Category Archives: uncategorized

I think I would define consciousness in purely computational terms and I don’t think I’d make it dependent on the specific structure in which the computation takes place. eg, perhaps: “An entity is said to be ‘conscious’ if its state changes … Continue reading →

Dear Conservative Canadians, I share the fear of masked figures that is common in our culture, and I am more inclined than most to be put off by overt displays of religious and other affiliation. But the attempt to reduce  our political … Continue reading →

From Charles Kenny of  the ‘Center for Global Development‘, writing in The Atlantic: Those who are anti-coal, anti-gas, anti-dam, and anti-nuclear when it comes to energy development in the developing world are implying that people there shouldn’t use electricity at … Continue reading →

From Alex Frankl in The Guardian (referring to Tony Abbot’s anti-environmental success in Australia) “After years running focus groups I’ve learned one thing: technical terms like ‘carbon’ and ‘emissions’ can never win against a simple story about tax” except here … Continue reading →

So begins Matthew Beard’s response to Stephen Pinker’s recent article  about the effect of intrusions by “bioethicists” into decisions about medical research and practice (which all came to my attention via Russell Blackford’s response to the response).  

In his post on Hyperbolic and exponential discounting, Murray Bourne objects to the comment by ‘kissmetrics’ in Six Advantages of Hyperbolic Discounting that “the phrase hyperbolic discounting is despicable jargon“. But actually I tend to agree with that judgement – though not to the credit … Continue reading →

France has log been a leader in finding and using alternatives to Carbon combustion, and also in legislating against potentially dangerous extraction schemes such as fracking. And now that solar technology has become cheap enough to make sense in many … Continue reading →

Finland, Home of the $103,000 Speeding Ticket — The Atlantic.The clearest case for this is in cases where there is a fine or jail time option. Why should the poor suffer loss of a much greater fraction of their entire … Continue reading →

Massimo Pigliucci has a new blog about his experience of following a “stoic” philosophy. My goal in following Massimo is not to become a Stoic but just to get a better understanding of what it means, and in particular how … Continue reading →

In case this OneTab shared tabs page doesn’t last here is my local version of the links.

Sean Carroll identifies some Wrong Objections to the Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, which is fine but I’d rather he addressed some of the better ones. I have always thought of (my own experience of) the universe as corresponding to (a … Continue reading →

Shadi Hamid and William McCants (of the Brookings Institution) object that “John Kerry Won’t Call the Islamic State by its Name Anymore”. The article contains two arguments, the first very bad and the second very good. The good argument is that … Continue reading →

The proper response to Islamic Zealotry (including some criticism of Walzer’s position) has also been discussed (again in ‘The Atlantic’) by Shadi Hamid with particular reference to the situation in France. Hamid points out some of the real inconsistencies in the French (and much of … Continue reading →

Apparently the conservative pundits and right wing religious types are all excited about President Obama’s having mentioned that using religion to brutalize other people is neither a Muslim invention nor foreign to the American experience. According to ThinkProgress, Russell Moore, President of … Continue reading →

The European has an article on the new Greek finance minister – which apparently picks up on a report in The Guardian. There is also news about his discussions with Osborne and other Euro finance ministers but in a profile of … Continue reading →

From Kenan Malik  comes this discussion (to me via 3QuarksDaily) of the ‘Kennewick Man’ controversy (which, it seems, basically boils down to the question of whether modern indigenous tribes have a right to claim the bones of Starfleet Captain Luc Picard  – who … Continue reading →

Prompted by Michael Walzer’s piece on Islamism and the Left in ‘Dissent Magazine’ (to which I was led by Jeffrey Goldberg’s report in ‘The Atlantic’ on French PM Manuel Valls’ resistance to the term “islamophobia” ). The Zealotry of Righteous Assholes is a universal … Continue reading →

Briggs is certainly right that much of what is touted as ‘Artificial Intelligence’ is just the use of electronic machinery to implement the calculations in a method devised by human intelligence. Indeed, for now that really is all that computers … Continue reading →

Suis-je Charlie? Muss ich Charlie werden? Why am I not Charlie? Perhaps I am *not* Charlie, but if I am not Charlie, then I *must* be Ahmed! I have often (well, at least occasionally) loved Charlie Hebdo with a love … Continue reading →

D.G.Mayo has reproduced Nathan Schachtman’s post on Naomi Oreskes’ op-ed in the NYTimes – and of course Briggs also chimes in. I have to admit that I find Oreskes’ piece less than compelling and in many ways seriously wrong. Her main point … Continue reading →