October 2011 – Page 4 – William M. Briggs

Why Yom Kippur Is Sacred To This Priest — Guest Post by Father Brian Jordan

Father Brian Jordan is a Roman Catholic priest, a Franciscan formerly of St. Francis of Assisi Church in New York City, where everybody, just everybody, knows him. He does most…

Philosophy Statistics

Robert Heinlein And Evolving Probabilities

Writer Stephen Dawson, a long-time participant at this blog, wrote and asked the following: In his The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Robert Heinlein had his intelligent computer calculate the…

Statistics

The Implications Of Yesterday’s Global Warming Post

There was nothing in the world wrong with my scientific paper "Global Warming Increases Disastrous Music: A Scientific Paper." Nothing, that is, that isn't wrong with any paper which seeks,…

Statistics

Global Warming Increases Disastrous Music: A Scientific Paper

A scientific paper in a grand tradition (notice the scientific formatting and use of p-values): the custom is to read only the Abstract; only the brave and bored should venture…

Culture Philosophy Statistics

Are Humans As Violent As In The Good Old Days?

If we had records of massacres as we have meteorological records, don't you think we might discover their internal laws, after several centuries of observation? --- Joseph de Maistre. There…

Book review

America’s Security and Taiwan’s Freedom — Guest Post by June Teufel Dreyer

We return to a topic which is of more importance than you want it to be: the possibility of Chinese belligerence. June Teufel Dreyer is a political science professor at…

Briggs on The Paper Test Shows Why AGI Is Not Possible: And Why The Brain Is Different In KindMarch 5, 2026
Eric, Darn similar, and (I hope) simplified.
Eric Brown on The Paper Test Shows Why AGI Is Not Possible: And Why The Brain Is Different In KindMarch 4, 2026
Isn’t this Searle’s Chinese Room argument? Not that I disagree with either of you…
Rhetocrates on The Paper Test Shows Why AGI Is Not Possible: And Why The Brain Is Different In KindMarch 4, 2026
I disagree with the conclusion of the test. There is no need for panic or concern over the possibility of…
C-Marie on The Paper Test Shows Why AGI Is Not Possible: And Why The Brain Is Different In KindMarch 4, 2026
God is!!! Well done, Matt!! Loved this! Great explanations .... even understood much of it at 82 years!!! Am sending…
CorkyAgain on The Paper Test Shows Why AGI Is Not Possible: And Why The Brain Is Different In KindMarch 4, 2026
I rather like Sheldrake's idea that brains are more like radio receivers which resonate with or tune into signals from…