Intelligent Design

This is a great discussion about whether AI (1) is currently sentient and (2) can, in principle, be sentient. All three panelists agree that it not currently sentient. It is 2 to 1 on whether it can, in principle, be sentient. As you might expect, how the materialists reach their conclusion follows more from metaphysical commitments than evidence. Max and Melanie (the materialists) see no reason why, in principle, computers cannot in the future be conscious. Why not? they ask, we are all just material stuff. And if you agree with their metaphysical premises, that is an unanswerable question. Max, especially is committed to this view and thinks we should be more humble. He is so blinkered by his commitment Read More ›

Materialism — the belief that everything that happens is the result of the action of the basic laws of physics on the basic particles of physics — leads its adherents to some conclusions that most do not really believe but are obliged to assert.  For example, they often claim there is no real free will, that everything we do is determined by the laws of physics.   But if they really believed this, why would they bother trying to convince the rest of us?  Whether or not we will accept their conclusion is completely beyond our control.   Certainly our behavior is influenced, maybe to a large degree, by our heredity and environment but no one would possibly conclude that he has Read More ›

Quantum computing, of course, has been a hot sci-tech topic in recent years, what with stories as to how it will obsolete the large prime number product encryption schemes that give us some of our strongest codes, and stories of vast computing power exponentially beyond our hottest supercomputers today. With hot money being poured in by the wheelbarrow load. (Well, maybe buckets of bits as most serious transactions are digital nowadays. Itself already a problem . . . security is an issue.) What are we to make of this? (My bet is, superposition. Itself, a core quantum issue.) Reader and commenter, Relatd, has given us a useful, first level video: (A good place to begin, a useful survey with some Read More ›