^ArchiveArticles

Image of an expanding universe. shot from far away with many colours, beautiful.

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post

Author
News
Date
April 23, 2024

Categorized
Cosmology

Tagged
Astronomy, Big Bang, cosmology, discovery institute press, Einstein, Expanding universe, nobel, Physics, Roger Penrose, space, spacetime, stars, Time}

The New Book on the Big Bang that Roger Penrose is Praising

_{Meet the forgotten men who discovered evidence for an expanding universe.} _{News

April 23, 2024

8

Cosmology}

Many widely read scientific writers of our day mistakenly attribute the concepts of the expanding universe and the Big Bang to Edwin Hubble and Albert Einstein. Hubble did provide evidence of an expanding universe, but he neither discovered such evidence nor accepted the radical idea that space itself was expanding. As for Einstein, he held out against the idea of an expanding universe for more than a decade, and ceased working in the field as soon as he had to amend his view. The real heroes of the Big Bang revolution are the Russian Alexander Friedmann and Belgian priest Georges Lemaître. That they are virtually unknown to the general public is one thing. That their contribution is underestimated by astrophysicists Read More ›

Abstract flight in retro neon hyper warp space in the tunnel 3d illustration

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post

Author
Gary Varner
Date
April 22, 2024

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
Arts and Culture, Dystopia, fiction, Gary Varner, Movies and TV, Science fiction}

Spaceman Review, Part 3

_{Sometimes you have to leave what you love to go on a mission} _{Gary Varner

April 22, 2024

9

Arts & Culture}

Last time, we talked about Jakub’s new buddy, a giant spider that may or may not be real. This potential hallucination wants to help the astronaut with his loneliness because his wife, Lenka, has left him. The trouble is that the spider’s idea of helping poor Jakub is forcing him to remember his past. The writer wanted to give Jakub a redemption arch using these flashbacks; however, the astronaut’s memories were shown in a disjointed order, confusing the story and making Lenka look very bad, which made her and Jakub’s relationship difficult to root for. The chaotic flashbacks, mixed with a variety of plot holes, made for a very irritating story. One of the most glaring plot holes arises when Read More ›

Data reflecting on eyeglasses on man's face. Computrer programmer big data and ux designer concept

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post

Author
Jeffrey Funk
Date
April 22, 2024

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AGI, AI, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Futurism, Mars, Progress, Tech}

AI’s Illusion of Rapid Progress

_{It always seems to be on the verge of perfection} _{Jeffrey Funk

April 22, 2024

6

Artificial Intelligence}

The media loves to report on everything Elon Musk says, particularly when it is one of his very optimistic forecasts. Two weeks ago he said: “If you define AGI (artificial general intelligence) as smarter than the smartest human, I think it’s probably next year, within two years.” In 2019, he predicted there would be a million robo-taxis by 2020 and in 2016, he said about Mars, “If things go according to plan, we should be able to launch people probably in 2024 with arrival in 2025.” On the other hand, the media places less emphasis on negative news such as announcements that Amazon would abandon its cashier-less technology called “Just Walk Out,” because it wasn’t working properly. Introduced three years Read More ›

Big data and artificial intelligence concept. Machine learning and cyber mind domination concept in form of women face on dark blue technology background, 3d illustration.

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Author
Peter Biles
Date
April 21, 2024

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Evolution, Featured, Joe Rogan, Tucker Carlson, YouTube}

Joe Rogan Spins Bizarre Take on Evolution and AI

_{The podcaster thinks AI could become "God"} _{Peter Biles

April 21, 2024

2

Artificial Intelligence}

Joe Rogan recently sat down with Tucker Carlson to have an often-bizarre conversation that involved everything from UFOs to evolution to saunas. Rogan’s comments on artificial intelligence, however, were some of the most provocative of the exchange, and reflected a sentiment common among futurists and transhumanists: AI could become a life form, evolve, and replace the human race. Rogan situates his views by noting that only humans think humans are important. In the grand scheme of the cosmos, human life is inconsequential. He went on to note that AI could become “God,” and evolve to a certain point where it would basically know everything there is to know. The question is: why would anyone want that, and why should that Read More ›

Child watching cellphone screen at night. Blue light from smartphone device glowing on little girl face

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
April 19, 2024

Categorized
Technology

Tagged
Anxiety, Cell phones, connected, crisis, Depression, Gen Z, iGen, Jonathan Haidt, loneliness, mental health, online world, social media}

