• I Thought You'd Like To Know This, Too

  • By: WCAT Radio
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I Thought You'd Like To Know This, Too

By: WCAT Radio
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  • A show featuring very interesting people who have a message for you.
    Copyright WCAT Radio
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Social Sciences
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Episodes
  • ITEST Webinar Brain and Artificial Intelligence: A Tale of Two Computers, but Only One Made in the Image of God (October 12, 2024)

    ITEST Webinar Brain and Artificial Intelligence: A Tale of Two Computers, but Only One Made in the Image of God (October 12, 2024)
    Oct 12 2024
    In this ITEST webinar, Dr. Rob Koons and Dr. Terrence Lagerlund deliver talks on Brain and Artificial Intelligence: A Tale of Two Computers, but Only One Made in the Image of God (October 12, 2024)AI and Aristotle: Why No Artifact could ever be ConsciousRobert C. (“Rob”) Koons is a professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin. He holds an M. A. from Oxford and a Ph.D. from UCLA. He is the author or co-author of five books, including The Atlas of Reality with Timothy H. Pickavance (Wiley-Blackwell, 2017) and Is Thomas Aquinas’s Philosophy of Nature Obsolete? (St. Augustine Press, 2022). He is the co-editor of four anthologies, including The Waning of Materialism (OUP, 2010) and Classical Theism (Routledge 2023). He has been working recently on an Aristotelian interpretation of quantum theory, and on defending and articulating hylomorphism in contemporary terms.AbstractThe ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle developed a comprehensive philosophy of nature that laid the foundations for all subsequent scientific inquiry. A central notion of Aristotle’s notion is that of a substance (ousia in Greek)—an essentially independent entity that has the highest possible degree of unity (what Thomas Aquinas called ‘per se unity’). Living organisms have this kind of unity, which explains their possession of essentially unified causal powers, like nutrition, growth, and sensation. Simple, homogeneous inorganic substances also exist, like drops of water or quartz crystals. However, all human artifacts, including all robots and computers, are mere “heaps” of inorganic components, lacking the sort of unity required for life, sensation, and consciousness. AI programs can emulate the behavior of conscious organisms, but there is an irreducible gap between appearance and reality.Terrence Lagerlund, MD, PhDBrain, Soul, Artificial Intelligence, and Quantum MysteryDr. Terrence Lagerlund has been a neurologist in the Division of Epilepsy at Mayo Clinic for 35 years, treating patients with epilepsy and interpreting their electroencephalograms. He also lectures to residents and fellows on electroencephalography including basic principles of electricity and neurophysiology. He has published papers and authored book chapters on electroencephalography and epilepsy, particularly regarding quantitative analysis of electroencephalograms. Prior to becoming a neurologist, he obtained a Ph.D. in physics and worked as a postdoctoral research associate at the MIT Laboratory for Nuclear Science (doing research at Brookhaven National Laboratory and CERN) and as a term physicist at Fermilab.AbstractSome computer scientists claim that artificial general intelligence systems will soon be created which can duplicate and eventually far exceed the intellectual abilities of humans. In this presentation we will compare the architecture and learning ability of artificial neural networks implemented on an electronic digital machine and the neural networks of the human brain (of which Professor Marvin Minsky of MIT once pronounced that “the brain is merely a meat machine”). We will demonstrate by philosophical arguments and a mathematical theorem involving Turing machines that understanding abstract concepts, abstract reasoning to ascertain truth, and making free decisions are powers of the human mind that exceed the capabilities of any physical system whether made of electronic circuits or of biological neurons; rather, these capabilities require a nonphysical soul that tightly integrates with the human brain, because of which we can truly say that humans are made in the image and likeness of God. We will also discuss a new theory of how the soul may interact with the brain by influencing the outcome of quantum processes involving passage of ions through neuronal ion channels within the brain’s neural networks synchronized by the 40-70 Hz oscillation, and thereby continually influence retrieval of memories and behavioral choices occurring in these networks so as to allow the soul’s choice based on rational deliberation to cause a neuronal network undergoing chaotic behavior to converge upon a different final state (attractor), thereby allowing the soul’s choice to be implemented in the brain and body.Brain and Artificial Intelligence—A Tale of Two Computers—But Only One Made in the Image of God - Institute for Theological Encounter with Science and Technology (faithscience.org)
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    2 hrs
  • ITEST Webinar A New Understanding of Quantum Mechanics: Back to Aristotle and Aquinas (August 17, 2024)

