A collection of interesting links I’ve had bookmarked for a while:
Yaïr Pinto in Aeon: When you split the brain, do you split the person?
The Divided Brain is an important topic to understand better, too easily dismissed amid misunderstood myths.
Ben Medlock in Aeon: The body is the missing link for truly intelligent machines.
Agreed. Too much talk of “AI” is simply hype for machine automation, whereas conscious intelligence is unlikely to evolve without life. Part of the hype downplaying sentience.
Chris Frith in Aeon:Â Our illusory sense of agency has a deeply important social purpose.
Again, part of the mad campaign to downplay sentient agency or free-will as illusory.
Bret Stephens in NYT: The Dying Art of Disagreement.
Another regular topic here on Psybertron.
Daily Nous piece: Scientism’s Threat to Philosophy.
And another one.
Robby Berman in The Big Think:Â We Survive Because Reality May Be Nothing Like We Think It Is
The because is a novelty, but reality-as-mental-construction is true but misinterpreted-as-therefore-being-unreal.
Andrew Masterson in Cosmos (originally linked and shared at the Grauniad): Physicists find we’re not living in a computer simulation. The Matrix myth debunked again too. Reality IS a computation, there is no programme between us and it.
Sabine Hossenfelder’s Starts with a Bang in Forbes:Â Is The Inflationary Universe A Scientific Theory? Not Anymore.
Good to see the inflationary fudge debunked. The fudge being caused and persisted by science’s denial of the significance of humanity’s place in the cosmos.
Philip Ball in Quanta Magazine:Â Quantum Theory Rebuilt From Simple Physical Principles.
Reconstructing quantum physics from simpler principles that make it possible to understand the weirdness including several information-based reconstructions. Integrated Information Theory looks most interesting, some previously collected links here, as well as several Carlo Rovelli references. [Post Note – another Philip Ball piece “The Trouble With Scientists.“]
David Lucas in Quillette:Â E Pluribus Unum: Out of Many, One.
Why hypocrisy is vital. Wisdom being the ability to hold conflicting ideas, and find integration in their whole rather than choice between them. Lucas uses art to illustrate this wisdom. Â [Etymology … Art > “rt” > arete & craft ]
Hedda Hassel Mørch in Nautilus: Is Matter Conscious? –  Why the central problem in neuroscience is mirrored in physics.
I’ve had a draft post in progress for some time, but still unpublished. Reacted to the click-bait headline in the title question, but was obviously drawn to implicit truth of the sub-title.
And, slightly off the general umbrella topic, but interesting none-the-less:
Kevin Hartnett in Quanta Magazine: A Unified Theory of Randomness
But, underlying the evolution of all others.