Helpful Video Maps Out Gen Z Mental Health Crisis

_{The glow of the screen is swallowing a generation, and it needs to stop} _{Peter Biles

April 19, 2024

2

Technology}

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s new book The Anxious Generation topped the New York Times bestsellers’ chart two weeks in a row, and has been stirring up a lot of commentary in the meantime. Haidt’s basic thesis is that we have drastically overprotected children in the real world and woefully under-protected them in the virtual world. A new video helpfully lines out this argument, and shows why today’s generation, more than the Millennials who preceded them, struggle so intensely with anxiety, depression, and loneliness. In a recent interview, author and public intellectual Andy Crouch said that while he doesn’t know if it can be backed up neurologically, there is something about the “glow” of screens that wakens something primordial in the Read More ›

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Author
Caitlin Cory
Date
April 19, 2024

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
capitalism, cole smead, COSM, COSM 2023, Electronics, George Gilder, Graphene, Jay Richards, Medicine, renewable energy}

Remote Work: Liberation or a Major Step Back?

_{Feeling disconnected or undervalued can lead to quiet quitting, data shows} _{Peter Biles

April 18, 2024

3}

Articles and studies abound on the viability of remote work, particularly following the mass transformation of the white-collar workplace after 2020. While millennials and Gen-Z workers, fresh out of college, fled metro areas and moved online, whole office spaces found themselves empty. Office real estate workers continue to struggle leasing out their spaces to businesses, since so many employers now have a remote or hybrid work schedule. It is difficult to reach a conclusive stance on the pros and cons of remote work by reading the dozens of articles on the topic. Opinions vary so widely. Some praise the new shift towards remote work as a revolutionary step in the workforce. Others note that remote work is actually a step Read More ›

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
April 17, 2024

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Blake Lemoine, doc ock, heroes and villains, New York City, Sentience, social media, spiderman}

Doc Ock and His Sentient AI Arms

_{Could AI ever control the human mind?} _{Peter Biles

April 17, 2024

3

Arts & Culture}

It’s interesting that the Spider-Man universe (or multiverse, I guess) is studded with well-meaning villains. In my last movie review, we looked at Norman Osborn and his tragic transformation into the Green Goblin. What’s odd about his character is that he’s almost a father figure to Peter Parker throughout the film, offering support, guidance, wisdom. It’s the allure of a mysterious form of biotechnology and corporate pressure that sends him off the deep end. It isn’t so different with the iconic Dr. Octopus. An idealist set on inventing a new source of perpetual energy, Dr. Octavius is a friendly but ambitious scientist, who, like Osborn, takes Peter under his wing. The experiment to create a sustained fusion reaction, though, goes Read More ›

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post

Author
News
Date
April 17, 2024

Categorized
Natural Intelligence

Tagged
Consciousness, Evolution, Matter, Michael Egnor, mind, Mind Matters podcast}

Could Consciousness Have Evolved?

_{Michael Egnor takes a hard look at the evidence in this classic podcast episode.} _{News

April 17, 2024

1

Natural Intelligence}

On a classic episode of ID the Future, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor interviews Bernardo Kastrup, a philosopher with a background in computer engineering, about consciousness, evolution, and intelligent design. Did consciousness evolve? What does the evidence suggest? And how do materialists deal with the seemingly immaterial reality that is consciousness? Enjoy this guest episode from Mind Matters, a podcast of Discovery Institute’s Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence. Dig Deeper Cross-posted at Evolution News.

Aerial photo of mix color of stream in to river

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post

Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
April 17, 2024

Categorized
Environment

Tagged
Human exceptionalism, image of God, Nature Rights, personhood, Rivers, slippery slope, utah, Wesley J. Smith}

Utah Goes Up Against “Nature Rights”

_{Utah is the fourth state — the others are Ohio, Florida, and Idaho — restricting rights to the human realm where they belong.} _{Wesley J. Smith

April 17, 2024

3

Environment}

A bit ago, I warned that environmental radicals were pushing to grant rights to the Great Salt Lake. Thankfully, legislators noticed and passed a bill prohibiting granting rights to any non-human aspects of nature. From H.B. 0249: 63G-31-102. Legal personhood restricted.Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a governmental entity may not grant legal personhood to, nor recognize legal personhood in:(1) artificial intelligence;(2) an inanimate object;(3) a body of water;(4) land;(5) real property;(6) atmospheric gases;(7) an astronomical object;(8) weather;(9) a plant;(10) a nonhuman animal; or(11) any other member of a taxonomic domain that is not a human being. There has been advocacy among environmentalists to grant rights to nature broadly understood and to each of these identified categories, hence the need for a detailed Read More ›

