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Topic

John Horgan

Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
March 16, 2022
Categorized
Intelligent Design, Mind, Physics
Tagged
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At Mind Matters News: John Horgan at Scientific American: Does quantum mechanics kill free will?

Denyse O'Leary
March 16, 2022
Intelligent Design, Mind, Physics
Horgan sides, somewhat tentatively, with free will. He notes that humans are more than just heaps of particles. Higher levels of complexity enable genuinely new qualities. What humans can do is not merely a more complex version of what amoebas can do — in turn, a more complex version of what electrons can do. Greater complexity can involve genuinely new qualities. A philosopher would say that he is not a reductionist. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 13, 2021
Categorized
Intelligent Design, Multiverse
Tagged
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Science writer John Horgan on why the multiverse is a fantasy

Denyse O'Leary
May 13, 2021
Intelligent Design, Multiverse
Horgan: First, science is in a slump, for reasons both internal and external. Science is ill-served when prominent thinkers tout ideas that can never be tested and hence are, sorry, unscientific. Moreover, at a time when our world, the real world, faces serious problems, dwelling on multiverses strikes me as escapism—akin to billionaires fantasizing about colonizing Mars. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
April 16, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Intelligent Design, Mind
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Science writer John Horgan explains how he came to doubt the AI apocalypse

Denyse O'Leary
April 16, 2021
Artificial Intelligence, Intelligent Design, Mind
Takehome: Horgan finds that, despite the enormous advances in neuroscience, genetics, cognitive science, and AI, our minds remain “as mysterious as ever.” Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 12, 2020
Categorized
Information, Intelligent Design, Mind
Tagged
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When science writer John Horgan reluctantly sort of acknowledged: Information implies minds

Denyse O'Leary
May 12, 2020
Information, Intelligent Design, Mind
Horgan: The concept of information makes no sense in the absence of something to be informed—that is, a conscious observer capable of choice, or free will (sorry, I can't help it, free will is an obsession). Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
November 26, 2019
Categorized
Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Multiverse
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John Horgan on how multiverse theories are bad for science

Denyse O'Leary
November 26, 2019
Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Multiverse
The Scientific American columnist is unimpressed by two recent books on the subject, cosmologist Sean Carroll’s Something Deeply Hidden and science writer Tom Siegfried’s The Number of the Heavens. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
November 19, 2019
Categorized
Ethics, Intelligent Design, Science
Tagged
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John Horgan on Jeffrey Epstein and the decadence of science

Denyse O'Leary
November 19, 2019
Ethics, Intelligent Design, Science
Horgan: As genuine progress has stalled, hype has surged. A 2015 study of biomedical papers found that between 1974 and 2014 the frequency of terms such as “novel,” “innovative” and “unprecedented” increased 15-fold. Read More ›