Author Archives: James Cross

The Mystery From 70,000 Years Ago

Posted on August 13, 2019

About 70 thousand years ago something happened that resulted in modern humans. Whatever caused this change, it resulted in what appears to have been a major leap in cognitive capabilities. It was quite possibly the change that most differentiates us … Continue reading →

Posted in Brain size, Human Evolution | 3 Comments

Building an Artificial Human

Posted on August 3, 2019

Let’s suppose we decide to create an artificial human. If you’ve watched the television show Humans, you might imagine what we want to create to be something like the synths in the show except even more human-like. The synths in … Continue reading →

Posted in AI, Consciousness | 17 Comments

The Hard But Unserious Problem of Consciousness

Posted on July 14, 2019

Some fellow bloggers have dusted off an old paper by David Chalmers Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness. Since there is almost always some obligatory homage paid to the Chalmers “hard problem” whenever contemporary discussions of consciousness arise, one … Continue reading →

Posted in Consciousness | 63 Comments