Author Archives: James Cross

Thinking About Thinking

The Edge question for 2015 is “What do you think about machines that think?” The first two responses I read were from Sean Carroll and Nick Bostrom. I have been a long time followier of Sean Carroll blog’s Preposterous Universe and have … Continue reading

Posted in Consciousness, Intelligence, Origin of Life, Quantum Mechanics, Transhumanism | 19 Comments

A Close Stellar Encounter

Just when we thought we were safe after the 2012 Doomsday comes word that our solar system may be visited by a star. The good news is that it will not be anytime soon. Coryn Bailer-Jones, a German astrophysicist, calculated possible … Continue reading

Posted in End Times, Human Evolution | Leave a comment

The Raw and the Cooked

In a 1964 book, The Raw and the Cooked, anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss charts a winding course through the myths of the Bororo people of South America. Beginning with a story of the rape of a mother and subsequent attempts at … Continue reading

Posted in Brain size, Human Evolution | Leave a comment