Tagmind
The Person as “Immaterial Substance”
Is there substantial evidence that we are more than our bodies? And does that point to the existence of God? Theological anthropologist Dr. Joshua Farris thinks so. In this podcast episode, Farris speaks with host and neurosurgeon Michael Egnor to talk about materialism, mind, and theism, as well as Farris’ new book: The Creation of Self. Additional Resources
Artificial Consciousness Remains Impossible (Part 2)
A machine no more “does things on its own” than a catapult flings by itself.
Westworld Episode 10 Review (Part Two)
Welcome to the dark end of the journeyLast time, Teddy had just finished saving Dolores from the Man in Black, who turned out to be William all along. He takes her to the coast because that was where he promised to take her when they were performing their pre-programmed loop. However, the coast is apparently not very far because as Dolores dies in his arms, Teddy starts reciting a campy monologue, and then shuts down while the board applauds the speech. Even when they’re trying to escape their loop, the robots still, somehow, find themselves trapped in yet another one of Dr. Ford’s narratives. Dr. Ford appears, addresses the crowd, then orders for Teddy to be cleaned up, and for Dolores to be taken to a nearby Read More ›
Does Consciousness Defeat Materialism?
There is a re-emerging interest in consciousness and the mindWhat would it take for “consciousness,” undoubtedly a nebulous and broad term, to defeat the idea that the mind is no more than the brain? For Dean Radin, a parapsychology researcher who was featured on the Closer to Truth program this month, it depends on what you mean by matter. “If you just look through history about the nature of matter, how has it changed historically, it has become more and more ephemeral. And I will imagine it will continue to become more ephemeral,” he said. For Radin, then, matter is complicated, and if you look closely enough, ends up being “mostly nothing.” If you’ve seen the new Oppenheimer movie, directed by Christopher Nolan, perhaps you’ll remember the scene in Read More ›
Neuroscience, the Mind, and Theism
What can modern neuroscience teach us about the immaterial mind? Can we ever know anything for certain? In this episode, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor talks with anthropologist Dr. Joshua Farris. They discuss the brain, Descartes, and the theological implications of the various philosophies of mind. Additional Resources
Sparks and Flashes of Remembrance
An expert in memory-loss treatment recalls some tender stories about memory in the midst of forgetfulnessIn a recent Mind Matters podcast episode, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor (Mike), a frequent contributor to the site, interviewed friend and colleague Stephen Post, an expert in memory-loss-related disorders. Here’s a snippet of their conversation, which you can enjoy in full by following this link. Mike Egnor: So to begin, your new book, Dignity for Deeply Forgetful People, why did you use that title and what do you mean by deeply forgetful people? Stephen Post: Well, that’s a fabulous question to begin with because the title doesn’t quite say it all, but it’s close. I’ve been working with deeply forgetful people and their caregivers since I went out to Case Medical School in 1988, and I have never felt comfortable with Read More ›
The Ultimate Defense of Substance Dualism
Philosopher J.P. Moreland is the co-author of an upcoming tome in defense of the soulFor decades, materialism has dominated the philosophical conversation. Before the 19th and 20th centuries, however, such a worldview was largely untenable. Most thinkers accepted the reality of both the body and the soul, the physical and the immaterial. What happened? And why do we see the resurgence of a fascination with consciousness and panpsychism, and a renewal of belief in the soul? Philosopher J. P. Moreland, a Fellow of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture and the author of dozens of books, has an upcoming book dealing with exactly these questions. It is The Substance of Consciousness: A Comprehensive Defense of Contemporary Substance Dualism (Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, 2023). Dr. Moreland, a professor at Biola University, is co-author with Brandon Rickabaugh, who is Read More ›
Caring for the Deeply Forgetful
How can we compassionately relate to those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease? Is the mind more than the brain? Dr. Stephen Post, an expert in the field and author of Dignity for Deeply Forgetful People, speaks with neurosurgeon Michael Egnor on memory, consciousness, and whether the mind could have arisen from matter. Additional Resources
Funny ChatGPT: a Solution to Striking Joke Writers?
