In this article, Lee Billings riffs on Stanislaw Lem’s relatively unknown book of philosophical essays, Summa Technologiae (Electronic Mediations), written in 1964 but not fully translated into English until 2013. Lem is known primarily for his science fiction writing, especially the 1961 novel Solaris, adapted into a meditative film by Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972. In … Read more
This is so pathetic – the National Review thinks we have a “nerd problem.” Is it not enough to support a creationism museum, a publicly funded Noah’s Ark theme park ($43 million dollars worth of tax breaks in Kentucky, while the state cuts social programs and education), and to have several states trying to eradicate … Read more
Recently, I shared an article from George Dvorsky called “You Might Never Upload Your Brain Into a Computer,” in which he outlined a series of reasons for his position: 1. Brain functions are not computable2. We’ll never solve the hard problem of consciousness 3. We’ll never solve the binding problem 4. Panpsychism is true 5. … Read more