Member-only story
Math and Logic Cannot Create Minds
Philosophy and The Limits of the Scientific Method
“Philosophers share the general human weakness for explanations of what is incomprehensible in terms suited for what is familiar and well understood, though entirely different.” Thomas Nagel
“All great truths begin as blasphemies.” George Bernard Shaw
or so wrote venture capitalist Mark Andreessen in his 2011 seminal article. Science and technology drive through information and data the virtualization of our physical and social reality. Information technologies substitute the physical with data, or in industry parlance, they “digitally transform.”
Their feats of engineering are incredibly impactful and useful. Advances in neuroscience and the exponential development of information technology instill confidence among technologists that we will virtualize somewhere in the future.
Philosophers, wanting to get in on a good thing, succumb to the belief that the embodied brain is an advanced computer, a genetically determined or programmable machine. Here are some examples.
