What is the value of positing a theory of consciousness which is beyond our current capacity to demonstrate empirically? Even supposing that the full explanation behind the extraordinarily vivid and deeply personal subjective experience we enjoy as living creatures, includes aspects or energies that cannot be verified objectively by any known scientific process, does not … Continue reading A Leap of Faith
Fifty-two prominent researchers on intelligence, agreed to a broad definition of the term, “Intelligence:” “Intelligence is a very general capability that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience. It is not merely book learning, a narrow academic skill, or test‑taking … Continue reading Artificial Intelligence and Human Life
There is a movement within me, an awareness—a deeply personal transcendent awareness—which, from my perspective, clearly does not originate from some temporal source in the world. There are those who might say such concepts are an illusion. I have often thought that they said such things to make the world seem more comprehensible—to make them … Continue reading The Soul That Rises With Us
Scientist leaving the world. Engraving c.1520. Allegorical representation of changes in medieval conception or interpretation of the heavens when it was thought that the world was flat, discovering the point where heaven and earth meet, twentieth-century coloration of black-and-white engraving from The Atmosphere, by Camille Flammarion, 1888. Anyone who ponders the possibility of an existence … Continue reading The World Outside of Our World
A recent conversation with a psychologist friend of mine brought up the importance of our very human version of neurobiology, and how little we still understand about the complex neurobiological processes that are responsible for behavior and our ability to interact with our fellow cognitive creatures. While much has been discovered about the mechanisms of … Continue reading Mind Matters
Since there is so much conversation going on these days about Artificial Intelligence and what we might expect in the coming years as scientists and researchers advance in constructing ever-more complex machines, I thought it might be a good time to consider not only what it means to be "intelligent," but also what importance the … Continue reading What It Means To Feel
Winter has finally begun to lose its grasp on the world around me, and as it wanes, I find myself in a fairly predictable state of mind for this time of year. It generally feels like a sort of aching melancholy or some leftover winter suppression or vagueness in my personal emotional experience of life, … Continue reading Knowledge and Emotion
January has flown by at the speed of light it seems, and I have only today been able to find an opportunity to sit quietly at my desk and contemplate this posting--the first of the new year. It has been a tumultuous time for us all here in America over the past several months, and … Continue reading Writer’s Are Often At A Loss For Words
Contemplating David Gelernter's new book, "The Tides of Mind," for weeks now hasn't helped me much with my own "struggles of mind," but it has opened new avenues of thought, which is always a welcome development. In particular, his imagery of a "spectrum of consciousness," with descending and ascending layers from being wide awake and … Continue reading Tides of Mind
"If we seek genuine psychological understanding of the human being of our own time, we must know his spiritual history absolutely. We cannot reduce him to mere biological data, since he is not by nature merely biological, but is a product also of spiritual presuppositions." - -Carl Jung from a presentation at the C. G. … Continue reading Body, Mind, Spirit
John's Consciousness 