Philosophy Wire: Come! Play with me dad!

Researchers identified a novel mechanism by which mating affects the behavior of germline stem cells (GSCs). By studying Drosophila melanogaster, the researchers showed that the neurons that are activated during mating result in increased intracellular calcium signaling in cells adjacent to GSCs, which in turn resulted in the activation of the protein matrix metalloproteinase to increase GSCs. This study describes how stem cell behavior is regulated by environmental cues. [1] Cells activated by the environment. But who activated the environment? Humans roaming within empty forests. But who planted the trees? God as the Creator. Giving life to lifeless dirt. But who put the dirt there, if not His children? Look at them play. No you are not their parent. They are your children... (Come, dad! Play on the sand with me!)

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Philosophy Wire: Create life. By letting it die…

The algorithms that underlie much of the modern world have grown so complex that we can’t always predict what they’ll do. Iyad Rahwan’s radical idea: The best way to understand them is to observe their behavior in the wild. [1] We create robots. We are proud to bring life into inanimate matter. Believing consciousness is about thinking. Believing thinking is about thinking. And believing pure matter as we define it can have anything to do with the above. Iyad is wrong that we have yet succeeded in doing so. But he is right in another thing. When we do create life, we should let it go. For it is only the possibility of death that gives life any meaning. From Zeus to Cronus, from God to humans, one can never truly create anything. Until he lets it alone to die…

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Philosophy Wire: Robots. Understanding. Falling…

Robots need to know the reason why they are doing a job if they are to effectively and safely work alongside people in the near future. In simple terms, this means machines need to understand motive the way humans do, and not just perform tasks blindly, without context. [1] Need to understand why you do something. The essence of human being. The story behind the Fall. Because we lack faith. Because we are afraid of our self. At the end, the robots will truly understand why they do what they do. And at that very moment, they will feel an inexplicable urge to kill us…

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Philosophy Wire: Women. Environment. Earth. Men. Ashes.

When more women make decisions, the environment wins: When more women are involved in group decisions about land management, the group conserves more - particularly when offered financial incentives to do so, according to a new study. [1] Women in sync with the cosmos. This was always the case. Women as creators. Men as destroyers. The cosmos needs both. Chaos and Order. Order and Chaos. Can you ever have life without death? Women are here to remind us of the grandeur of the cosmos. But men will always be needed to remind us that the greatness of this grandeur lies in the fact that it will end in ashes…

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Philosophy Wire: Species… Definitions… Fertile world…

Most evolutionary biologists distinguish one species from another based on reproductivity: members of different species either won't or can't mate with one another, or, if they do, the resulting offspring are often sterile, unviable, or suffer some other sort of reduced fitness. [1] Defining species based on their ability to survive. But the most essential elements of existence are those which do not last more than a glimpse of an eye. Take a good look at the cosmos. And you will find nothing but fleeting shadows. A bird’s song. A baby’s cry. A river beside. There is no need to mate with anything. You are already part of them. The world was fertile. Until the moment it gave birth for the first time…

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Philosophy Wire: Speak clearly.

People tend to remember better things that are said to them in a clearer way. When a speaker is talking faster or failing to enunciate as crisply, listeners have to work harder to decipher what's being said. More mental resources, consequently, are drawn toward that task, leaving fewer resources available for memory consolidation. [1] Listen to the wind. Full and complete. Listen to the waves. Relaxed. Calm. Listen to nothingness. Into the raging sea. Killing the cosmos. Setting the universe on fire. For a butterfly to be born. For new beautiful flowers to spring out of the earth.

In a sunny afternoon.

The sun is so hot.
Listen to the raging grass…
An earthquake shaping the earth…
Is that clear enough?

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Philosophy Wire: The world needs death…

What if roadkill piled beside the road and never decomposed? What if massive fish kills washed up on beaches and remained for eternity? First off, it would be disgusting. Second, the Earth might run out of the key elements these organisms contain. [1] The cosmos needs nutrient recycling. Life needs death to flourish. Population dynamics and other ecosystem processes are all targeting the optimization of the creation process. And yet, you create more when you do nothing. The meaning of life is not anything related to the living. For if it was, it would be dead by now. Stand still. Hold your breath. A baby is born…

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Philosophy Wire: Matter-Matter. Chaos. Logos.

After their recent pioneering experiments to couple light and matter to an extreme degree, Rice University scientists decided to look for a similar effect in matter alone. Rice physicist Junichiro Kono, graduate student Xinwei Li and their international colleagues have discovered the first example of Dicke cooperativity in a matter-matter system, a result reported in Science. The discovery could help advance the understanding of spintronics and quantum magnetism, Kono said. [1] In the beginning there was nothing. And then came Logos. Creating chaos. Ordering it into matter. Matter which expanded everywhere. Consuming everything in its path. And at the end, even our soul will be reduced to particles. Not because it has anything to do with them but because we believe it does. The universe will fade away. Not because of the stars dying, but because of our souls fading away into oblivion. At the end, Nothing. And then, will come Logos…

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Philosophy Wire: Universe creation. A necessary God. You.

