Crack open for a hard boiled think
There is much talk these days about artificial intelligence, and whether advanced computer systems could ever really ‘think’. Might they, after we have birthed them, go on to replicate and take over the world? This is not idle speculation, or the draft plot for a science fiction novel. Stephen Hawking is only one of many […]
The Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence by Margaret Boden Read More »
I’m assuming you don’t spend a lot of time picking out unwanted insects from your best friend’s fur. Yet the function of that activity in apes is exactly what Robin Dunbar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Dunbar) believes language does for us. Apes and monkeys, humanity’s closest kin, differ from other animals in the intensity of their social relationships. All their
Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language by Robin Dunbar Read More »
After the daily, and lengthy, reading from Scripture in her home in Lewis my Grandmother was in the habit of glancing at a framed photo permanently positioned on the mantlepiece. It was of her brother who had been killed in The First World War. As often as not she would mutter ‘Wars and rumours of wars, for
Violence by Richard Bessel Read More »
Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Origin_of_Species) fell like a nuclear weapon into Victorian consciousness. The implication for many thinking people was that the whole of the living world is engaged in a brutal, pitiless competition for survival. Worse than this realisation is that if Man is co-terminus with the natural world, then we
Does Altruism Exist by David Sloan Wilson Read More »
In comparative mythology, the related motifs of a dying god and of a dying-and-rising god (also known as a death-rebirth-deity) have appeared in diverse cultures. In the more commonly accepted motif of a dying god, the deity goes away and does not return. The motif of a dying-and-rising god refers to a deity which returns, is resurrected
The Myth of the Resurrection by Joseph McCabe Read More »
It’s only in very recent times that people have found it uncomfortable to believe in the reality of The Devil. This is in line with the liberal squeamishness about believing in the reality of Hell. Millions across the globe, though, who do not live near University precincts or live in Georgian town houses, still believe
The Devil: A Biography by Peter Stanford Read More »
John Gray (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gray_(philosopher)) has been entertaining us now for years with his trenchant attacks on humanism, global capitalism, campaigning atheism, progress (historical and ethical), The Enlightenment, and any other (as he sees it) variety of flaccid optimism. He has presented these in False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism (1998), Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans
The Soul of the Marionette by John Gray Read More »
One thought troubles me greatly. It is entirely possible to be deluded and live your whole life through happily. A clear example is that hundreds of millions of humans believed that the Sun was moving round the Earth daily. They organised their agriculture, society, calendar and religion around this idea. For them it seems to
The Believing Brain by Michael Shermer Read More »
Have you ever fancied, in an idle moment, that you’d like to live forever? Or just a little longer than the apportioned three score year and ten? According to Dr. Stephen Cave (http://www.stephencave.com/) (and with apologies to Eddie Cochran) there are actually 4 steps to heaven. These are not sequential – they are alternatives. Cave sets out
Immortality by Stephen Cave Read More »
