What, him again? And no new, ground-breaking book? Richard Dawkins is one of the best known scientists in the world. He is author of ‘The Selfish Gene’, which upturned our understanding of natural selection, and in 2017 was named the most influential science book of all time. He is also author of ‘The God Delusion’, which caused a global sensation upon publication in 2006. He has chaired almost every event in the Darwin Day Lecture series since its launch in 2003. Humanists UK president Professor Alice Roberts takes over the chair of the lecture at this event, and introduces Richard Dawkins as he delivers the Darwin Day Lecture for the first time. More. Somehow this stuff hasn’t aged well. Dissent Read More ›

Nieri looks at them as the narrative of the sci-fi game Detroit: Become Human develops them:  A Closer Look at Detroit: Become Human, Part I Gaming culture provides a window into our culture’s assumptions about artificial intelligence (Adam Nieri) In the game, Detroit has transcended its current economic despair, emerging as the epicenter of the android revolution. Cyberlife, headquartered there, has become the first company to engineer and produce fully autonomous, general purpose AI androids for consumers. A Closer Look at Detroit: Become Human, Part II Adam Nieri: One pillar, if you like, of the worldview of the “Church of AI” is the belief that our embrace of artificial intelligence is a step on the road to a higher form Read More ›

Georgia Tech biochemist Loren Williams was recently named co-leader of NASA’s new consortium to tackle origin of life: Did life on Earth originate in Darwin’s warm little pond, on a sunbaked shore, or where hot waters vent into the deep ocean? And could a similar emergence have played out on other bodies in our solar system or planets far beyond? These questions lie at the center of research in NASA’s new Prebiotic Chemistry and Early Earth Environments (PCE3) Consortium. One of five cross-divisional research coordination networks with the NASA Astrobiology Program, PCE3 aims to identify planetary conditions that might give rise to life’s chemistry. One goal of PCE3 is to guide future NASA missions targeting discovery of habitable worlds. Aaron Read More ›

Lehigh University biochemist Michael Behe, author of the 1996 book Darwin’s Black Box,  which many consider to have sparked the modern intelligent design movement, is releasing a new book later this month entitled Darwin Devolves. The new book promises to be as revolutionary as his earlier books; here is some background to help readers appreciate the title and main theme of the book. Although every other known natural (unintelligent) process tends to turn order into disorder, Darwinists have always believed that natural selection is the one natural process which can create spectacular order out of disorder. In my 2012 video Evolution is a Natural Process Running Backward I cited examples (beginning at the 10:50 mark) from Behe’s 2007 book The Read More ›