B.F. Skinner, American psychologist, behaviorist, inventor, and social philosopher.
Skinner went on to say, “The mystery which surrounds a thinking machine already surrounds a thinking man.”
Skinner died in 1990. I wonder what he would have to say about today’s “thinking machines.”
Written for Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday prompt.
Even after reading Jim’s Friday Faithfuls post about the Ghost in the Machine, I still wasn’t sure if I was going to respond to the prompt because I was at a loss for what to write, since Jim covered the topic so thoroughly. But then I noticed that he said we could respond by writing about the distinction between a brain and a mind. And I thought, I can do that.
The brain is tangible. It’s the physical organ in our skulls. The mind is intangible. It’s the set of thoughts, feelings, memories, awareness, and choices that arise from or operate through it.
For those of us who have a basic understanding of computers, think of the brain as the “hardware” and the mind as the experience or “software” that comes from it.
They are obviously interconnected, but they serve distinct roles in human experience.
But you all know this already. My biggest personal concern these days vis-à-vis the brain and the mind is that, as an old fart, my physical body ain’t what it used to be. My bones are more brittle. My muscles don’t have the same tone or strength they once did. And my brain — my “hardware” — doesn’t seem to work as well as it once did. And I am concerned about for how much longer my “software” is going to continue to be fully functional as a result.
The likelihood of someone my age starting to experience dementia or Alzheimer’s increases with each birthday. These are diseases of the physical brain. Alzheimer’s damages brain cells and networks, and that damage shows up as changes in mental life and daily functioning. Between dementia and Alzheimer’s, their progression causes deterioration in the mind’s functions, such as difficulty remembering things, difficulty thinking clearly, and difficulty exercising good judgment. These brain diseases can also affect mood and awareness.
Every time I walk into a room and forget why, or see an actor on TV whom I recognize but can’t remember his or her name or where I have seen them, or forget the name of a street I have driven on hundreds of times, it gives me pause.
I worry that I am slowly slipsliding away, and that, at some point in my not-so-distant future, I will be the ghost in my own machine.
Image: Pinterest.
For this week’s Mindlovemysery’s Menagerie Friday Faithfuls challenge, Jim Adams has suggested that we respond by writing about how the four fundamental forces of nature affect your life, if you think that the unified field theory will ever be solved, or if you think there is no need for you to understand how particles behave that are too small for you to ever see, or if you think it is necessary to bridge the gap between general relativity (which describes gravity) and quantum mechanics (which describes the behavior of matter at the atomic and subatomic level), or you can go with anything else that you think would fit.
I read Jim’s entire post three times —THREE TIMES — and I still have no idea what the hell he’s talking about.
I guess the bottom line is that I think there is no need for me to understand how particles behave that are too small for me to ever see.
But there are things in this world that are are too small for me to ever see that I need to deal with and these “things” are called mites and they cause scabies.
Scabies is a condition caused by tiny — invisible to the naked eye — mites that infest and irritate your skin, resulting small red bumps and severe itching. Itching like mosquito bites times ten.
And for the second summer in a row my wife and I have been dealing with scabies.
We have been doing everything possible to rid our home of these invisible mites. We have slathered our bodies from head to toe in a cream that is supposed to kill the tiny little creatures and the eggs they lay under our skin.
We wash our bed linens weekly using our “sanitize” setting on our washing machine and we wash all the clothing we wear at the hottest setting available. We brought in an exterminator to spray the entire inside of our house where the mites might be coming into our living area. We had a professional rug cleaning company come in and steam shampoo all of our rugs, carpeting, mattresses, and furniture.
One dermatologist said that mite problems may also come from outside for people who live backed up to open spaces or near open spaces where wildlife travel or in wetlands that attract birds, which can carry and drop mites.
Great. Our beautiful backyard, our oasis, backs up onto an open space where deer and other wildlife roam and we have a waterfall where birds come to drink and bathe.
I guess we’ll just have to cope with scabies because we are not giving up our backyard.
For this week’s Mindlovemysery’s Menagerie Friday Faithfuls challenge, Jim Adams has suggested that we respond by writing anything about the Earth’s spin tilt or orbit, or you could write about the different seasons that we have, or about if you have ever been to a place in the opposite hemisphere, or if you have ever celebrated the summer solstice, or you can go with anything else that you think would fit.
