A uTube suggestion piqued my interest,
Rupert Sheldrake — On Scientism, Morphic Resonance and the Extended Mind | Episode 204
Rupert Sheldrake rang a bell but I didn’t know why so I watched the video. I was on board with the first part, the political capture of science, similar to Constantine the Great’s capture of Christianity (religion) to increase his power over the populace. On the subject of Scientism I went along until he mentioned names I respected, fellow biologist Richard Dawkins and philosopher Daniel Dennett. When he got to Morphic Resonance and the Extended Mind my mind started to wander. Go do some research!
The Guardian told me that Sheldrake wrote
and Amazon confirmed that I had read the book!
You purchased a Paperback edition on February 16, 2011. | View this order | View Your Books
It was my brain’s neural networks that rang the bell but could not come up with a more definite connection (memory) which the book title did elicit.
One of our dogs did know when dad was coming home and I doubted then as now that it was telepathy. Quite often I’ve had experiences that felt like telepathy but I still don’t believe in it. Dog whistles are inaudible to humans. The back of our house, where the dogs lived, had a clear view of the street my dad had to take to come home. Our dog could easily hear and recognize the sound of my dad’s car.
The more I think about it the more convinced I become that there is nothing supernatural about our universe or anything in it. What’s at work are size, time, and fitness. At the bottom are the particles physicists tell us exist, or maybe even smaller ones they have yet to find. Given enough time these particles organize themselves into atoms, molecules, substances, rocks, solar systems, galaxies, etc. On Goldilocks planets molecules organize themselves into life forms. All possible combinations are tried but only some survive.
So here we are.
About cognition, intelligence, and conscience, more of the same. Huge neural networks and galaxies of data. Humans have more data to work on than the other animals, data created by the use of language. Each word (most words?) is a new symbolic object in our data stream. Lower animals only have physical objects to work with.
One of the mistaken objections to AI is that it makes mistakes. Everything in the universe makes mistakes. Some things survive and likely most don’t. Suns run out of fuel. A mistake or just the way things work? I wish the Sun would come out just now so I can go an a comfy walk.
Morphic resonance
the idea that, through a telepathic effect or sympathetic vibration, an event or act can lead to similar events or acts in the future or an idea conceived in one mind can then arise in another.
Scientism
the view that science and the scientific method are the best or only way to render truth about the world and reality.
The Captain
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