing a calculation someone has done showing how small the volume of space examined by SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) is relative the overall size of the galaxy. With no luck so far in a six-decade search for signals from aliens, you’d be forgiven for thinking, “Where is everyone?” A … Continue reading SETI vs the possibility of interstellar exploration
A qualified recommendation: The Murderbot Diaries
I'm generally not a fan of most depictions of AI (artificial intelligence) in science fiction. They're often highly anthropomorphic, assuming that engineered intelligences would innately have motivations and impulses similar to humans or other living systems, such as caring about their own survival, social status, or self actualization. A good example of this is the … Continue reading A qualified recommendation: The Murderbot Diaries
Inflate and explode, or deflate and preserve?
Philosopher Eric Schwitzgebel has an interesting post up criticizing the arguments of illusionists, those who have concluded that phenomenal consciousness is an illusion. Here's a way to deny the existence of things of Type X. Assume that things of Type X must have Property A, and then argue that nothing has Property A. If that … Continue reading Inflate and explode, or deflate and preserve?
SelfAwarePatterns 