For a decade, before moving to the East Bay five years ago, my wife and I lived in San Francisco. As far as I’m concerned, San Francisco has only two seasons: the rainy season from November through March, and the dry season from April through October — give or take a few weeks in either direction each year.
Otherwise, the summer high temperatures and the winter high temperatures only vary by 15 to 25 degrees. Today’s high in San Francisco was only 63°. And the ten-day forecast calls for highs mostly in the mid-sixties.
Where I live now on the East Bay, about 35 miles east of San Francisco, today’s high was a very pleasant 71°. But most of this coming week is going to be in the low to mid 80s. Actually, by this time last year, we had already experienced a few days at or near 100°, so this June hasn’t been bad at all, with only a handful of days reaching 90 or more.
We do have four seasons in the East Bay. A wet and relatively cool winter (typically about ten degrees colder than San Francisco’s), a way too brief spring, a scorchingly hot and dry summer (typically 25 to 30 degrees hotter than San Francisco’s), and a way too brief autumn.
Okay, back to the subject of the summer solstice, I have never lived in the southern hemisphere and I have never celebrate the arrival of the summer solstice (or the fall, winter, or spring solstices, for that matter). They are just days on the calendar as far as I’m concerned.
Jim also asked about the “Earth’s spin tilt or orbit.” I know the Earth’s axis tilts at around 23 degrees, and that tilt is responsible for our seasons. I also know the Earth spins, and that it orbits around the Sun. I’m not sure what more I can say about that.
I’m sorry that this post has been so boring, but the truth is, I don’t feel much passion regarding the summer solstice. If this prompt was anyone else’s besides Jim Adams’, I probably wouldn’t have responded to it. But Jim is a good blogging buddy of mine and I want to show him my support by responding to his prompts.
As I mentioned at the outset of my unofficial 2025 A to Z Blogging Challenge, I had no specific theme and I was going to be writing my posts on an ad hoc basis, meaning I wasn’t going to write posts for this challenge in advance of the day (or, as in this case, night before) it was posted. In other words, I would be winging it.
Yesterday, I was struggling with what to use for my “Y is for…” post, and then an article popped up on my iPhone’s newsfeed, and I uttered the word, “Yikes!”
The opening paragraph of the article read:
The Trump administration has dismissed the hundreds of scientists and experts who had been compiling the federal government’s flagship report on how global warming is affecting the country.
The move puts the future of the report, which is required by Congress and is known as the National Climate Assessment, into serious jeopardy, experts said.
So basically the Trump administration’s position on climate change is that if you don’t research it, compile data on it, and report on it, it simply doesn’t exist.
Since 2000, the federal government has issued a comprehensive report every few years detailing how rising temperatures impact various aspects of human life, including health, agriculture, fisheries, water supplies, transportation, energy production, and other components of the U.S. economy. The most recent climate assessment was released in 2023 and is utilized by state and local governments, as well as private companies, to prepare for the consequences of heatwaves, floods, droughts, and other climate-related challenges.
But on Monday, researchers around the country who had begun work on the sixth national climate assessment, planned for early 2028, received an email informing them that the scope of the report “is currently being re-evaluated” and that all contributors were being dismissed.
“We are now releasing all current assessment participants from their roles,” the email said. “As plans develop for the assessment, there may be future opportunities to contribute or engage. Thank you for your service.”
The fact is that climate change is real and is supported by overwhelming scientific evidence. Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate, and human activities — especially the burning of fossil fuels — are the principal cause of this rapid change.
The evidence includes rising global temperatures, shrinking ice sheets, increasing ocean heat, and more frequent extreme weather events. Nearly all peer-reviewed scientific literature and major scientific organizations agree that recent climate change is primarily human-induced, and that if we ignore the threat of climate change, the world will face increasingly severe and irreversible consequences and if steps aren’t taken to address climate change, human survival may be at risk.
But sure, let’s stop the research, stop looking at the data, and stop reporting on it. Because, just as Trump assured us regarding COVID-19 in 2020, climate change will just disappear.
Yikes!
