I saw the new Star Wars flick Friday morning. I considered blogging about it later that day, but then figured there were already a zillion reviews on the web and adding one more wouldn't be particularly useful. But some of my friends, including a few who read this blog, have asked me what I thought about … Continue reading Star Wars: The Force Awakens (spoiler free)
Is falsifiability essential to science?
Childhood’s End and why a war between us and aliens is profoundly unlikely
Last night, SyFy debuted two shows, 'The Expanse', which I've already written about, and 'Childhood's End', which is an adaptation of a classic science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke. With these two shows, along with some other pretty decent ones earlier this year such as 'Dark Matter' and 'Killjoys', the network seems to be on … Continue reading Childhood’s End and why a war between us and aliens is profoundly unlikely
xkcd: Why Asimov put the Three Laws of Robotics in the order he did
Source: xkcd: The Three Laws of Robotics The Three Laws from the Wikipedia article: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must … Continue reading xkcd: Why Asimov put the Three Laws of Robotics in the order he did
Books on neuroscience
Related to the last post, someone asked me where I got the information on the brain that I discussed there. After answering, it occurred to me that other people might be interested. First, let me say that the examples I gave in that post about brain module functionality were not speculative. They are well established … Continue reading Books on neuroscience
Discovering the architecture of the mind
I've written numerous times here that I tend to think that AGI (artificial general intelligence) and mind uploading are both ultimately possible. (Possibly centuries in the future, but possible.) I've also noted that we'll have to have a working understanding of the mind, how it works, how it is structured, before we can do either, … Continue reading Discovering the architecture of the mind
Happy Thanksgiving!
Today in the US is Thanksgiving Day. If you're somewhere where this is being celebrated, I hope you have a great holiday. If you're somewhere where it's not being celebrated, have a great Thursday. As someone who isn't inclined to gratitude toward an apparently uncaring universe, my thanks tend to go to friends, family, and colleagues … Continue reading Happy Thanksgiving!
The Expanse: Intelligent space opera you should check out
Last night, I watched the pilot episode to the new science fiction TV series, 'The Expanse'. It's based on a series of novels by a writing team that goes by the pseudonym James S.A. Corey, the first of which I reviewed a while back. I've read all the books in the series and enjoyed them … Continue reading The Expanse: Intelligent space opera you should check out
The odd animosity toward ebooks
Someone called my attention to an Aeon article by Craig Mod describing his abandonment of digital books, returning to the traditional paper variety. From 2009 to 2013, every book I read, I read on a screen. And then I stopped. You could call my four years of devout screen‑reading an experiment. I felt a duty … Continue reading The odd animosity toward ebooks
David Eagleman: Can a computer simulate a brain?
The other day, I highlighted the article by neuroscientist Kenneth Miller on the possibility of mind uploading. Miller saw it as possible, but thought it might be thousands or maybe even millions of years before we could do it. Here's a take by another neuroscientist, David Eagleman, being a bit more optimistic, and discussing the … Continue reading David Eagleman: Can a computer simulate a brain?
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