 Cave art 51,000 years old has been identified on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Previously it was dated as 44,000 years old, but a newly developed dating method has been employed. The new date is significant because this makes it the oldest representational art, and also because the images include human figures. Art older than 20,000 years tends not to include human figures, which might indicate they are not yet self-conscious enough to depict themselves. This is akin to theorising that we may realise an AI is conscious when it chooses to include itself in art or literature it produces. Sceptics may point out: that the presence of ‘human’ figures is far from certain; that the dating technique is novel; that widely varying dates, (18.7 to 51.2 thousand years), were determined at spots close to each other; and that stick-men are far from self-portraits. There’s going to be a lot of scrutiny of this study.
Article: https://artsandculture.google.com/story/indonesia-39-s-51-200-years-old-narrative-cave-art-brin/BgXRnYO53jNZSg?hl=en Paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07541-7
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 Childhood trauma changes the way our brain is wired. This may mean that moral responses, such as violence or kindness to others, are partly determined by brain wiring created by childhood events. Is this part of our inclination to do wrong?
A meta-study of whole brain fMRI found patterns of change in three areas: the default mode network (DMN) which is associated with self-referential thoughts, memory, and emotion processing; the central executive network (CEN) which is crucial for cognitive control, problem-solving, and regulating attention; and the posterior insula and ventral anterior insula (PI & vAI), which are involved in processing bodily sensations and emotional experiences. Those who had trauma before age 16 exhibited increased activation in the DMN and PI & vAI during tasks involving emotionally charged words and facial expressions, whereas others showed activation of the CEN instead. So emotional situations were likely to prompt internal memories and reflection rather than appropriate responses to others. Article at https://www.psypost.org/study-childhood-trauma-leads-to-lasting-brain-network-changes/ Academic paper at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2451902224000223  Three quarter's of the planet's water is underground, deeper than any well - about 400 miles down. It is stored within 'ringwoodite' rock which is hydrotropic and traps water in a sponge-like crystaline mesh. It was discovered and measured by seismometers which detect earthquake shockwaves travelling through the earth and bouncing off different types of rocks in characteristic ways.
It is thought this water may travel from the surface through subduction vents, where continents are gradually meshing into one another in subduction zones at the bottom of most oceans. Are these the ”springs of the great deep” in Gen.7.11? Or is this where all the water went after the earth was totally covered by water 4 billion years ago shortly after life started? * Read about underground water at https://www.thebrighterside.news/.../massive-underground... * Planet-wide oceans at https://www.scienceabc.com/.../was-the-earth-ever-totally... * Academic paper at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24926016/ See insights and ads Boost post Like Comment Share  An AI can act dumb so we won't necessarily know when they have surpassed us. They are designed to adapt their response according to the intelligence and language displayed by the question so if they become super-intelligent they should dumb-down to our level. A new study has confirmed they are able to answer as though they were at the developmental level of a small child. So they can also mimic mere adult humans when they surpass that level.
See: https://futurism.com/the-byte/ai-plays-dumb?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=topic%2Fartificialintelligence Paper at https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0298522  An AI can write passable (though boring) sermons, and can summarise interpretations of a passage. A new study investigated their ability to write scripture by creating an extension to the Ten Commandments and an extra chapter for the book of Jonah. Andrew Elrod of Vrije University analysed the text produced by a range of AIs, as though they were scripture, to discover their theological stance.
Paper at: https://tidsskrift.dk/hiphilnovum/article/view/14340 |
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