Posts by marco-masi
Why Intelligent Design needs an Upgrade
I know that many will disagree with the title. I hear you screaming: “Intelligent Design doesn’t need upgrades, it must disappear because it is plain nonsense!” But, as I’m going to explain, while I’m not a supporter of the ID movement, I’m for a vision of Nature and evolution that is teleological. Let me unpack…
Read MoreDo brain size and genetics define what we are?
It could be useful to recall also how Stanford University neurologist Robert Sapolsky tells, we humans share 98.9% of our DNA with chimps. [1] The remaining 1.1% codes for olfactory receptors, some having to do with the size of the pelvic arch which allows us to walk upright, for fur and differences in the immune system. But…
Read MoreReturn the National Parks to the Tribes
Motivated by this interesting proposal of David Treuer, here are my thoughts on indigenous cultures. What we may see is a comeback of a way of seeing Nature not too dissimilar from that which was already present in indigenous cultures and has been branded ‘primitive’ by a purely technological culture of ‘progress’. It is a…
Read MoreThinking and feeling beyond complexity
A fascinating talk of Daniel Schmachtenberger on complex systems and how this relates to our society and future. He certainly has a deep understanding of complex dynamical systems and most of what he says makes very much sense. I like how Schmachtenberger puts it: “We have to figure out the win-win game where anyone’s incentive…
Read MoreThe downfall of the philosophy of mind
A very interesting debate between the philosopher of mind David Papineau and neurosurgeon Michael Egnor. I would love to see more of these exchanges instead of philosophers and scientists retiring in their ideological niche. But, considering that Papineau is one of the most renewed philosophers of mind, what this video really reveals is not so…
Read MoreAm I my brain? Where in my brain?
Excerpt from the book “Spirit call Nature” The traditional materialist view was that the physical processes that lead to a mental state and a subjective experiential awareness had to be localized in one or a few areas of the brain responsible for its ‘generation’. These views soon had to be proven wrong and had to give…
Read MoreIs slime conscious?!?
A not so elegant but quite remarkable example one could present about cellular intelligence is the abilities of the ‘Physarum polycephalum’, a large amoeba-like slime mold ‘plasmodium’–that is, a fungal cytoplasm containing several nuclei but enclosed in a single membrane–that can be considered as a single giant cell. It is a slimy creature reminiscent of the ‘The…
Read MoreWhat is consciousness?
By Dr. Gerald Woerlee My article review… 🙂 One of the best-argued articles I recently read on the topic of consciousness, even though I don’t agree on several points. But at least Woerlee does not fall into the usual misconceptions. First of all, it is to welcome that we are finally questioning the conceptual conflation of mind…
Read MoreWhat this blog is about?
A blog that reflects my ruminations-that is, the scientific or (more or less) metaphysical speculations on science, spirituality, consciousness, mind, evolution, philosophy, yoga, reality, life and Nature. Reflections on the state of humanity from a psychological, spiritual and yet scientific perspective. From new forms of education to the environmental threats, from the ‘involutionary’ forms of…
Read MoreThe binding problem and the emergence of meaning
[Excerpt from Vol. I of “Spirit calls Nature”] Let us ponder an interesting feature of our conscious life: Binding. Binding remains a deep, unexplained mystery that surrounds our conscious perception and that could not find, at least not until our present day, a definite resolution. What philosophers of mind call the ‘binding problem’ relates to the fact…
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