Further to “Social justice warriors turn their sights on evo psych prof,” J. R. Miller has some thoughts on the SJWs at More Than Cake: About Reprogrammed: Every Thursday at 11:00 Pacific, former SJW Keri Smith joins Unsafe Space to co-host “Deprogrammed.” We’ll explore the philosophy, strategy, and tactics that Marxist and postmodern nihilists use to program “Social Justice Warriors,” turning otherwise thoughtful, critically-minded individuals into armies of extreme leftist NPCs. Each week, we’ll talk about a different aspect of “social justice” culture, drawing both from Keri’s personal experience as well as current events.More. Who knew that the Enlightenment would end in Punch Yer Lights Out? See also: Social justice warriors turn their sights on evo psych prof. We thought Read More ›

Recently, Clemson U philosopher Todd May whistled through the system on the pros and cons of human extinction: May’s reasoning is fascinatingly nihilistic. He argues that human extinction would be tragic because we have a tragic flaw – our shortsighted use of the environment – which would be recitified by our extinction. “Humanity,” he says, “is the source of devastation of the lives of conscious animals on a scale that is difficult to comprehend.” And while he recognizes that “nature itself is hardly a Valhalla of peace and harmony,” humans are uniquely cruel (in our defense, we don’t have a generalized habit of cannibalizing our mates, as some species do). He explains that we’re wrecking the world. Ben Shapiro, “Clemson Read More ›

Well, we have heard that astrology is on the rise but not much about new atheism being in decline. A Google Trends graph from 2004 through 2017 shows Sam Harris, rising and Richard Dawkins declining: Dawkins has always been the heart of New Atheism, meaning its decline and his decline are linked at the hip. Harris, probably because of his Hollywood background/connections, is much more media savvy and branched out from New Atheism, first with meditation related stuff and now, with the “Intellectual Dark Web” stuff. “Dawkins vs. Harris” at Shadow to Light It’s worth considering. Keep in mind though that the Google Trend decline could be accounted for in part by the fact that Dawkins is 77 and Harris Read More ›

Christmas carols with “science” lyrics: [30:52 Hark! It’s Hayabusa2: The last of this year’s songs is an ode to a lander that touched down on an asteroid millions of miles away from Earth. Scroll to the transcript section below for the lyrics.podcast with Benjamin Thompson and Ali Jennings, “Podcast: Quantum physics adds a twist and festive fun” at Natureem> When some of us were young, mischievous teens and nerdy grad students used to do this at Hallowe’en. We didn’t think the fad would end up finding a home but, who can tell? Meanwhile, Messiah Oratorio: See also: Eureka! Christmas spirit located in brain… Follow UD News at Twitter!

Hmmm. We don’t often see serious skepticism of Cool ideas like string theory except from brave souls like Sabine Hossenfelder.  With luck, if this pans out to be a serious discussion, it will begin a trend. Note: Some of us would be okay with “Why String Theory Is Right,” provided it is a response to skepticism taken seriously and the theory is treated as a theory with serious problems—not a sort of foregone conclusion, upholding a multiverse. Hat tip: RealClearScience See also:  Sabine Hossenfelder: Black holes do not behave as string theorists say they should “Perhaps physics has slipped into a post-empirical era…” (from a review of Hossenfelder’s book at Physics World) Post-modern physics: String theory gets over the need for evidence and Read More ›

From the 2018 AI Hype Countdown at Mind Matters #9: AI help, not hype, with Robert J. Marks: What would it take for a robot to be self-aware? The Army Times headline would jolt your morning coffee: Army researchers are developing a self-aware squid-like robot you can 3D print in the field Reporter Todd South helpfully adds, “your next nightmare.” The thrill of fear invites the reader to accept the metaphorical claim that the robot will be “self-aware” as a literal fact. Although we could, for technical reasons, quibble with the claim that the robot squid will be printed in 3D, we won’t just now. Let’s focus instead on the seductive semantics of the term “self-aware.” For humans, Oxford tells Read More ›

That might include not being able to get a loan, run a company, or apply for a job: The policy, announced last month, is an extension of the country’s controversial ‘social credit system’, where failure to comply with the rules of one government agency can mean facing restrictions or penalties from other agencies. The punishment overhaul is the government’s latest measure to crack down on misconduct. But the nature and extent of the policy has surprised many researchers. “I have never seen such a comprehensive list of penalties for research misconduct elsewhere in the world,” says Chien Chou, a scientific integrity education researcher at Chiao Tung University in Taiwan. … As of April, the number of times people were denied Read More ›

From ScienceDaily: Over 450 millipedes, fossilized in 100-million-year-old Burmese amber, were recently discovered by a research team. Using micro-CT technology, the scientists identified 13 out of the 16 main groups of modern millipedes amongst them. For half of these groups, the findings also represent the oldest known fossils. … According to the scientists, most of the Cretaceous millipedes found in the amber do not differ significantly from the species found in Southeast Asia nowadays, which is an indication of the old age of the extant millipede lineages. On the other hand, the diversity of the different orders seems to have changed drastically. For example, during the Age of the Dinosaurs, the group Colobognatha — millipedes characterised by their unusual elongated Read More ›