An Oxford Professor, Dr. Alex Connock, invited an AI (artificial intelligence software) to participate in a debate at the Oxford Union on the ethics of AI. These are some of the machines responses: “AI will never be ethical“, argued Megatron-Turing Language Generation model. “It is a tool, and like any Read more
The 21 grams experiment refers to a scientific study published in 1907 by Duncan MacDougall, a physician from Haverhill, Massachusetts. MacDougall hypothesized that souls have physical weight, and attempted to measure the mass lost by a human when the soul departed the body. MacDougall attempted to measure the mass change Read more
There is a wonderful surge of people talking about, and engaging in, the concept of “critical thinking”. It’s the objective analysis and evolution of an issue in order to form a judgment. Another page to the same story is “Hegel’s dialectics” which refers to the particular dialectical method of argument Read more
I dance a happy dance each and every time I discover that science has caught up with magic or philosophy. Scientists are publishing countless papers proving that the Universe is a sentient being. I sit here and smile even as I write this. Therefore, our beloved planet Earth is also Read more
Lack of proper, restful sleep has a direct, negative, effect on our health. While we sleep our body’s metabolism slows down into Basal Metabolism. Also during various stages of our sleep we dream. No one, to my knowledge, knows why we dream, but we need it. During this slowing down Read more
Society keeps finding way to pigeonhole us. We get various classifications since the day we are born. Foolishly, we believe what we are told. Could it be time to look closer at some of these classifications and maybe send them on their way to the garbage bin? We have been Read more
The symmetry within nature is seen throughout the universe, even within chaos. Scientists study it. Artist attempt to interpret it. Poets and writers seek to define and contain it. It’s all prevalent, surrounding and carrying us from life till death. The two main types of symmetry are reflective, and rotational. Read more
Symmetry occurs not only in geometry, but also in other branches of mathematics. Symmetry is a type of invariance: the property that sometimes does not change under a set of transformations. Given a structured object X of any sort, a symmetry is a mapping of the object onto itself which Read more
I keep thinking and wondering about Zuckerberg’s Metaverse. Different kinds of scenarios play through my mind. Futurism and science and fiction run around in my head like children playing and doing mischief yet this future is now and science fiction has become unadulterated science. Recently, Scientific American magazine published an Read more
I continue to question that if we know that cognitive dissonance exists, why don’t we take action and change our self-destructive ways. Recently I was exposed, for the first time, to new information which appears to be a big part of the puzzle which may explain why we behave against Read more
In order to grasp and control a body of knowledge we need to build blocks of knowledge. Adding to our trip around the universe we need to attain an understanding of how light exists and operates. Light is made of electromagnetic waves and it travels through space at 186,000 miles Read more
So far we have a general ideas of when the Big Bang happened, the known dimensions of the universe, the size of the universe, the potential for time travel, we’ve learned how space – time interacts with our reality. We have learned that, within this known universe, all that was Read more
“When you remember a past event, you’re actually remembering the last time you remembered it, not the event itself.” Until I read this statement, I had never thought otherwise. Of course, remembering is the act of extracting information from your mind. But now doubt has taken hold of this concept. Read more
“The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence.” This meme crossed my path a couple of months ago and the imageplus the statement seemed interesting at the time. But something felt off. I let it sit. It finally dawned on me that to observe without evaluating Read more
This term and it’s meaning should be looked at very closely. It should be taught to everyone that will listen because it establishes the reason why complex, analytical and logical thought is a impossibility for some people.
“Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, Read more
Logical thinking, once embraced is a thing of beauty, which deserves our attention and admiration. It’s become common in today’s world for people to confuse facts with fiction or conjecture. Observing and participating in many conversations will demonstrate how fact and conjecture are readily and easily exchanged, as one. During Read more
Introducing Nick Bostrom. About five years ago I came across a paper written and presented by Nick Bostrom. He is a member of the Faculty of Philosophy at Oxford University. The paper is titled : “Are you living in a computer simulation?” It was first published in Philosophical Quarterly (2003) Read more
Note: During this segment Nick Bortrom puts together the logic and formulas that demonstrate and measure (a) the fraction of all human-level technological civilizations that survive to reach a posthuman stage. (b) An average number of ancestor realities run by a posthuman civilization. (c) An average number of individuals that Read more
