Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

Denyse O'Leary

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Psychology concept. Sunrise and woman silhouette.

If Science Doesn’t Support Dualism — Well, It Should

At Big Think, Kmele Foster interviews five figures in consciousness studies. Not one is a dualist but a listener may come away with a new appreciation for dualism
Dualism — human consciousness is real, immaterial, and special — is the only approach to consciousness that accords with the evidence. Read More ›
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Young freelancer working with laptop at home. Side view of male working on freelance at home office.

How Bottom Up Media Are Slowly Replacing Top Down Media

The decline and death of legacy media organizations is speeding up and the media replacing them are much smaller, more numerous and more independent
A key problem: The legacy media that cling to government and corporate interests in order to survive have so much less use now for freedom of the press. Read More ›
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Two chimpanzees have a fun.

Why Does the Proposal for Chimp–Human Hybrids Keep Coming Back?

From David Barash’s perspective, the humanzee’s suffering is rendered worthwhile precisely because it enables the denigration of other human beings
Physicist Rob Sheldon warns, when ridiculous inhumane ideas are routinely aired, we become more willing to accept inhumane ideas that are in fact quite viable. Read More ›
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Multiracial team of professional medical surgeons performs the surgical operation in a modern hospital. Doctors are working to save the patient. Medicine, health and neurosurgery.

Human Brain Tries Immediately to Compensate for Language Loss

Neurosurgeons recently had a unique opportunity to observe brains undergoing the loss of the speech area and compensating in real time
The observations showed that the brain needs specific lobes for normal processing but also — good news for rehab — that it compensates naturally. Read More ›
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Macro photo of Toxocara canis, dog roundworm

Can the Simplest Animal Minds Explain Human Minds?

Kristin Andrews thinks consciousness researchers should discard the assumptions of “overwhelmingly white, male and WEIRD” philosophy profs and study more crabs
Panpsychism is a faith, like materialism; its assumptions and assertions are not “value-free.” We are likely to be unpacking them for some time. Read More ›
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illustration, mouse in the kitchen, generative ai.

Mice Pass the Mirror Test — Not a Self-Knowledge Test

Whether an animal recognizes its own image surely has less to do with self-awareness than with the role that sight — as a sense — plays in its life
The researchers, refreshingly, made clear that they were NOT making unsubstantiable claims about mouse self-awareness; they were studying neural wiring. Read More ›
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Natural Dualism

Neuroscience Must Be Dualist, Whether or Not “Science” Allows It

Riccardo Manzotti and Paulo Moderato set out the dilemma: The human mind makes no sense apart from the forbidden dualist perspective. Read More ›
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A close - up handshake between a doctor and a patient in a medical office with clean

Do Scientists Need to Learn to Lie More Believably?

As public trust in science diminishes, one serious proposal that scientists should manipulate our beliefs for our own good
Why should we believe what materialists say anyway? Generally, the sciences whose ultimate message is meaningless void-ism are running aground. Read More ›
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Purkinje neuron, GABAergic neuron located in the cerebellum

Researchers: Human Cerebellum Aids Higher Cognitive Functions

At one time, the cerebellum was thought to facilitate only functions like movement. But recent research shows that it’s more complex
It’s not wise to bet against complexity in the brain. Or to bet that no differences will be found between the human brain and, say, the mouse brain. Read More ›
Atomic structure. Futuristic concept on the topic of nanotechnology in science. The nucleus of an atom surrounded by electrons on a technological background

Hossenfelder vs Goff: Debate About Electrons Sparks Social Media!

The public has not suddenly become interested in whether electrons exist. Rather, more people are using new media for an increasingly broad array of purposes.
A classic top-down discussion is now taking place on X, an intrinsically bottom-up platform — broadening access while threatening former gatekeepers. Read More ›
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Brain development during pregnancy of unborn baby. 3D rendered illustration.

Study: Babies Start Learning Their Home Language Before Birth

Neuroscience researchers found that newborns responded better to a folk tale in French than in Spanish or English — when French was their mothers’ native language
Before birth, the child is hearing the rhythm of speech rather than individual words, through the amniotic fluid; that may speed learning later. Read More ›
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Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain

Claim: What consciousness studies needs is more Darwinism

The Darwinian view of the evolution of the human mind is, at best, a ladder with no upper rungs
Researchers seem to have honed their skills in presenting failure as success and in portraying more of what hasn’t worked as a solution. Read More ›
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Mind labyrinth and business success psychology concept with back view walking businessman to the light spot in corridor with walls in form of human head

The Likely Reason the Human Mind Has No History

Our efforts to explain the origin of the human mind fall flat because we are looking for an origin that probably doesn’t exist
To the extent that the uniquely human part of the mind is immaterial, it won’t have a history any more than the Pythagorean theorem, in itself, does. Read More ›
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New Book Looks at Design in Nature From a Catholic Viewpoint

Catholic thinkers who reject Darwinism don’t focus so much on its claims about universal common descent as on its utter inability to account coherently for the human mind
n Chapter 10, Scott Ventureyra points out that, paradoxically, our weakness and capacity for sin makes us nobler than the countless life forms that cannot sin. Read More ›
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open eye in space

If Science Were Just Bookkeeping, Fine-Tuning Wouldn’t Matter

Astrophysicist Marcelo Gleiser wishes we would just quit asking questions about why the universe is fine-tuned — as if we could…
Calling assertions about fine-tuning — whether from theists or panpsychists — “astrotheology” will not help resolve any issues. Read More ›
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Generative ai black men twins brothers posing outdoors city street

The Explicitly Human Experience of Growing Up as a Twin

A philosopher muses on growing up as one of a set of two people
Understanding oneself as one of a set of twins is an abstract proposition. Considering what that entails, it’s a wonder that anyone doubts human exceptionalism. Read More ›
neurons firing
Inside the brain. Concept of neurons and nervous system.

Our Brains Don’t Really Rewire, Neuroscientists Caution

Professors Tamar Makin (Cambridge) and John Krakauer (Johns Hopkins) say that when the brain adapts to losses, it uses “latent capacities,” not new ones
Makin and Krakauer caution that brain adaptation to overcome a disability is hard work. Perhaps it is driven, not by the brain alone, but by the restless mind. Read More ›
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A sharp pencil between two erasers on a blue background.Unfree creativity and censorship, concept

Attempt To Tackle Censorship in Science Begins Well, Falls Flat

Scientists, we are told, censor “for the greater good.” Well yes, but ALL censors say that. Has anyone ever censored explicitly “for the greater harm”?
The proponents of censorship can see to it that even doing research on the topic is seen as not promoting the greater good. Thus reform cannot come from within. Read More ›
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Heart shaped pill between rows of standard pills

Everyday Evidence of the Mind’s Reality: the Placebo Effect

The placebo effect — you get better because you think you will — may be getting stronger, as researchers manipulate it more effectively
Remember, if the mind is merely what the brain does and has no independent power, the placebo effect should not exist at all. And yet … Read More ›
genetic-research-and-biotech-science-concept-human-biology-and-pharmaceutical-technology-on-laboratory-background-stockpack-adobe-stock
Genetic research and Biotech science Concept. Human Biology and pharmaceutical technology on laboratory background.

Is Science Slipping Away on Us by Degrees?

Science writers weigh in on misrepresentation of science history, reasons for loss of trust, and whether physics is ripe for a revolution
When Anthony Fauci claimed to “represent science” — a claim no mortal should make — he probably knocked several points off trust in science immediately. Read More ›