One of the things that a lot of people are often surprised to hear, is that most scholars don't believe that religion was always concerned with morality, that moralizing religion didn't exist to any significant extent before the 'Axial Age' circa 500 BC. Psychologist Nicolas Baumard has a theory about what may have led to moralizing … Continue reading Wealth may have driven the rise of moralizing religions
xkcd: Spacecraft and launch vehicle payloads, in horses
Similar to the relative spacecraft and rocket sizes I linked to the other day, here's xkcd's version, in horse units. At first I thought he was referring to horsepower, but then I realized it was horse mass. (Click through for full sized version.) via xkcd: Payloads. It's worth noting how large the Saturn V and … Continue reading xkcd: Spacecraft and launch vehicle payloads, in horses
Worm ‘Brain’ uploaded into robot, which then behaves like a worm
Steve Morris clued me in to this article: Worm ‘Brain’ Uploaded Into Lego Robot | Singularity HUB. Can a digitally simulated brain on a computer perform tasks just like the real thing? For simple commands, the answer, it would seem, is yes it can. Researchers at the OpenWorm project recently hooked a simulated worm brain to … Continue reading Worm ‘Brain’ uploaded into robot, which then behaves like a worm
Will robots replace humans?
Steven Pinker: Using Grammar as a Tool, Not as a Weapon
I listened to this Point of Inquiry podcast at lunch today, and thought many of you might find it interesting: Steven Pinker: Using Grammar as a Tool, Not as a Weapon | Point of Inquiry. The English language is often treated as delicate and precious, and disagreements about what is “proper English” go back as far … Continue reading Steven Pinker: Using Grammar as a Tool, Not as a Weapon
It’s American Atheists billboards time, again!
Obama takes over for Colbert
In case you haven't seen this yet, it is simply awesome! UPDATE: Well, it appears the Youtube version has disappeared. I can't figure out how to embed the version from the Colbert site itself, but you can watch it here.
My unresponsiveness
I apologize to anyone I was in conversation with Friday or earlier for being unresponsive since then. I blew my shoulder out, making my right arm useless. I'm slowly healing. Typing one handed isn't my thing, hence the silence. Hope to be back in action soon.
Compatibilism for incompatibilists: free will in five steps
and cowboy boots a long-running theme of Jerry Coyne’s website has been Jerry’s arguments against any form of “free will”. This usually leads to long comment-thread arguments between the incompatibilists (or “hard determinists”) and the compatibilists amongst Jerry’s readers.
I get the impression that sometimes the incompatibilists don’t properly understand a compatibilist view. They often accuse compatibilists of disliking determinism, of hankering after dualism, hoping that something will turn up that will overturn current science, or of just equivocating. Here I want to explain compatibilism to those determinists who take an incompatibilist stance (“hard determinism”). It is not aimed at libertarian dualists!
First, let’s be clear on the two stances. Compatibilism asks whether, given a deterministic universe, one can arrive at sensible and coherent meanings of terms such as “choice”, “freedom” and indeed “free will”. The compatibilist says yes; the incompatibilist says no, regarding such terms as too…
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When should we consider an AI a fellow being?
Fears of AI (artificial intelligence) are still showing up the media, most recently with another quote from Stephen Hawking warning that it might be the end of us, with Elon Musk, due to his own anxious statements, now being referenced whenever the subject comes up. I've written many times before why I think these fears … Continue reading When should we consider an AI a fellow being?
SelfAwarePatterns 