Advocating Scientism, 1963-2013

By the nineteenth century, scientism began to emerge as a worldview that sought to explain all phenomena through the scientific method to the exclusion of all other ways of knowing. These sentiments intensified with Charles Darwin’s discovery of evolution by natural selection. At the turn of the twentieth century, scientific discoveries increased exponentially, giving rise to a strong confidence that science could indeed describe everything. By 1960, certain scientists grew so confident in science’s descriptive ability that they started to advocate scientism. From 1963 to 2013, they advocated an antireligious, positivistic worldview through their popular works and warned of concurrent global conundrums such as the existence of nuclear weapons, global warming, and overpopulation. They envisioned a human future in space as a possible means to avoid earthly problems

Profiles in Science: Stephen Hawking

While Stephen Hawking’s early academic career lacked focus, the development of motor neuron disease straining against his hopes for a fulfilling life pulled the young scientist’s work together. He has since become the world’s most famous scientist due, in part, to his strong belief that science should be accessible to the general public. Hawking has published frequently for the academic community but has also published for the lay reader. His life has been recorded and examined by several biographers. This paper gives an overview of Hawking’s early life, academic career, his academic and popular publications, as well as a few of the works written about Hawking

The Mathematical Universe

I explore physics implications of the External Reality Hypothesis (ERH) that there exists an external physical reality completely independent of us humans. I argue that with a sufficiently broad definition of mathematics, it implies the Mathematical Universe Hypothesis (MUH) that our physical world is an abstract mathematical structure. I discuss various implications of the ERH and MUH, ranging from standard physics topics like symmetries, irreducible representations, units, free parameters, randomness and initial conditions to broader issues like consciousness, parallel universes and Godel incompleteness. I hypothesize that only computable and decidable (in Godel's sense) structures exist, which alleviates the cosmological measure problem and help explain why our physical laws appear so simple. I also comment on the intimate relation between mathematical structures, computations, simulations and physical systems.Comment: Replaced to match accepted Found. Phys. version, 31 pages, 5 figs; more details at http://space.mit.edu/home/tegmark/toe.htm

Mind almost divine

© Cambridge University Press 2003. Reprinted with permission

The ontology of number

What is a number? Answering this will answer questions about its philosophical foundations - rational numbers, the complex numbers, imaginary numbers. If we are to write or talk about something, it is helpful to know whether it exists, how it exists, and why it exists, just from a common-sense point of view [Quine, 1948, p. 6]. Generally, there does not seem to be any disagreement among mathematicians, scientists, and logicians about numbers existing in some way, but currently, in the mainstream arena only definitions, descriptions of properties, and effects are presented as evidence. Enough historical description of numbers in history provides an empirical basis of number, although a case can be made that numbers do not exist by themselves empirically. Correspondingly, numbers exist as abstractions. All the while, though, these "descriptions" beg the question of what numbers are ontologically. Advocates for numbers being the ultimate reality have the problem of wrestling with the nature of reality. I start on the road to discovering the ontology of number by looking at where people have talked about numbers as already existing: history. Of course, we need to know not only what ontology is but the problems of identifying one, leading to the selection between metaphysics and provisional approaches. While we seem to be dimensionally limited, at least we can identify a more suitable bootstrapping ontology than mere definitions, leading us to the unity of opposites. The rest of the paper details how this is done and modifies Peano's Postulates

The merger of natural intelligence with artificial intelligence, with a focus on Neuralink company

Human development is connected with permanent action to be better, to overcome nature, to build something that has so far been able to occur without its participation. The emergence of concepts such as artificial infertification, artificial blood, artificial organs, artificial eye retina, artificial brain or artificial intelligence suggests the desire to take control of man, the control which has so far been attributed to nature, To God the Creator, fate or chance. The dynamic development of science, modern tools and research methods make the thought of artificial intelligence becoming more and more real. In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being used by business people. Its development involves numerous groups of high-class specialists, using the most modern IT tools. Before the creation of the first "intelligent" machines, its idea lasted in the imagination of many people. The films and books of science fiction presented the future in which man was replaced by a machine, and the phenomenon of this reality were robots. Today, for the modern man, it is not a surprise robot, or a "smart" computer program. Thanks to the rapid development of electronics and computer science, we are able to create what was once only a topic of science fiction. AI is currently being used in various fields of science, such as medicine, economics and management. But it is also worth remembering that these processes are accompanied by numerous questions and doubts related to the ethics of its use. The aim of the articles is to inspire the discourse on the example of Neuralink – the search for answers to emerging doubts

‘The physics you buy in supermarkets’: writing science for the general public : the case of Stephen Hawkings

Following the fall of the great ideologies that informed the 19th and 20th century, science took their place in people\u2019s imagery. In the same period, science and its corollary practical application \u2013 technology \u2013 underwent unprecedented developments, culminating in the rapid and ground-breaking advances of the past half century, with the notable prominence of the internet and all web-related technology. The general public can enjoy all the applied benefits of technology but not the research behind or beyond it: science has become a new religion, scientists a new caste. What happens when one of the caste opens up to the public? Between 1988 and 2010, the renowned British physicist Stephen Hawking wrote five popular science books aimed at bringing physics closer to a wider audience than the mere academia. The operation proved very successful \u2013 with his best-seller alone (A brief history of time, 1988) reported to have sold over 10 million copies (Paris 2007) \u2013 and made him into an acclaimed popular author. This study will consider Hawking\u2019s books especially written for popularizing purposes, presenting reflections on the relationship between ESP, popularization and translation, and focusing in particular on Hawking\u2019s first such work, A Brief History of Time, which was made into an even more popular adaptation titled A Briefer History of Time (2005) and translated, in both its versions, into Italian. The aim of the paper will be to detail how the subject has been adapted and transferred from a high into a popular (writing) and an even more popular (re-writing) level, and then into another language (translation), what relationship there is between these passages, and how Hawking\u2019s book has affected the recent trend towards science popularization. This will be done by comparing the works against the general features of English for Scientific/Academic Purposes, to single out their variation from \u2013 or conformity to \u2013 the established norms of this specialized language, providing a textual analysis and highlighting relevant lexical and syntactic phenomena. An interpretation of such phenomena will be proposed according to Critical Discourse Analysis methodology, i.e. considering language in light of the many social, cultural and economic variables informing this type of communication