Video

Egnor - Will Machines
Why Machines Will Never Think

Neurosurgeon Michael Egnor: Why Machines Will Never Think

At the official launch of the Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence, July 11, 2018, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor offered some thoughts on artificial vs. natural intelligence. He sends us this piece, further developing some of his ideas: A cornerstone of the development of artificial intelligence is the pervasive assumption that machines can, or will, think. Watson, a question-answering computer, beats Read More ›

cnai-will-the-machines-take-over

Will the Machines Take Over?

(Note: Suboptimal audio resolves after the first minute.) “Will the Machines Take Over? Human Uniqueness in the Age of Smart Machines” an event celebrating the launch of Discovery Institute’s new Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence. Physicist Stephen Hawking warned humanity that “the development of artificial intelligence (AI) could spell the end of the human race… Humans, who are Read More ›

Jay-Richards-Michael-Medved-02

Human Computers and Robot Sex

There are some definite “Stop the world, I want to get off” moments in the new Great Minds with Michael Medved podcast from Discovery Institute. Michael talks with economist Jay Richards about the future of “smart machines,” including sex robots. Dr. Richards, author of the new book The Human Advantage: The Future of American Work in an Age of Smart Read More ›

Religious Robots and Free Americans

Religious Robots and Free Americans

Of his many specialties, in this episode Michael inquires into David Gelernter’s professional preoccupation: artificial intelligence. Gelernter recalls the pioneering role of his father, warns of the perils of letting children be captive to flickering screens, and remarks on whether AI robots can be spiritual seekers. Gelernter also emphasizes the key role of the Judeo-Christian Western tradition in creating a free and idealistic context in which technology is primed to explode. Read More ›

david-berlinski-christopher-hitchens-fixed-point

Does Atheism Poison Everything? Debate

In front of a sold-out crowd of 1,200 in Birmingham, Alabama, Christopher Hitchens, famed atheist and author of “God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything,” debates Dr. David Berlinski, Paris mathematician and author of “The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and its Scientific Pretensions.” Hitchens and others of the New Atheism movement have called for the annihilation of religion in order Read More ›

Randall-Wallace-Michael-Medved-GMMM-01

The Conception of Braveheart

Michael Medved and long-time friend Randall Wallace discuss the fortunes of the once robust business of movie entertainment and the current exodus of writers and directors toward television. The ensuing conversation revisits the birth of the idea of Braveheart in Edinburgh Castle, the initial meeting with Mel Gibson, and the importance of having the conviction to be faithful to one’s Read More ›

Michael-Medved-Listening
Michael Medved Microphone

The Origin of Animal Life

No question is greater or more ultimate than that of our origins as living creatures. Darwinian theory tells the story of our origins one way. Biblical creationists tell another. Does that exhaust the possibilities? Stephen Meyer, doesn’t think so. Trained in the philosophy of science at Cambridge University, Dr. Stephen Meyer directs Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture. Meyer’s first Read More ›

How Evolution Uses Natural Selection

How Evolution Uses Natural Selection to Build Organisms

What is natural selection and how does evolution use it to build new organisms? The fundamental difficulty for any undirected process of evolution is being able to see into the future and determine what functions that organism will need to survive. An unguided process like natural selection is incapable of doing that. What natural selection and other undirected natural mechanisms cannot achieve however, an intelligent agent can. Philosopher of Biology Paul Nelson describes the amazing process by which the worm C. elegans is constructed and how it points toward intelligent design. Read More ›