Wednesday, August 15, 2018

The next step in evolution?

By now you have probably seen more than one article claiming that the next step in human evolution will be a kind of merge between humans and technology. Andy Clark's recent article "We are merging with robots. That's a good thing" (found here) is just one example. One of the interesting things about this claim is that it ignores one principle tenet of (Darwinian) evolution. Up to this point, most naturalists have assumed that evolution has been unguided. But, whatever will happen with humans as we become ever more immersed within and potentially merge with technology, it is certain that it need not be unguided. In fact, if we are thinking aright about these things, we will guide it as best we can.

Friday, August 3, 2018

Reading other minds

In his recent article "The theory of mind myth," Robert Burton argues that we are not as good at reading other's minds as we might think, or as some neuroscientists have encouraged us to believe (see Burton's article here). To some extent, I am inclined to agree with Burton. But, I wonder if our inability to read other minds is not so much due to our inability as it is to the tendency of others to mask intention.