Mind Matters | Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

Latest Articles

^{Type
post

Gary Varner
Date
July 18, 2026

Categorized
Cosmology

Tagged
Kylo Ren and Poe, Star Wars, Stormtroopers, The Empire}

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review Part 4

_{Finn finds himself alone, so he begins stripping off his armor as he wanders the desert} _{Gary Varner
July 18, 2026

6

Cosmology}

^{Type
post

Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 17, 2026

Categorized
Animal mind, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Cats, Felines, Michael Egnor, soul}

Do Cats Have Souls? Some Reflections

_{At the close of his article, Richard Stevens asks, “As humans have an immortal mind, might some animals have such a mind beyond biology, too?"} _{Denyse O'Leary
July 17, 2026

5

Animal mind, Philosophy of Mind}

Captivating close up portrait of a shorthair cat with expressive soulful eyes set against a futuristic vibrant tetradic color scheme showcasing the natural beauty and elegance of the feline subject

^{Type
post

News
Date
July 17, 2026

Categorized
Censorship, Media, Politics, Social Media

Tagged
Ariel Zilber, Bluesky, Charlie Kirk, Elon Musk (and Twitter), Ethan Toven-Lindsey, Jack Dorsey, Justinas Vainilavičius}

Do Readers Remember Bluesky, the Kinder, Gentler Twitter?

_{It is still playing catchup in terms of user numbers} _{News
July 17, 2026

4

Censorship, Media, Politics, Social Media}

A breathtaking panoramic view of the deep blue ocean stretching to the horizon beneath a vibrant sky filled with fluffy white clouds. Gentle waves shimmer in the sunlight, creating a peaceful seascape

^{Type
post

Robert J. Marks
Date
July 16, 2026

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Science

Tagged
Featured, Measurements}

Today’s Computer Chips — Measured in Beard-Seconds

_{Could we use beard-seconds as a measurement? Actually, we could} _{Robert J. Marks
July 16, 2026

7

Artificial Intelligence, Science}

^{Type
post

Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 16, 2026

Categorized
Media

Tagged
Jimmy Wales, Jordan Boyd, Larry Sanger, Wikipedia}

So What Went Wrong With Wikipedia?

_{The whole business strikes some of us as a wildly Woke example of what can go wrong in an information society} _{Denyse O'Leary
July 16, 2026

4

Media}

^{Type
post

News
Date
July 16, 2026

Categorized
Medicine and Health

Tagged
Centenarians, David Attenborough (1926– ), Dick Van Dyke (1925–), George Burns (1896–1996), Mel Gibson (1956–)}

More humans are living to be 100 years of age

_{It is a logical outcome of a general improvement in health care} _{News
July 16, 2026

3

Medicine and Health}

^{Type
post

News
Date
July 15, 2026

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Media

Tagged
A. N. Wilson, C. S. Lewis, Magician's Nephew (Lewis 1966), Magician’s Twin (book 2012), Magician’s Twin phrase}

Who Coined the Phrase “the Magician’s Twin”?

_{The pitfalls of relying on AI for your facts} _{News
July 15, 2026

3

Artificial Intelligence, Media}

Frustrated professional struggling with unreliable AI chatbot responses at night office

^{Type
post

Georgios Mappouras
Date
July 13, 2026

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
Nick Bostrom, Recursion problem, Simulation hypothesis}

Do We Really Live in an AI Simulation?

_{A formal logical analysis explains why the hypothesis is self-undermining} _{Georgios Mappouras
July 13, 2026

8

Artificial Intelligence}

Digital twin technology illustration of an airplane with holographic simulation model, representing aviation, flight simulation, aerospace innovation, and smart maintenance ai new

^{Type
post

Robert J. Marks
Date
July 13, 2026

Categorized
Mathematics

Tagged
Alan Turing, code-breaking, Sherlock Holmes}

Monday Microsofty 87: Are You As Good a Detective As You Think?

_{Here’s a test from the world of codebreaking} _{Robert J. Marks
July 13, 2026

7

Mathematics}

^{Type
post

Casey Luskin
Date
July 12, 2026

Categorized
Evolution, Neuroscience

Tagged
brain, Evolution}

Science Journal: Humans’ Big Brains Evolved “For No Particular Reason”?

