The way I see it…in brief… (and very simplistically) is that human intelligence is a product of evolution. We started off with basic pattern recognition and cognitive functions that all evolved over time. Intelligence evolved and we began to “store” information. If we saw another person attacked by a lion, we did not make the same error. We refl…

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Playing with words here, but I feel there’s a kind of fundamentalish link between my consciousness and rules of the universe, or even the life around me. My consciousness is my brain operating, fine tuned to adapt to the world and life in it. I see that as a kind of “fundamental link”.

But that doesn’t automatically lead to the conclusion that…[Read more]

I will start by saying that I would be in the Sean Carroll camp on this. One foot might cross over to the Christof Koch side at times, but only to hear him out and to think upon his ideas. I have a lot of respect for Koch and was fortunate to attend a few of his lectures over the years. But my instinct has been to step back into Camp Carroll and…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
What if Consciousness is Fundamental?

Sean Carroll also has a recent podcast with Christof Koch on this topic. When I heard Koch expressing support for panpsychism, it sadly felt like a nod to woo-woo. Fortunately, Sean kindly dissented. As much as I respect Koch, IMO, his view struck me as simply “reasoning” that…[Read more]

The video with Jason Stanley on Amanpour referred to a Guardian article on the topic of how the Trump admin wants to define university policies and practices. As Enco notes, they can do this when they have powers of the purse. (Yo MAGA, the left may have set the scene, but you made governmental interference inevitable.)

Excerpt from the…[Read more]

TheEncogitationer wrote:
Is it just me or is AI art deliberately formulaic and creepy?

LLMs and AI algorithms are designed by humans, and source data gathered from the internet that humans created and maintain. I.e. that’s where any formulae and creepiness would be originally coming from, with a dose of whatever unexpected weirdness might come…[Read more]

TheEncogitationer wrote:
Reg, Is it just me or is AI art deliberately formulaic and creepy? All the AI visual art that I’ve seen looks like art in The Watchtower or a H.R. Giger painting! That work above looks like a panel from Jack Chick if he did illusrated nursery stories like he did his religious tracts. YEEECH!

Oh yeah…creepy as fuck b…[Read more]

Reg,

Is it just me or is AI art deliberately formulaic and creepy?

All the AI visual art that I’ve seen looks like art in The Watchtower or a H.R. Giger painting! That work above looks like a panel from Jack Chick if he did illusrated nursery stories like he did his religious tracts. YEEECH!

Unseen,

The idea of a dynastic Presidency with sons and wives and other relatives also holding either the Oval Office or other powerful positions depressed me enough when the Presidents were Daddy Bush and the Little Bush boy, and in between with Slick Willy Clinton and “It’s Her Turn” Hillary, and Barry “The One” Obama and “Turnip For What”…[Read more]