Adam Frank
14K posts
@AdamFrank4
Astrophysicist. Author of the Everyman's Universe newsletter and The Little Book of Aliens. Stuff shows up at The Atlantic, NYT, etc
This quote is the place my biggest disagreement with the broad enactivist or 4e tendency in that unless "an organization that can interpret" is explicitly defined in a non circular way the quote is incorrect
@AdamFrank4 I finished TLOU1 and 2, thanks to your recommendation. I have to say the gameplay (vs humans) was the most fun I’ve had since MGS1-3. I loved that! Also, the environment blew my mind (I’m from Seattle). That said, I do not like the story. A couple thoughts…
@michaelshermer Thankfully this has been roundly debunked. You should really focus on genuine UAP science, @michaelshermer, especially as outlined in this brilliant overview of the “transient” phenomena. (Spoiler: Rigid, dogmatic skeptics are in deep intellectual trouble.) Cc: @AdamFrank4
Holy crap. You are right. Don’t even think that thinking about the hidden philosophical assumptions underpinning giant scientific paradigms might be a good idea. Press on blindly! Press on!
There is a bizarre modern movement to declare literally everything in biology to be irreducibly complex, so that no simple principles or definitions are possible. It's an eerie pseudoscientific cousin of the creationist concept of irreducible complexity.
@AdamFrank4 @templeton_fdn Is there a detailed document associated with that program? Somehow that announcement pushed me towards a sequence of questions I haven't considered before: how intelligent is a just fertilized human egg, a month-old fetus, a just born baby, etc? Is there a measure or a switch? +
@addyman_michael @AdamFrank4 What exactly do you think controls the difference between an ear of corn and a sparrow?
@WKCosmo @AdamFrank4 Why do you two even argue about it? Neither of you is a biologist, and even if you were, philosophical treatments offered by both Dawkins and Ball are unnecessary, because they are, well, philosophical. There’s nothing worse than a pop-sci biologist with religious trauma
What was I saying? I was saying that you haven't read either Dawkins or Ball particularly closely. And in response...you pulled out a Dawkins quote? Let's flip positions to see if it makes the problem clear. Suppose you accused me of not having read Shakespeare particularly closely, and in response I replied "O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" -- would that convince you of anything?
@AdamFrank4 I do not understand the desire to attack you. Everyone is doing their best to understand the universe around us. Kudos to all who try and respect others who also try.
No he wasn't.
@AdamFrank4 All this tells me is that you haven't read either Dawkins or Ball particularly closely.
@AdamFrank4 @templeton_fdn "...the new grant also seeks to understand if there are limits to agency in artificial intelligence." Careful! This research might show that biological agency is a naturally selected suite of mechanisms and that AI is transcending our limitations.
@AdamFrank4 Not sure anything Philip wrote supports anything you say.
@peterrhague @AdamFrank4 If you look at who he writes for, well, they have an agenda they've been pushing for a while.
@AdamFrank4 You should read some comments and critique by biochemist Laurence Moran on his book sandwalk.blogspot.com/search?q=Phili…
