Category Archives: Philosophy

February 27

Buried Alive

posted by

You wake up. It’s pitch black, the air is stale, and your body is pressed by wooden planks on all sides. You try to reach up but your hand hits wooden planks above you. Seized by terror, you try to thrash about but there is no room to move and it’s getting harder to breathe. […]

»»
October 29

The science non-fiction of a bodiless brain

posted by

The brain. Nestled cozily inside its skull and properly integrated with its body’s peripheral nervous and circulatory systems, the organ is revered as a sacred abode for our thoughts, emotions, and identity. But extracted from this natural habitat, its slimy cortex and gyrating gyri can make one squeamish. Don’t worry, we neuroscientists aren’t offended. It’s […]

»»
October 27

The Shape of Things to Come

posted by

Experts overwhelmingly agree: Robots will soon overthrow humanity. The only question is whether they will merely enslave us1 or will entirely destroy the human race2,3,4. To better face our coming downfall, it is important to understand how machines will gain the powers to destroy us. They have already bested us in chess5, game shows6, and […]

»»
October 10

neurophilosodiction

posted by

Neuroscientists and philosophers swim together in a pool of loaded words and phrases: “consciousness”, “free will”, “attention”, “decision making”, and so forth. Because defining these concepts is important to both fields, semantic debate tends to muddy the water. For instance, do we have free will?  Don’t worry…I’m not here to convince you that my view […]

»»