2025 A to Z posts: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
For his Writer’s Workshop this week, John Holton gives us six writing prompts and we are tasked with choosing one of the prompts (or as many as we want) and writing a post that addresses that (or those) prompts. The prompt I chose this week is #5. If evidence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe were discovered, would it alter your core beliefs or sense of self?
I have already written on several occasions on this blog that I would be shocked if, in the incomprehensible vastness of the universe, there is not intelligent life somewhere else out there besides on planet Earth.
Seriously, folks, what are the odds that, of the 3.2 sextillion planets in the observable universe, only one — the Earth — is capable of being a habitable host to intelligent life? How egomaniacal must we human beings be to believe that no other planet in the universe aside from our own could possibly host intelligent life?
There is a consensus among scientists that, in order for planets to actually support intelligent life, there must be, at the very least the presence of liquid water, stable climates, and suitable atmospheres.
Let’s be very conservative and say that only 1/100th of 1% of the 3.2 sextillion planets in the observable universe is. That comes to 320 quadrillion planets in the universe that could be habitable.
Or let’s just look at our home galaxy, The Milky Way, with 300 million potentially habitable planets and say that just 1/100th of 1% could be inhabited by some level of intelligent life. That leaves 30,000 planets in our own home galaxy that could support intelligent life forms.
Yet there isn’t any definitive evidence that any such intelligent life forms have ever visited our planet, which leads many people to believe that our home planet, Earth, is the one and only planet in the entire universe that has intelligent life. As my British friends might say, “Bollocks!”
So the bottom line is that neither my core beliefs nor my sense of self would be altered if evidence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe were discovered.
In her post today, Nan (Nan’s Notebook), raised that age-old question about whether or not we on planet Earth are now being — or ever have been — “visited” by extraterrestrial life.
I don’t know for sure, and I certainly don’t have any concrete evidence to demonstrate that we have ever had visits from space aliens. However, I do believe that there are likely to be forms of intelligent life on other planets somewhere in our vast universe.
Before you call me a hypocrite for not believing in the existence of God due to a lack of evidence, while also believing in the possibility of intelligent extraterrestrial beings without any evidence of their existence, let me explain.
I believe in science, math, statistics, and probabilities. So let’s look at the facts.
There are an estimated 700 quintillion to 3.2 sextillion planets in the observable universe, and potentially far more in the unobservable universe. In terms of habitability, scientists suggest there are about 300 million potentially habitable planets in the Milky Way galaxy alone, which translates to roughly 50 sextillion across the entire universe.
However, only a small fraction of these planets may actually support intelligent life due to strict requirements, such as the presence of liquid water, stable climates, and suitable atmospheres. Based on current estimates, that would mean about 2.5% of these planets could potentially be habitable. The exact number of planets that support intelligent life remains unknown, with Earth being the only confirmed planet that hosts intelligent life.
So let us be conservative and calculate what 1% of the 3.2 sextillion planets in the observable universe is. That comes to 32,000,000,000,000,000,000 (or 32 quintillion) planets in the universe that could be habitable.
Or let’s just look at our home galaxy, The Milky Way, with 300 million potentially habitable planets and say that just 1/4 of 1% could be inhabited by some level of intelligent life. That leaves 750,000 planets in our own home galaxy that could support intelligent life forms.
If that’s the case, then why isn’t there any definitive evidence that any such intelligent life forms have ever visited our planet?
Space is inconceivably vast and the distances between stars is enormous. So traveling from planet A to planet B is not an overnight journey.
The speed of light is 186,282 miles per second. The closest star to Earth, other than our own Sun, is Proxima Centauri, located approximately 25 trillion miles away, which translates to 4.25 light-years away. But humans can’t travel at the speed of light. Traveling 25 trillion miles with current technology, such as a spacecraft traveling at 36,000 miles per hour, would take almost 80,000 years to get to Earth from a planet in the closest solar system to our own. 80,000 years!
Intelligent human beings have been inhabiting our planet for only a couple of hundred thousand years. So given the vast distances and the lengths of time it would take to travel those distances between stars, it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that there is no evidence of extraterrestrial visits.
What are the odds that, of the 3.2 sextillion planets in the observable universe, that only one — the Earth — is capable of being a habitable host to intelligent life?