Even if ChatGPT can mimic humor, it doesn't care if you laugh at the jokesCan ChatGPT write funny jokes? The answer is yes. To try and generate some short jokes, I went to ChatGPT and started all my queries with: “Complete the following to make it funny:” Doing so alerts ChatGPT about my end goal. Without this preamble, I could make queries all day and get no funny responses. I started with the beginnings of some well-known quotes. To Be or Not to Be Consider for example the quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “To be or not to be, that is the question.” I instructed ChatGPT with the following command: “Complete the following to make it funny: To be or not to be…” One of the better responses I got was “To be or Read More ›
AI is Closer Than You Think
Most of us carry powerful AI in our pockets every single daySometimes AI seems a bit of a niche idea, relegated to dystopian prophecies or sentient robots. But AI is much more pervasive and influential in our present world in more ways than we might assume. Oxford mathematician John Lennox reminds us in this recent podcast episode that our society teems with AI. Lennox commented, Now, the final example I would give you is the fact that we’re all involved in AI. That is any of us who own a smartphone, it’s tracking us all the time. What many of us don’t realize is that, for example, we make a purchase at Amazon. A few days later, we’ll get a pop-up saying, people that bought this book were interested in that Read More ›
New Routledge Book on AI: It Won’t Take Us Over
The authors argue that, regardless of the benefits AI might provide in the future, it will never emulate the complex human neurocognitive system.A new book, Why Machines Will Never Rule the World, amplifies human exceptionalism and critiques the view that artificial intelligence will someday replace human beings. According to authors Jobst Landgrebe and Barry Smith, much of life and work can only be adequately navigated successfully with natural, not computerized, intelligence. They give two reasons for thinking that AI will never exceed human ingenuity: Echoing similar sympathies as Robert J. Marks in his book Non-Computable You: What You Do That Artificial Intelligence Never Will, Landgrebe and Smith argue that the concept of artificial general intelligence is mathematically impossible. A part of the book’s summary reads: Landgrebe and Smith show how a widespread fear about AI’s potential to bring about radical changes in Read More ›
For BitHeaven’s Sake
A satirical short story on the transhumanist quest (and failure) to achieve immortalityBob and Sue were on their way to church one morning. On their way they ran into their friend Fred. Fred was very wealthy, a billionaire in fact. Fred waved hi. Bob and Sue waved back. They asked Fred to come with them to church. Fred said no, he had more important things to do. “What is so important,” asked Sue. “I’m off to the real deal,” beamed Fred. Bob looked confused. “Real deal about what?” “You have a fake promise of eternal life. I’m about to get the real thing.” “You can’t be serious. Start talking some sense.” “Seriously. Here’s my voucher, see it right here.” Sue grabbed the piece of paper from Fred and read it aloud. “Good for one digital immortalization Read More ›
Social Media’s Distortion of the Real World
Constant exposure to idealized online images impacts our expectations and worldviewHow does excessive social media use affect our perceptions of the real world? Writers Mark Miller and Ben White wrote a piece at Aeon on social media through the perspective of “predictive processing,” a term used in neuroscience and cognition. Predictive processing involves the brain’s capacity to predict error, danger, or some future event, and urge us to act accordingly. (That’s my basic, layman’s understanding of it, full disclosure!) White and Miller use temperature as an example, noting how the body may respond to a change of the environment by closing a window or grabbing a blanket to keep warm. Being able to respond appropriately to our surroundings depends on the accuracy of our mental model of the real world. Read More ›
Is the “Singularity” Already Here?
Two experts in the tech field warn that the singularity, as we've come to imagine it, might be right around the cornerThe singularity refers to the future point when the human and the machine will merge––when the personal and technological distinction breaks down entirely. It sounds dystopian and far off. But, two experts in the tech field warn that the singularity, as we’ve come to imagine it, is right upon us. Writing for The Conversation, John Kendall Hawkins and Sandy Boucher comment, To understand why this isn’t the stuff of fairy tales, we need only look as far as recent developments in brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). BCIs are a natural beginning to the singularity in the eyes of many futurists, because they meld mind and machine in a way no other technology so far can. Elon Musk’s company Neuralink is seeking permission from the US Food Read More ›
Observing and Communing
What human art and literature do that AI can'tAI image generators like Midjourney or DALL-E are generally adept at capturing the accuracy of the human form. The concerns over copyright, job infringement, and general degradation of the visual arts via such AI are ongoing concerns for many artists and practitioners. However, a new New Yorker article by Kyle Chayka identifies a noticeable flaw in AI artwork: human hands. Missing the Big Picture Chayka begins by recalling an art class where he was asked to draw his own hand. It’s an assignment for beginners, and as behooves a novice, tempts the artist to focus more on the specific contours of the hand instead of the overall structure and form. The forest gets lost in the trees, so to speak. Read More ›
Kenneth Miller on Consciousness and Evolution
Despite Miller's claims, neither human reason nor free will evolved because neither are generated by material processesKenneth Miller is a biologist at Brown University who has been very active in his written and vocal support for Darwin’s theory of evolution. He’s neither a materialist nor an atheist – he is a Catholic, and in being one of the rare Darwinists who doesn’t subscribe wholeheartedly to the materialist/atheist paradigm, he allows himself to be used as a token theist by the Darwinists. It helps his career, no doubt, but doesn’t advance the truth. Not an admirable place to be. Miller’s New Book and What it Misses In his 2018 book The Human Instinct: How We Evolved To Have Reason, Consciousness, and Free Will, Miller manages a feat uncommon even for Darwinists – even the title of the Read More ›
Sean Carroll: “How Could an Immaterial Mind Affect the Body?”
The well known physicist thinks free will is nonsense. But has he investigated the classical understanding of causation?Sean Carroll is a theoretical physicist at Johns Hopkins University who takes an atheist and materialist philosophical perspective on nature and on science. I have disagreed with him often — I’m in no position to judge his scientific acumen, but his philosophical acumen leaves a lot to be desired. An example of this is a question he asks in a recent documentary about free will (which I haven’t watched yet). In the trailer for the movie, Carroll asks, How in the world does the immaterial mind affect the physical body? Carroll’s denial of libertarian free will is based on this question, and of course, he believes that the immaterial mind does not exist and, if it did exist, could not Read More ›
Blinded by a Defunct Theory
The "interaction problem" is everywhere we look in physics, but the dogma of materialism remainsMaterialism. What a weird word. It sounds like a ghost, materializing in front of me. And it is sort of like a ghost, one that has mysteriously taken over the minds of many intelligent people. Because they believe in materialism, these smart people don’t believe in ghosts. Especially the ghost in the machine. The problem is there is no way for the ghost to interact with the machine. This is known as the “mind-body interaction problem”. The great thing about materialism is at least that theory doesn’t have an interaction problem. Any material thing can interact with any other material thing. Yet there is a deep irony. Let’s explore the idea of materialism to see why. Materialism is the idea that reality only consists of matter. Read More ›
Is The Mind an Illusion?
Perhaps you’ve heard of the “mind-body problem,” but what about the relationship between the mind and the brain? Is the mind just an illusion produced by the brain or is it something totally separate? Robert Marks talks with neurologist Andrew Knox on these topics and more in this week’s Mind Matters podcast episode. Additional Resources