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Is AI Conscious?

 I don't think so; I admit I don't know the extent of what AI can do. But Tyler Cowen (an economist at George Mason U) writes that we are not as conscious as we would like to think. In this sense consciousness might be identified with awareness of all our brain is doing (which we do not have) and intentionality: Sometimes I like to say that “I am only conscious at the margin.” Tongue in cheek, I will suggest that I am only conscious enough to avoid the self-contradiction of asserting that I am not conscious at all. I feel I am honest enough to just not be very impressed by my own flow of conscious awareness or its ability to perform complex calculations. Still, I recognize that it is all I have got, so I need to treasure it, however paltry it may be. So if a) people are barely conscious, and b) we tend to radically overestimate intent and sentience in external circumstances, why should we think the AIs are sentient or conscious? Why should we trust the intuitions we have about ...
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Dr. Mohler and the Southern Baptist Convention

 Dr. Mohler apparently thinks he is the head honcho/spokesman/grand poohbah of us Southern Baptists.  Well, I'll back off. I am not sure how much of an "us Southern Baptists" I am. I attend an excellent SBC church in Chattanooga. I love my church. I appreciate a lot about the SBC, especially the International Mission Board.  Dr. Mohler is president of Southern Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. He is not president of the convention, or a pastor or missionary. The AI overview tells me:   As the longest-tenured leader of any SBC entity, he functions as a foundational theologian, chief spokesperson for conservative evangelicalism, and key architect of SBC policies . [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ] I won der if he has been a leader of a SBC entity longer than some pastors. I am also older than he is by four years. Not that my age means much, only that I no longer care what people think of my opinions especially about this particular issue. I like this essay:  https://ba...
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Tychicus: The Overlooked Friend

Tychicus is mentioned five times in the New Testament.  Acts 20:4 These accompanied him as far as Asia: Sopater of Beroea, Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians, Gaius of Derbe, Timothy, and  Tychicus  and Trophimus of Asia. Ephesians 6:21 But that you also may know my affairs, how I am doing,  Tychicus , the beloved brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will make known to you all things. Colossians 4:7 All my affairs will be made known to you by  Tychicus , the beloved brother, faithful servant, and fellow bondservant in the Lord. 2 Timothy 4:12 But I sent  Tychicus  to Ephesus. Titus 3:12 When I send Artemas to you, or  Tychicus , be diligent to come to me to Nicopolis, for I have determined to winter there. The Acts text tells how Tychicus became part of Paul's retinue. The Colossians and Ephesians verses state that Tychicus will give the recipie...
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The National Council of English is "decentering reading"?

 I get the substack of a writer named Joel M. Miller. His short bio says,  Chief content officer at Full Focus. Former VP of editorial and acquisitions at Thomas Nelson. Author of several books, including The Idea Machine: How Books Built Our World and Shape Our Future. This man knows books. I find his substack worth reading (not all are, and most are not worth paying for). In today's article, he interviews a veteran English teacher, Matt Ryan, of Massachusetts, who started a TikTok group/channel/hashtage (I don't know the lingo for it) called CanonChat. Here is a part of the interview.   As an educator, you’ve been critical of the move by the National Council of Teachers of English to “decenter” book reading (which seems utterly bonkers, if not cultural suicide). What’s the strongest version of the argument you’re opposing—and where does it go wrong? The strongest version of NCTE’s argument is a claim that is undeniably true: Students now live in a world that bombards th...
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The Monet Trick

 You can probably find articles on the Internet about the "study" where subjects were shown two a "Monet" painting of waterlilies and asked if it was a real Monet or an AI-generated image. Most got it wrong; the "painting" really was one of Monet's work (although a photographed image, which makes a difference), but most said it was AI-generated.  Of this, Spencer Klavan says:   "the Monet 'hoax' only shows that people on the Internet have opinions without much bases. They don’t know a Monet enough to discern if it’s real or an AI copy. Edmund Burke, in his wonderfully Burke-y sort of way,  put it beautifully   when he wrote that what sets good critics apart is chiefly the keenness of vision they develop 'from a closer and longer attention to the object.' The sensibilities take time to train. . . . M y weirdly optimistic take is that all these artificial imitations aren’t so much displacing reality as reminding people what they  lo...
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Fun music

 I am trying to wean off political podcasts. They get incredibly repetitive, and of course depressing.  So the alternative is to listen to the classical music station out of Collegedale, Tennessee, run by the Adventists at Southern Adventist University. Yesterday at 7:15 as I travelled up I-75 to spend my morning watching my granddaughter, I was treated to John Williams' Star Wars themes (I think they play it in the credits) and The William Tell Overture.  What fun! What a way to get the energy to play with a toddler!
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