_{The human brain, the most complex object in the known universe, arose “for no particular reason”?} _{Casey Luskin
July 12, 2026

5

Evolution, Neuroscience}

Evolution of the human brain from a smaller, primitive brain to the larger, more complex brain of modern humans

^{Type
post

Wesley J. Smith
Date
July 12, 2026

Categorized
Ethics, Medicine and Health

Tagged
Assisted Suicide, Dead donor rule, Euthanasia, New England Journal of Medicine, Organ transplantation, Robert D. Truog}

‘Death by Organ Donation’ Pushed in New England Journal of Medicine

_{Killing for organs can quickly become the primary reason for granting someone’s request to die “as a plum to society” (as I predicted back in 1993)} _{Wesley J. Smith
July 12, 2026

5

Ethics, Medicine and Health}

Medical professional carefully carries an organ transplant container down a hospital corridor, hoping to give someone a second chance at life

^{Type
post

News
Date
July 11, 2026

Categorized
Cosmology

Tagged
Fine tuning (initial conditions of universe), Kaluza-Klein theory, Michael Egnor, Multiverse theory, Pleonastic fallacy}

Claims for a Multiverse Violate Basic Logic

_{Michael Egnor: To account for the fine-tuning of our universe, many thinkers claim, without evidence, that there are innumerable universes. But they won’t accept the existence of God} _{News
July 11, 2026

4

Cosmology}

Multiverse Meanderings: Exploring Alternate Realities

^{Type
post

Gary Varner
Date
July 11, 2026

Categorized
Cosmology

Tagged
Luke Skywalker, Star Wars, Stormtroopers}

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review Part 3: Meeting Poe

_{Once someone watches this film multiple times, questions stack up remarkably fast} _{Gary Varner
July 11, 2026

7

Cosmology}

Colorful space galaxy cloud nebula. Stary night cosmos. Universe spiral science astronomy. Supernova background wallpaper

^{Type
post

Richard W. Stevens
Date
July 10, 2026

Categorized
Animal mind

Tagged
Animal Mind, Behavior, Cats, Instincts}

One Step Beyond: Two Cats Defy Mere Instincts

_{The kitten screamed. The queen stayed calm. Why?} _{Richard W. Stevens
July 10, 2026

6

Animal mind}

Two cats hide under the blanket. Outside, the winter snow. The concept of home comfort, security, warmth

^{Type
post

Kenneth Francis
Date
July 6, 2026

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Constantly scrolling, Digital age, Fatigued, Trade-offs}

Are We Becoming Fatigued in a Digital Age?

_{AI should really be called Human-Generated Artificial Intelligence (HGAI)} _{Kenneth Francis
July 6, 2026

6

Artificial Intelligence}

Sad tired woman touching face having headache or depression

^{Type
post

Peter Biles
Date
July 6, 2026

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
Culture, george washington, Movies, supergirl, usa, Wokeness}

George Washington Beats Supergirl at the Box Office

_{Maybe American audiences are ready for more optimistic and patriotic stories} _{Peter Biles
July 6, 2026

2

Arts & Culture}

^{Type
post

Robert J. Marks
Date
July 6, 2026

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity, History

Tagged
A. Vaswani et al., ADALINE, Agentic AI, and transformer architectures, Backpropagation, convolutional neural networks (CNNs), Deepfake diffusion models, Deepfakes, diffusion models, Diffusion models vs GANs, Featured, Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), Hebb's Law, Kunihiko Fukushima, McCulloch–Pitts Neuron, Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP), Paul Werbos, Rosenblatt's Perceptron, Transformer models}

Who, Exactly, Is the Subject of Evolutionary Psychology?

France Legalizes Euthanasia

AI Doesn’t Absolve You of Getting Facts Right the First Time

Latest Articles

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review Part 4

Do Cats Have Souls? Some Reflections

Today’s Computer Chips — Measured in Beard-Seconds

So What Went Wrong With Wikipedia?

More humans are living to be 100 years of age

Who Coined the Phrase “the Magician’s Twin”?

Do We Really Live in an AI Simulation?

Monday Microsofty 87: Are You As Good a Detective As You Think?

Science Journal: Humans’ Big Brains Evolved “For No Particular Reason”?

‘Death by Organ Donation’ Pushed in New England Journal of Medicine

Claims for a Multiverse Violate Basic Logic

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review Part 3: Meeting Poe

One Step Beyond: Two Cats Defy Mere Instincts

Are We Becoming Fatigued in a Digital Age?

George Washington Beats Supergirl at the Box Office

Superintelligence? AI’s History vs. the Myth

Monday Micro Softy: Dr. Marks’s Incredible Ice Diet

Consciousness is not a problem to be solved

Podcast

How Cognitive Principles Can Inform Better Technological Design

Briefs

Interoception: Is it really a new sixth sense?

Relax. You do NOT have a lizard brain

Authors be warned: AI scams are much cleverer today

Can a pagan religion thrive without a supernatural element?

Who expected this? Luddites are Cool now?

Did a bot retract Max Planck’s papers?

SpringerNature sells Scientific American to Canadian firm

Yes, someone now tracks outlandish AI claims daily

Where did a concept like “malinformation” even come from?

Videos

Science Uprising 10: Asking the Impolite Questions About AI

Is It Really the End for Silicon Valley or Just a Reboot?

COSM 2021: Kai-Fu Lee Tries His Hand at Future Casting

Ari Emanuel, COSM 2021: Movie Nite’s Changed; It’s Not Just COVID