First, let’s begin by noting a remarkable fact: Panpsychism seems to have triumphed in the area of theories of consciousness.
Neuroscience
At Mind Matters News: The final materialist quest: A war on the reality of the mind
When George Orwell wrote 1984, he addressed destroying minds, not denying their possibility and changing the language associated with them.
At Mind Matters News: How complex is a single neuron in your brain?
An artificial intelligence network did not do nearly as well. Researchers showed that a deep neural network needs 5-8 layers of [artificial] interconnected “neurons” to mimic the complexity of one single biological neuron.
At Mind Matters News: A neuroscience theory that actually helps explain the brain
Epstein’s theory is that that the brain is a type of transducer, that is, a device or an organ that converts one signal to another signal, commonly from one medium to another. A microphone, for example, is a transducer that converts sound waves to electrical current. Your eye is a transducer that converts light to vision. So the brain converts thoughts to material effects.
At Mind Matters News: Non-materialist science is wanted — dead or alive
Michael Egnor: I’ve gotten calls to my department in my university demanding that I be fired. That’s a fairly frequent thing. I was called a couple of years ago by the campus police that there was a death threat against me and they wanted to protect me. So this kind of stuff goes on. And some of these people are vicious.
At Mind Matters News: Can science really engineer a bigger human brain?
The human brain has actually been shrinking in the last 30,000 years, the same period that has also shown great intellectual achievements.
At Mind Matters News: Do brains really evolve? The horseshoe crab’s brain didn’t
At Science News: “The preserved central nervous system lends insight into the ancient crab’s behavior, the researchers say. Because the fossil brain is so similar to the brains of modern horseshoe crabs, Bicknell says, it’s safe to say the ancient animal’s walking, breathing and even feeding habits were probably similar to horseshoe crabs’ today, including eating with their legs. “
At Mind Matters News: Defending the mind’s reality at a materialist cocktail party
What to say when you find yourself among self-assured elite sloganeers. The actual history of neuroscience in the last century has not been kind to materialist assertions and assumptions.
At Mind Matters News: How the split brain emphasizes the reality of the mind
Fascinating research following up Roger Sperry’s work — which showed that the mind is not split when the brain is — has confirmed and extended his findings.
At Mind Matters News: Dualism is the best option for understanding the mind and the brain
Neurosurgeon Michael Egnor reflects on the fact that theories that attempt to show that the mind does not really exist clearly don’t work and never did.
At Mind Matters News: The reality of the mind: The argument from epilepsy
Neurosurgeon Michael Egnor asks, Why do epileptic seizures evoke many odd behaviors but not abstract thought?
At Mind Matters News: Neurosurgeon Michael Egnor takes on philosopher David Papineau, Round 1
In the debate, Egnor begins by offering three fundamental reasons why the mind is not the brain.
At Oscillations: Information on the Linnean Society Virtual Meeting (June 28–29)
Oscillations is science writer Suzan Mazur’s blog. Mazur draws attention to the Linnean Society’s virtual conference, Evolution ‘On Purpose’: Teleonomy in Living Systems: “Living systems exhibit an internal teleology, the full implications of which have not been explored. This meeting will address various aspects of this phenomenon, including its scope and meaning, and its many forms and facets.”
Does humanity depend on a “key genetic switch” that makes human brains grow larger than ape brains?
Some researchers believe that our diet led to a larger brain but they differ as to which food was the ultimate brain booster. Are we missing something here?
Memories don’t stay put in neurons, they drift a lot
Textbooks did not tell most students that.