What, Why & How do we Know ?
As an atheist who believes in the fundamental nature of information and meaning this episode of Future Proofing on Faith – “how the functions of religion could be taken over by technology” – I found very hard to listen to. Great conclusion from Timandra Harkness, despite some awfully confused content contributors. Good in parts, but where to … Continue reading ““There’s No Faith Without AI” – Please God, No!”
Leaving aside the click-bait element in the title of this YouTube posting, the choice of words is so disrespectful and misogynistic it beggars belief. Not surprisingly the bait captures plenty of trolls in the comment thread. Awful! Context – We don’t see the actual talk by Peterson, and it’s certainly not a debate (not necessarily … Continue reading “Who’s a Crazy Female Atheist?!?”
In resisting overly mechanistic world-views, the idea of a mechanical philosophy is a scary thought. But it got my attention, as Stuart Glennan intended in the title of his “The New Mechanical Philosophy” reviewed by Carl Craver in the BJPS Review of Books. Hat tip to retweet by Judy Stout. A scary thought “mechanical philosophy” … Continue reading “Nominalism as “Mechanical Philosophy””
There was a time when I followed John Brockman’s Edge regularly, it was a great way to pick up relationships between living thinkers you already knew and admired and others you didn’t, from across unlimited intellectual fields. The great thing about the annual Edge Question is that apart from the open question, there is no … Continue reading “Hidden Concepts – Edge 2017 – Let’s play Connections instead of Bulldog”
Andy Martin has written another great piece for The Independent. Topical – as in Piers Morgan and the usual opinionated #Celebs / #Trump / #Brexit / #Corbyn bollocks that fills all our bandwidth – but spot on with the underlying subtlety of what is really going on. We’ve lost perspective of real truth, we’ve got … Continue reading “Without Hypocrisy All is Tautology”
Interesting to see today’s news on standardisation of units of measure, that time, distance and mass are now to be unified through the Caesium clock with application of the speed of light (c) and Planck’s constant (h). (Hat tip to Jim Al-Khalili on Twitter). Fascinating article in itself, however yet more evidence that the accepted standard … Continue reading “Carlo Rovelli – A Fresh Spin on Fundamental Physics”
When it comes to Anthony Gottlieb’s “Dream of Enlightenment“, my anticipation would be an understatement. When in 2004 I read and loved his earlier “Dream of Reason” (Greeks to Renaissance) and noted a second volume was in the pipeline, I was on pre-order lists with the publisher, and retail outlets, I even followed-up with enquiries about forecast … Continue reading “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants – Dreaming of Enlightenment”
I promised a fuller review of Nick Spencer’s “Atheism – The Origin of the Species” when I’d completed it. It’s a rather long review with plenty of spoilers and quotes here, since I’m gutting it for content I find useful, but a recommended read for anyone from Mrs Angry Atheist to Mr Tolerant Apologist and all … Continue reading “Nothing New Under the Sun When it Comes to Atheism?”