As you may suspect from these wordy presentations, I also like to talk. Until recently if someone asked me a question, thinking that they wanted to know something,  I would expound.  That was when teaching medical students and residents but also on other occasions.  When I found people easily distracted or they would stop listening…

Computer scientists seek to create an artificial brain every bit as powerful as the human brain, maybe even more powerful, without the drawbacks of the human body, a disembodied brain. But the brain is quintessentially biological, an organ among organs. It is intimately and immanently connected with bodily function. Demise of the body immediately leads…

In previous posts I remarked that computers are taking over cognitive functions and how in many ways they have surpassed human abilities, especially with rapid calculations and data storage.  Computers have beaten human champions in such games as chess and Jeopardy. Given computers’ superior abilities in certain cognitive spheres,  it is fair to ask whether…

Recently, I asked college graduates to estimate the age of the earth. They had no idea. One initially gave an answer of thousands of years and wondered if humans had been on earth all that time. I am not talking about people who take the Bible literally. Although they may function well in their daily…