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post

Author
News
Date
April 16, 2024

Categorized
Technology

Tagged
AI, Bob Metcalfe, Discovery Institute, Ethernet, internet, Jay Richards, Tech}

Bob Metcalfe on Our Connected World

_{Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Jay Richards interviews Bob Metcalfe, inventor of Ethernet} _{News

April 16, 2024

1

Technology}

The Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence is pleased to be able to share the videos from the 2023 COSM conference, now available on YouTube. This annual conference explores the status and the future of our era-defining technologies, from artificial intelligence to electric vehicles to new developments in biotech. Today’s video features a conversation with Bob Metcalfe, a pioneer in the field of computer science and the inventor of Ethernet. Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Jay Richards interviews Bob Metcalfe, inventor of Ethernet and recipient of the prestigious Turing Award, about the predicted pathologies of the internet and the reversals associated with the rise of connectivity.

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post

Author
Gary Smith
Date
April 16, 2024

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Chatbot, ChatGPT 3.5 and critical thinking, Copilot and critical thinking, Gemini and critical thinking, Large Language Models (LLMs), Large Language models and decision-making, Smith test on Large Language Models (LLMS)}

Elon Musk: AI will be smarter than a human in 2025: Why he’s wrong

_{The superficial glibness of LLMs is a wonderful example of the adage that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing} _{Gary Smith

April 16, 2024

7

Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

Based on extensive training on untold amounts of text, LLMs are able to repackage superficially compelling answers that they literally do not understand. Read More ›

A group of people walking together through a bustling shopping mall. This image can be used to depict a busy shopping day or to illustrate consumerism and retail therapy.

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
April 15, 2024

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
aaron renn, Books, David Foster Wallace, digital era, economy, Facebook, internet, music, Narcissism, online life, Self, social media, Tech}

The Crisis of Identity That Tech Doesn’t Help

_{Consumerism works well but leaves us empty} _{Peter Biles

April 15, 2024

2

Arts & Culture}

Writer and cultural commentator Aaron Renn wrote recently about the dissolution of identity in the United States, contending that if we don’t know who we are, we will never know what to do. Renn writes frequently on issues facing young men in America and the challenges of living well in the secular world. He writes, The reality is that a lot of people in top positions of our society act as if they want you living like Simba. They want porn available for you to watch. They want you betting on the big game on your phone. They want you focused on “experiences” and consumption, like hitting the latest hot travel destination or going to the new farm-to-table restaurant that Read More ›

Comparison. Portrait of beautiful woman with problem and clean skin, aging and youth concept, beauty treatment

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post

Author
News
Date
April 15, 2024

Categorized
Biology, Technology

Tagged
age, Biotech, COSM, COSM 2023, ethics, Progress, Technology, youth}

Anti-Aging: Is it Possible or a Pipe Dream?

_{A brand-new video on the topic of anti-aging technologies from the 2023 COSM conference} _{News

April 15, 2024

1

Biology, Technology}

The Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence is pleased to be able to share the videos from the 2023 COSM conference, now available on YouTube. This annual conference explores the status and the future of our era-defining technologies, from artificial intelligence to electric vehicles to new developments in biotech. Today’s video features a discussion on anti-aging, and whether this is even a possibility. Matt Scholz, CEO of Oisin Biotechnologies, leads a discussion with Vered Caplan, CEO of Orgenesis, and Elena Sergeeva, Neuroscientist at Tufts and Harvard and co-founder of Tiamat Labs, about anti-aging biotechnologies — how genetic reprogramming of cells could negate the effects of aging and even allow a person to stay in perfect health indefinitely, essentially Read More ›

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Author
Gary Varner
Date
April 13, 2024

Categorized
Science Fiction

Tagged
Adam Sandler, Chopra Cloud, Jakub Prochazka, Lenka in Spaceman film, Spaceman (2024 film), Spaceman (2024) alternative approach, Spider in Spaceman film}

Spaceman: Along Came a Spider and Sat Down… Well, Maybe

_{The spider is an alien with a somewhat complex relationship to people and toilets} _{Gary Varner

April 13, 2024

7

Science Fiction}

Adam Sandler gives a marvelous performance at a key point, but the script doesn’t give a specific moment that tells the audience what changed his mind. Read More ›

artificial intelligence deepfake AI image of a woman mixed with robotic tech elements

