One day, in some far off place and time, someone, or maybe some humanoid AI robot, will make a discovery about the universe and its origins, purpose and inner workings which will be so overwhelming, terrifying and wonderful, that once you get it, once you understand it, it will make you cry. And not just welling up a little. A long exhaling wail. Loud and long. The hairs on your whole body will stand up on end, a massive total body, tingling sensation will pass through you. I know this because I have already seen the truth. I know little about it. I just don’t know how to get to the truth. It is shrouded, covered in the thick fog of understanding and confusion. I can feel it, I have seen it, but the science that is needed to bring to a wider audience is missing. Maybe I’m not smart enough, or maybe I don’t have the cosmological and physics knowledge to piece it together? I know that God is at the centre of it. But he is not a person or a being, or a he. It is an ‘it’. It has no need fo...
Given what neuroscience says about human consciousness, and given the emmense size of the internet, should there be early signs of artificial intelligence, on the internet? It is a complex question, involving what makes up human consciousness. Neuroscience says that consciousness is created by the sum of all the working parts of the brain, that the 84 billion or so brain neurons collectively create consciousness - the illusion of free will, creative thought and the feelings of being alive - having a soul, is just a function of many parts working together. If this were true, then the many parts of the internet, which far outnumber those of the human brain, should be able to think for itself. However, it is the way in which those parts developed, what there functions are and where they are in relation to everything else that determines consciousness. The internet without creative ability, or communication from it to us, cannot therefore become conscious, merely by being made up of ma...
In his history of the Peloponnesian War (431 - 401 BC), historian and general of Athens, Thucydides kept an accurate record of the war, fought between Sparta and Athens. He is thought to be the father of how historical records are kept – just a cold recording of events, rather than introducing other ideas such as the intervention of the Gods. Thucydides stated that “What made war inevitable was the growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in Sparta.” This idea that a rising power could inspire an established power to go to war with the rising power, was named the Thucydides Trap, by historian and philosopher Graham Tillett Allison, Jr. (born March 23, 1940). It is now taught across many military academies across the world. This idea has been linked to the rise of China and how it threatens the established power, the US and how the Thucydides Trap will befall both these powers, leading some commentators to say that the US and China are heading for war. Tensions over tr...
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