The Search for Consciousness
Cynthia Sue Larson Interviews Seán Ó Nualláin
One Magisterium: How Nature Knows through Us – a review
For the first time, an author with peer-reviewed published work in neuroscience, comparative religion, theoretical biology and many facets of cognitive science takes on the Big Issues of science and religion, as well as the current paralysis in real innovation. Seán Ó Nualláin’s latest book, One Magisterium, is here reviewed by the eminent scientist and thinker, Stuart Kauffman.
Complexity and Theological Perspectives
Does self-organisation pose a threat to theology? Or is God the facilitator of a complex world? And is there a role for thought experiments in religion? Niels Henrik Gregerson, Professor of Systematic Theology at University of Copenhagen, discusses religion’s place in a scientific world and how both science and religion could benefit from a combined approach.
Information and Communication in Living Matter
Biological information is not only instructional but also has to do with ‘valued’ and ‘significant’ information, which puts the receiver in the centre of interest. Bernd-Olaf Küppers, Professor of Natural Sciences, offers a distinct naturalistic view about how crucial semantic levels of information might emerge via evolutionary processes.
Beyond the Stalemate
In our contemporary neurobiology and much of the philosophy of mind post Descartes we are classical physics machines and either mindless, or mind is at best epiphenomenal and can have no consequences for the physical world. In this article, renowned scientist and thinker, Stuart Kauffman, discuss a large, interwoven set of topics. Much of what he says is highly speculative, some is testable, some is, at present, surely not. It is, he hopes, useful, to set these ideas forth for our consideration.
The Computational Universe
Does nature process quantum information whenever a physical system evolves? In this article, Seth Lloyd uses the concept of quantum information science as the basis for an entire world view, declaring that the universe as a whole is a gigantic quantum computer.
Claude Shannon: A Bit more Information
A juggling unicyclist who transformed “information” from a vague idea into a precise concept that underlies the digital revolution. Claude Shannon was one of the greatest of the giants who created the information age.
On ‘Reinventing the Sacred’
The word ‘sacred’ is not a word that has been used within modern science. In this exclusive interview, Stuart Kauffman discusses how our scientific understanding of complexity and emergence has “Reinvented the Sacred”.
Stanza: The Emergent City
Can we use new technologies to imagine a world where we are liberated and empowered, where finally all of the technology becomes more than gimmick and starts to actually work for us or are these technologies going to control us, separate us, divide us, create more borders?
Cancer and Complexity in an Unfolding World
Simeon Nelson’s art installation, Anarchy in the Organism, featured four simultaneous algorithmic videos and eight-speaker ‘whispering windows’. The book that followed explored integrative ways of looking at disparate phenomena to confront the possible meanings of cancer.