How egomaniacal must we human beings be to believe that no other planet in the universe aside from our own could possibly have intelligent life?
I am neither an astrophysicist nor a mathematician. Anyone who is should feel free to check and correct, if necessary, my calculations.
For this week’s Mindlovemysery’s Menagerie Friday Faithfuls challenge, Jim Adams asks us to respond by writing anything about nebulas, or the importance of these building blocks of our universe, or about any other celestial phenomena that you like.
When it comes to nebulas — or is that nebulae? — I have a hazy, vague, indistinct, or confused recollection — or a nebulous recollection — of being taught someting about nebulas in high school science class. But either I was absent that day or was too busy doodling away in my notebook to remember much of anything about nebulae.
But the good news is that Jim asked about any other celestial phenomena. Comet 2023 A3, shown in the photo above over the Golden Gate Bridge, has been putting on a visual display across the Bay Area this week, and there are only a few days left to catch a glimpse before it fades from view. After this, the comet won’t be visible from Earth again for another 80,000 years, astronomers estimate.
Through Monday, the comet can be best observed by the naked eye by looking west-southwest about 30 to 45 minutes after sunset. Fortunately, the skies in our area have been clear and tonight is expected to be the best viewing opportunity, especially in elevated inland areas, like where we we live.
So tonight I’m going to head into my backyard about 40 minutes after sunset to see if I can see Comet 2023 A3. I’ll have my iPhone with me and will attempt to get a decent photo of the comet. But I’m not holding my breath. I can rarely get a decent photo of the moon with my iPhone.
And if I miss it tonight, I can try again 80,000 years from now when it comes around again.
For this week’s Mindlovemysery’s Menagerie Friday Faithfuls challenge, Jim Adams asks us to respond by writing anything about Fermi’s paradox, or if you think that Earth is more advanced than life that developed on other planets, or if you think that every civilization that reached our level of advancement self-annihilated, or the reason that we don’t see aliens is because inter-stellar travel is too difficult and just not worth the risk, or you could write about whatever else that you think might fit.
Last week Jim asked us about “liminal space” and now he’s asking about the Fermi paradox. He is making my brain hurt with these Friday Faithfuls prompts.
I actually embrace the first part of the Fermi paradox, which is based on the very high probability — the likelihood — that extraterrestrial intelligence exists somewhere else in this vast universe aside from planet Earth. But if that is the case, if there is intelligent life elsewhere, why haven’t we encountered any advanced extraterrestrial civilizations yet?
Jim already touched on several reasons why we haven’t encountered any intelligent extraterrestrial life forms. Perhaps interstellar travel is too difficult or would take too long or is too risky. Maybe these intelligent life forms are, in fact, on their way to visit us, but their journey started many, many years ago and it will be many, many more years before they are close enough to make contract with us.
Or maybe they have already sent scouts to Earth, checked out human behavior and how we are destroying each other as well as our home planet, and have hightailed it back to their home planet.
I have no solution to put forth regarding the Fermi paradox. And I am not an astrophysicist with any unique insights about intelligent extraterrestrial life to offer. But personally, if I had to choose between (1) accepting that there is a supernatural, all-knowing (omniscient), all-powerful (omnipotent), ever-present everywhere (omnipresent), and perfectly good and loving (omnibenevolent) being that created everything and who chose one planet — Earth — in the entire universe to populate with intelligent life, or (2) accepting that in the unimaginably vast universe comprised of billions and billions of stars and planets, some forms of intelligent life exists on at least some habitable planets, I choose #2.
But if there is extraterrestrial life in the universe, I don’t know the answer to the question, “Where is everybody?”
Suze, over at Obsolete Childhood has introduced a new prompt called “Answer Me This.” Suze says it’s “an alternative daily prompt” to the WordPress Daily Prompt, which she characterized as “ones that totally suck and are focused upon the young people here.
Anyway, her prompt question today is this:
Is it ethical to grow fully formed, brainless clones for harvesting organs?
Hmm. When I read this question, the first thing that popped into my head was the pod factory in The Matrix where human bodies are cultivated.
I don’t know if this question is a hypothetical question, if it’s about science fiction, or if people are actually doing this or are proposing doing this, but my initial thought is:
Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should do it.
Facts, Fictions & Fantasies 