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post

Author
Richard W. Stevens
Date
April 13, 2024

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Politics

Tagged
Artificial intelligence and deepfake confessions, CCTV (China Central Television), Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Deepfake suicides, Forced confessions, Joseph Stalin, Kai Strittmatter, Li Zhuang, Mary Hong, Safeguard Defenders, Scripted and Staged (2018), We Have Been Harmonized (book)}

Deep Fake Videos Can Upgrade Political Humiliation and Rule by Fear

_{AI human impersonation video technology promises rule by terror to degrees never before imagined} _{Richard W. Stevens

April 13, 2024

6

Artificial Intelligence, Politics}

When propaganda is easily generated, millions fully embrace their inability to know the truth. They can’t so it doesn’t matter and never will. Read More ›

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post

Author
Peter Biles
Date
April 12, 2024

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Transhumanism

Tagged
dr stromm, fiction, green goblin, lab, Marvel, norman osborn, science, spiderman, superhero, transhumanism}

Green Goblin, the Hasty Transhumanist

_{A classic Marvel villain presents a picture of hurried science gone wrong} _{Peter Biles

April 12, 2024

3

Arts & Culture, Transhumanism}

“The product is certified ready for human testing.” I’m not quoting Elon Musk in relation to Neuralink. That’s the line from the fictional Norman Osborn in Sam Raimi’s original Spider-Man movie, starring Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, and the green maniac himself, Willem Dafoe. I’ve seen this movie dozens of times, so maybe it’s due to the weird fact that twenty-plus years after this film hit the scene, we now live in a world where big science organizations like Osborn’s Oscorp seem to be dealing with similar conflicts that ultimately produced the iconic Green Goblin. Not that Elon Musk or Sam Altman are going to start flying around on saucers and terrorize New York City. But they are eager to rush Read More ›

Effektives arbeiten im Büro mit der KI, nicht gegen die KI

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post

Author
Gary Smith
Date
April 11, 2024

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
Artificial intelligence (AI) limitations, Damion Hänkejh, Elon Musk on artificial intelligence, Herbert Simon on AI capabilities, Marvin Minsky on AI capabilities, Yann LeCun on future of AI}

The AI Hype Machine Just Rolls On, Living on Exhaust

_{Even chatbot enthusiasts, are starting to admit that scaling up LLMs will not create genuine artificial intelligence} _{Gary Smith

April 11, 2024

6

Artificial Intelligence}

Decades of geniuses trying to build computers that are as intelligent as they are have shown how truly remarkable our brains are—and how little we understand. Read More ›

ai technology, robotic technology system, molecule of chemical, atom cell plexus and science, abstract futuristic universe cyber network server online, background illustration 3d rendering

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
April 11, 2024

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Consciousness, Creativity, mind, Robert J. Marks}

Meta AI Scientist: AGI is a Pipe Dream

_{Human intelligence still can't be matched by a soulless algorithm} _{News

April 11, 2024

2

Artificial Intelligence}

Predictions on AI’s ever-developing complexity have tech optimists counting the days until the machine replaces the human mind. Artificial general intelligence is the term they use to describe the point in which AI will officially overtake human intelligence. However, certain experts in the field, among them Robert J. Marks, host of the Mind Matters podcast, protest the assumption. AI researcher and scientist Yann LeCun, the AI chief at Meta, said recently that the current AI systems are nowhere close to achieving human-like intelligence. LeCun said, “We’re easily fooled into thinking they are intelligent because of their fluency with language, but really, their understanding of reality is very superficial,” he said. “They’re useful, there’s no question about that. But on the Read More ›

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post

Author
Eric Holloway
Date
April 10, 2024

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Military

Tagged
Albrecht Gessler, conflict, Endogenous information, Exogenous information, Goals in conflict, war, William Tell}

How Could Intelligent Design Help Us In a Conflict?

_{Well, what would happen if Daffy Duck teams up with Marvin the Martian?} _{Eric Holloway

April 10, 2024

4

Artificial Intelligence, Military}

In war, the goal is to eliminate a threat as quickly as possible, given available resources. We try to hit the center of a target with the fewest arrows. A key mathematical concept of intelligent design, active information, captures this dilemma. It also helps us understand the role of artificial intelligence might play in wartime. Active information Active information is the difference between two sources of information. Picture archers shooting at a target: 1. Endogenous information: What is the size of the target? And how difficult is the target to hit? It is the difference between hitting a squirrel and hitting the moon. 2. Exogenous information: How skilled the archer is who is firing the arrows? What difference does the Read More ›