Google’s cat picture algorithm learning how to analyze DNA isn’t a step towards AI’s becoming sentient or super intelligent – but it is a significant step towards wide spread technological unemployment. The Atlantic is one of my favorite news sources. In this… Read More ›
Our time has been rife with great ideological battles: Communism vs Capitalism, Materialism vs Spirituality, Punk vs Metal, Trump vs the Truth, etc…. But there is one great battle which has raged on for most of the 20th century,… Read More ›
I frequently have quips with my friend Brahim Guizani over the pros and cons of free market capitalism. He recently posted this video of Milton Friedman, titled “Is Capitalism humane” to Facebook, citing the nobel prize winner as one of his main… Read More ›
I was recently involved in an online forum discussion about the following interesting AI related news: See “Scientists are teaching Super Mario to think and feel”, and “Computer Scientists Generate A Self-Aware Mario That Can Learn And Feel”. It seems that a… Read More ›
One of my favorite Sci-Fi short stories is “Mimsy Were the Borogoves” , whose title is taken from Lewis Caroll’s nonsensical poem “Jabberwocky” . (Spoiler alert, skip to the 4th paragraph if you want to read the story for yourself) The story starts… Read More ›
I’ve told my friends many times that the only time I’ve had a religious/mystical experience was not when attending any religious service or reading any scripture, but when listening to the music of Bob Marley. Nothing embodies the religious feeling… Read More ›
In a previous post, I examined the lyrics of Rush’s song ‘Freewill’, and commented that their lyrics in general were heavy handed and pretentious. A friend of mine pointed out that a 3 out of 3 combination of good musicianship,… Read More ›
Originally posted on Scientia Salon:
by Marko Vojinovic Introduction Every now and then, the question of reductionism is raised in philosophy of science: whether or not various sciences can be theoretically reduced to lower-level sciences. The answer to this question…
Originally posted on Scientia Salon:
by Massimo Pigliucci You probably heard the news: a supercomputer has become sentient and has passed the Turing test (i.e., has managed to fool a human being into thinking he was talking to another human…
One of my favorite bands of all time is Rush, who in my view have a perfect blend of 70s/early 80s hard rock and complex prog rock. Aside from the compositional and technical complexity of their music, the other thing… Read More ›
Skander Hannachi 