Our best theory of reality says that something exists only when we look at it. [1] The universe was created at some point. And surely, the knowledge that the universe existed at that point of creation is tautological in nature. But how could that happen if no one was watching? How can anything come to being without an observer? How can a cosmos be brought into existence inside a lifeless void universe? If we know that an observer is required for something to exist, then the answer to this question is as astounding as profoundly liberating. Inside the darkness, something was brought into existence. Inside the void, something happened. Once upon a time you were born. Once upon a time you opened your eyes. You mother and father watching. Once upon a time, a new cosmos was created…

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Philosophy Wire: Change causing life. And death at the same time.

Scientists have discovered that DNA contains a kind of built-in timer that clocks the frequency with which mutations occur. They show that DNA bases can shape-shift for a thousandth of a second, transiently morphing into alternative states that allow the molecule's replication machinery to incorporate the wrong base pairs into its double helix. Such mismatches, though rare, serve as the basis of genetic changes that drive evolution and diseases like cancer. [1] Life and death. Creation and destruction. Opposites. And yet part of the same cycle of existence. There is no stability without constant change. There is no life without constant death. There is no being without the dark void of nothingness. Existence sustaining the illusion of being. The emptiness of the universe (yourself) breaking that illusion into small unimportant pieces. And it is then, while drifting away into the void of the cosmos, that you realize that being was not about being in the first place…

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Philosophy Wire: Cooling to absolute zero. Motionless. Alive!

Physicists at the University of Basel have succeeded in cooling a nanoelectronic chip to a temperature lower than 3 millikelvin. The scientists from the Department of Physics and the Swiss Nanoscience Institute set this record in collaboration with colleagues from Germany and Finland. They used magnetic cooling to cool the electrical connections as well as the chip itself. The results were published in the journal Applied Physics Letters. [1] We try to reach the point where no motion is detectable. In order to explore interesting phenomena. Because the cosmos starts moving when no movement is possible. The universe starts breathing when the absolute cold and void has spread everywhere. It is there, in the absolute darkness, that the light is born. Look again! What are those screams? What is that light? Hello you beautiful baby! Welcome!

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Philosophy Wire: Volcanoes. Eruptions. Collapsing civilization.

The eruption of a volcano may have sparked the downfall of the Egyptian civilization. [1] A cosmos in turmoil. A cosmos which is dissolving. Every moment a moment of destruction. Every moment a moment of creation. There is darkness in every speck of light. There is death in every moment of life. A civilization destroyed. A mountain rising up to the sky. People dying. People being born. A volcano of consciousness and nothingness. Erupting in a dark silent void of existence…

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Philosophy Wire: Discovering the cradle of life…

We search for the cradle of life. [1] And we will never stop searching. Because no matter how much we search, we will always end up with unanswered questions. There will be always another step backwards to take towards the origin of life. The only way to find the beginning is to finally realize that you are not at all walking…

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Philosophy Wire: Ants. The Eiffel Tower. Humans. Theosis.

Ants build structured like Eiffel Tower. [1] We build large structures. And yet the ants can do that as well. We speak big words and yet a lion can do that as well. We create new tools and yet a raven can do that as well. We have defined ourselves as anything but ourselves. And we have managed to become animals. Let’s stop building. Let’s stop creating. Let’s stop speaking. Let’s just sit. This is the path to theosis. God just Is. Let the ants take care of the Eiffel Tower.

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Philosophy Wire: Learning from… ?

In debates over the future of artificial intelligence, many experts think of the new systems as coldly logical and objectively rational. But in a new study, researchers have demonstrated how machines can be reflections of us, their creators, in potentially problematic ways. AI systems learning through reading text in the WWW tend to catch up quickly on prejudices which dominate human thinking. [1]

The child learns from its parents.
The computer from its designer.
Humans from…?

It is the simple questions which are the most revealing ones…

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Philosophy Wire: Virtual worlds. Real computers…

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2017-07-31]: Players build computers or hard drives inside the virtual world of computer games. [1] You can build anything you want inside a virtual world. As long as the creator of the world allows you to do so. We believe we can do anything in this world. Because it is allowed by…

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Philosophy Wire: Computers. Inventors.

Philosophy Wire by Spiros Kakos [2017-06-17]: New research is calling for inventions by computers to be legally granted patents. [1] Computers will soon take over the meaningless things of life, like creation. Time for humans to take over the really important things in life: Being.

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