Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 28, 2019
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Intelligent Design, Mind, Neuroscience

Winston Ewert explains why the mind is not a computer

Denyse O'Leary
July 28, 2019
Artificial Intelligence, Intelligent Design, Mind, Neuroscience
"An abstract mathematical device cannot experience qualia or consciousness. If they could, we would expect mathematical formulas like the quadratic formula or the area of a sphere to experience consciousness. But that seems absurd, so we must conclude that a computer cannot exhibit consciousness. Put another way, consciousness is not a form of computation." Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 27, 2019
Categorized
Intelligent Design, Mind, Neuroscience
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Forty years ago, Douglas Hofstadter was sure a materialist explanation of the brain would work…

Denyse O'Leary
July 27, 2019
Intelligent Design, Mind, Neuroscience
"There is, quite simply, no mechanical explanation of how the human mind has emerged from brawling chimpanzees over the course of millions of years of evolution." That keeps happening with materialist theories. We thought their hat had way more rabbits. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 27, 2019
Categorized
Intelligent Design, Peer review, Psychology
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Darwinian Jerry Coyne makes a good point about the social science hoaxes

Denyse O'Leary
July 27, 2019
Intelligent Design, Peer review, Psychology
The distinction is that low-quality papers might happen to fall through the cracks now and then and a cherry picker could gin up an indictment of a whole field unjustly. BUT when a number of hoax papers get accepted by various journals, that points to deeper systemic rot. Especially when the social science profs are enraged rather than ashamed Read More ›
Type
post
Date
July 27, 2019
Categorized
Defending our Civilization, rhetoric, Selective Hyperskepticism
Tagged
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“If it fits into a nutshell . . .”: on, the error of demanding arbitrary, rhetorically loaded brevity

kairosfocus
July 27, 2019
Defending our Civilization, rhetoric, Selective Hyperskepticism

I noticed that the objection of dismissal on length (without substantial consideration) has come up here at UD yet again. I think it appropriate to note its fallacious character where considerable reflection is required. (And BTW, a quote from a serious source is a legitimate approach as I will shortly exemplify.) Accordingly, let me headline a comment I just made in the Egnor vs a materialist neuroscientist thread: KF, 15: >>[I]f a philosophical claim on any serious matter fits neatly into a nutshell, it belongs there. There is always an issue of substantial exposition, cross-check against material facts, establishing credible coherence and comparative, balanced explanatory power. This is not a business of 140 or 280 character tweets or rhetorically loaded Read More ›

Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 26, 2019
Categorized
Culture, Intelligent Design, Psychology
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Portland U prof who hoaxed social science journals to prove a point is punished

Denyse O'Leary
July 26, 2019
Culture, Intelligent Design, Psychology
The rap is “research misconduct,” of all things. Oh and get this: “An academic journal is continuing to sell a viral article on “rape culture” and “queer performativity” in Portland dog parks despite expressing concerns about the veracity of the research. Veracity? It was a genuine hoax, that’s what kind of veracity it had. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 26, 2019
Categorized
Darwinism, Intelligent Design, Plants, stasis
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Researchers: Photosynthesis may be a billion years older than thought … But WAIT!

Denyse O'Leary
July 26, 2019
Darwinism, Intelligent Design, Plants, stasis
“Dr Cardona also suggests that this might mean oxygenic photosynthesis was not the product of a billion years of evolution from anoxygenic photosynthesis, but could have been a trait that evolved much sooner, if not first.” So when did the billions of years of Darwinian evolution that “gradually evolved” photosynthesis happen? Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 26, 2019
Categorized
Culture, Darwinism, Intelligent Design, science education

National Science Teachers group calls security over questioning Darwin

Denyse O'Leary
July 26, 2019
Culture, Darwinism, Intelligent Design, science education
Okay, but then Suzan Mazur, author of Darwin Overthrown: Hello Mechanobiology, should be invited to speak. She would probably give a great rundown on the various streams of non-Darwinian (and some explicitly contra-Darwinian) research that doesn’t address any faith issues. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 25, 2019
Categorized
Extraterrestrial life, Human evolution, Intelligent Design
Tagged
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Evolutionary biologist: Space babies will be more alien than human

Denyse O'Leary
July 25, 2019
Extraterrestrial life, Human evolution, Intelligent Design
“Eventually,” he recently told Business Insider, “people living in space could evolve to be different enough from people on Earth that we would consider them to be different species.” Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 25, 2019
Categorized
Evolution, Intelligent Design, stasis
Tagged
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They didn’t find the parenting switch…

Denyse O'Leary
July 25, 2019
Evolution, Intelligent Design, stasis
They didn’t find anything like a “parenting switch” that applied across frog and mouse species, they noted. But parenting behavior, however caused, may be very much older that we used to think (the rise of amphibians about 360 million years ago?). And yet many later life forms don’t care for their offspring. The more evolution becomes a history, the more it features puzzling complexities that can't be resolved by a fatuous appeal to an "ism". Read More ›