The differences between human brains and other primate brains seem greater than the 1.2% – 1.6% genetic difference the Smithsonian posits for humans vs. apes.
Author: News
Denyse O'Leary is the News blogger for Uncommon Descent
At Mind Matters News: Is ours one of a few working universes among countless flops?
No. For one thing, Meyer says, even though the multiverse attempts to explain fine tuning, it actually ends up presupposing unexplained prior sources of fine tuning.
Cold Case Detective J. Warner Wallace on the “God of the Gaps”
Essentially, as Cold-Case Christianity’s J. Warner Wallace, the retired Los Angeles Police Detective who specialized in solving murder cases that had remained unsolved for year, explains, particular evidence requires certain characteristics in order to have explanatory power.
At Mind Matters News: Astrophysicist: Webb finds may bring “revolutionary changes”
It doesn’t disprove the Big Bang, says Brian Koberlein… but read the fine print. Fermilab’s Don Lincoln gets the religious implications all wrong. Theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder thinks we don’t know what happened and never will — and that the Big Bang is a “creation myth” in the language of math.
At Mind Matters News: Atheist philosopher strongly supports online political censorship
Takehome: Ironically, most Big Social Media are domiciled in the United States to gain the freedom of speech that they increasingly deny to others.
Evolution Symposium 2023 June 21-25, 2023 in Albuquerque, NM, USA
If you think you have a topic for them, the organizers stress diversity but here’s what that means: ….. No, we didn’t notice anything about diverse viewpoints either. Must be a typo.
At Mind Matters News: News from the search for extraterrestrial life 2
One reason for hope for finding life elsewhere in the universe is that the universe appears to be fine-tuned for life. What the universe won’t do is tell us where the life is.
Trust the Science! files: U Washington kept quiet — knowingly — on flawed transgender study
Open season on Jesse Singal for noticing? Or … alternatively … how about this, Little Rays of Sunshine — University of Washington Chapter: Hereafter, we will reasonably assume that anything you say on the topic stands a good chance of being — in whole or in part — a falsehood. And what should we do with a fish when only some of it stinks?
At Mind Matters News: A neurosurgeon on why some people function with only half a brain
Michael Egnor: The means by which people with major parts of their brains removed maintain function are not understood. It’s nonsense to say, as some do, that “The brain is massively parallel and recursive and functions under network rules and laws.” That’s typical neuroscience gibberish.
At Mind Matters News: What does it mean to say bees “feel and think”?
What, exactly, does “consciousness” or “feel and think” mean when applied to a bee? This usage is no remote outpost. Renowned USC neuroscientist Antonio Damasio tells us that viruses are “intelligent.” Similarly, University of Chicago biochemist James Shapiro tells us in a scholarly paper that all living cells are “cognitive.” But what do they mean?
Jerry Coyne tells us: Anticreationist book author Twittermobbed, may be de-Wikipedia’d
Get this: “Nobody cares about the facts; an accusation is sufficient.” Oh, for heaven’s sakes, look on the bright side!: At least we know it’s the authentic Twitter mob and not some second-rate substitute like a starving wolf pack…
At Mind Matters News: Octopuses create an “origin of intelligence” conundrum
The evolution of intelligence in mammals and birds could be dismissed as a fluke. Finding far-distant intelligent life forms suggests a pattern instead. But what is it?
At Mind Matters News: People with half their brains removed do well on psych tests
Takehome: Findings like this are a challenge to those who insist that the mind is simply what the brain does. The mind may not be split or removed when the brain is.
At Mind Matters News: Has a superintellect monkeyed with our universe’s physics?
Takehome: It got worse for Hoyle: To form carbon at all, gravitational forces must be balanced just right with the electromagnetic forces. That’s just the start…
At Mind Matters News: Epitaph for transhumanism: But it’s far from dead!, advocate says
The waning of interest in transhumanism may be related to a growing awareness of the fundamental limits of artificial intelligence.