Author: nick

These Strange New Minds is a comprehensive book for lay readers wondering how large language models (LLMs) work and how they might help or harm human culture. Its author, the cognitive neuroscientist Christopher Summerfield, faces an inherent challenge: The pace of change in AI makes it difficult for any traditionally published book to feel fully up to date. Books from major publishers can take more than a year to move from manuscript to finished copy. Summerfield addresses this by adding a later-written afterword noting that LLMs are already reasoning and conversing more effectively than they did just two years ago. They…

 Date of sighting: April 28, 2025Location of sighting: Springfield, Missouri, USAAt about 9pm Springfield news was airing live and caught a small green triangle craft zipping around like it was out for a good time. The way it moves tells me it’s an intelligent alien drone that does have feelings. How? Don’t ask, but I experienced first hand 2 meters from me a sphere and it panicked and shot away when I grabbed my camera on tripod to aim at it. So they do experience emotions. This green object…is a UFO. I posted this late because I never saw it before till…

As we anticipate the Artemis II launch, now slated for early April with plans to take four astronauts on a trip around the Moon and back to Earth, NASA has been unveiling some significant changes to its plans for returning to the Moon and beyond. If you have fallen behind these announcements, here is a summary of the important bits. Artemis II will continue as planned, marking the first crewed deep space mission since 1972 (Apollos 17). The original plan was for Artemis III to land on the Moon in 2027, but this mission has been pushed to an Artemis…

For just about as long as we as a species have believed in spirits and the afterlife, there have been those of us who have wanted to punch through the veil that divides us and communicate with the other side. There have been many methods for doing this, from seances to Ouija boards, to more modern devices such as EVP recordings and “spirit boxes,” but some of the more bizarre are those cases of mad inventors trying to craft machines and other contraptions that would allow us to commune with spirits and even let them come tumbling into our world. …

This article, presented here in abridged form, was originally published in Skeptic magazine Vol. 20 No. 4 For a scientist there is the act of studying life and the process of living it, and I have never wanted the one to overwhelm the other. Yet that is exactly what a life devoted to science will tempt you into—a life of studying and, otherwise, not much living. Yes, you may have a family and a few good friends, but most scientists embrace a sedentary life, often solitary and intensely internal. You concentrate on experiments and theory and perpetual reading. Your small…

Major Strategic Shift in Global Energy Market Favors United States Source link

I WANT FREE MINDS AND FREE MARKETS! Help Reason push back with more of the fact-based reporting we do best. Your support means more reporters, more investigations, and more coverage. Make a donation today! No thanks I WANT TO FUND FREE MINDS AND FREE MARKETS Every dollar I give helps to fund more journalists, more videos, and more amazing stories that celebrate liberty. Yes! I want to put my money where your mouth is! Not interested SUPPORT HONEST JOURNALISM So much of the media tries telling you what to think. Support journalism that helps you to think for yourself. I’ll…

Iran isn’t just trading blows with the US and Israel. According to our guest, the fight is turning fixed American advantages like bases, radars, and regional headquarters into fragile targets, forcing withdrawals and relocations across the Middle East. We walk through what it means when places like Al-Udeid, Bahrain’s Fifth Fleet footprint, and multiple high-end radar sites take hits and why “no massive casualties” does not automatically mean “no massive damage.” From there, we connect the battlefield to the economy. Oil and LNG infrastructure disruption is framed as the kind of shock that can ripple into global inflation, shipping risk,…

Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair When I was in High School, I used to wonder how the German people put up with Hitler and his regime. Was there something about the German language that destroyed empathy? Had someone spiked their water? And so on. I wasn’t wondering about the lunatics. I wasn’t wondering about the macho, sadistic souls gone bad. I wasn’t wondering about the top mongrels either, not about Hitler, nor Himmler, nor the rest. I was wondering about what I had sometimes heard called “Good Germans.” Normal citizens. Nice people. Among the most educated and cultured in the…

Trump's Strategic and Moral Failure in Iran Source link