    ITEST Webinar A New Understanding of Quantum Mechanics: Back to Aristotle and Aquinas (August 17, 2024)
    Aug 17 2024
    In this ITEST webinar entitled "A New Understanding of Quantum Mechanics: Back to Aristotle and Aquinas" Dr. Robert Kurland, Kenneth Francis, and Dr. Sebastian Mahfood, OP, discuss metaphysics, epistemology, and quantum physics. (August 17, 2024)In the order of appearance,Sebastian Mahfood, OP, PhD, "Introduction to Aristotelian-Thomistic Metaphysics"Dr. Sebastian Mahfood, OP, Director of ITEST, is a Lay Dominican of the Province of Saint Albert the Great. He has served as a professor of intercultural and interdisciplinary studies in theological education for over two decades. In 2021, he transitioned full-time to developing his publishing house, En Route Books and Media, LLC, and his radio station, WCAT Radio, the missions of which are to promote the Catholic spiritual journey in the provision of resources that assist in the formation of priests and laity. He lives in St. Louis with his wife, Dr. Stephanie Mahfood, and children, Alexander and Eva Ruth.Abstract“All men by nature desire to know. An indication of this is the delight we take in our senses” – so begins Aristotle’s Metaphysics, less a metaphysical statement than an epistemological one, but it sets the tone for everything that follows in terms of the third level of abstraction, being qua being, since it indicates the hylomorphic nature of man as both spiritual and material. The immaterial mind learns when the body, formed by the soul, perceives through its senses an ambient reality, generating a phantasm which no longer relies on the sensory impression. One need only touch fire once, for example, to get the idea of “hot.” Are there ways in which metaphysics can help us understand quantum mechanics? Certainly! And that is the subject of this talk.Kenneth Francis, "God and Quantum Theory "Kenneth Francis is a freelance journalist and Contributing Editor at New English Review. For the past 30 years, he has worked as an editor in various publications and print media, as well as a university professor in journalism. He also holds an MA in Theology and is the author of The Little Book of God, Mind, Cosmos and Truth (St Pauls Publishing); The Terror of Existence: From Ecclesiastes to Theatre of the Absurd (with Theodore Dalrymple); and Neither Trumpets Nor Violins (with Theodore Dalrymple and Samuel Hux).AbstractIn understanding the universe, it seems that quantum theory, according to most physicists, is the final mysterious frontier of cosmic science. If so, I believe that this boundary can only be understood fully by a Mind possessing omniscience: God. The serpent in the Garden of Eden successfully conned Adam and Eve into believing they could achieve omniscience, and we all know what happened after that mother-of-all conceited errors. I often wonder did the serpent also tempt the ‘Adam and Eve’ scientists in Switzerland’s ‘Garden of CERN’, with its Large Hadron Collider in search of the so-called ‘God particle’. Even Mary Shelly’s novel Frankenstein was written by the shores of Lake Geneva, next door to CERN, with its potential for creating another Frankenstein’s monster.​Robert Kurland, PhD, "A ‘New’ Understanding of Quantum Mechanics: Back to Aristotle and Aquinas"Dr. Robert Kurland (a convert to Catholicism in 1995) is a retired physicist who has applied magnetic resonance to problems of biological interest in his research (web search: “Kurland-McGarvey Equation”). He began to learn about quantum mechanics at Caltech (BS, “with honor,” 1951) and Harvard (MS,1953; Ph.D.,1956) from courses taught by Richard Feynman and Julian Schwinger. In teaching quantum mechanics to students at Carnegie-Mellon University and SUNY/AB he found that mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics was an obstacle to understanding. So, in his talk he will try to explain what quantum mechanics is about using a minimum of mathematics, as he did in his book Mysteries: Quantum and Theological.AbstractIn this talk, I’ll give a brief, qualitative, pictorial explanation of quantum mechanics, from a historical perspective. Two mysteries of quantum mechanics (behavior not in accord with our everyday intuition), the wavelike nature of particles, and entanglement, will be illustrated in simple examples. I’ll examine how philosophers of science have recently used two concepts, actus (actus essendi) and potentia, to explain these mysteries and put them into a context of Aristotelian/Thomistic metaphysics.
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    1 hr and 52 mins
  • ITEST Webinar Abortion Pill Reversal - Truth or Fiction (June 8, 2024)

    ITEST Webinar Abortion Pill Reversal - Truth or Fiction (June 8, 2024)
    Jun 8 2024
    ABORTION PILL REVERSAL – TRUTH OR FICTION?

    Abortion Pill Reversal - Truth or Fiction? - Institute for Theological Encounter with Science and Technology (faithscience.org)

    OUR PRESENTERS

    STEPHEN SAMMUT, PHD

    ABORTION-PILL REVERSAL: PRECLINICAL EVIDENCE

    Dr. Stephen Sammut received a B.Pharm from Monash University (Victoria, Australia) and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Malta (Malta, Europe). His research utilizes preclinical models to investigate psychopathological behavior. He has authored and co-authored papers in leading scientific journals, including his groundbreaking studies relating to abortion and abortion-pill reversal. His research efforts currently focus on investigating: 1) the neurological, biological and behavioral consequences of drug-induced abortion, 2) the abortion-pill-reversal, 3) the development of an animal model for relocating the embryo in ectopic pregnancy and 4) mental health and related behaviors in the university student population.

    ABSTRACT

    Abortion-pill reversal (APR) is the process where a woman, regretting her abortion shortly after taking mifepristone (RU486), is administered progesterone in an effort to stop and reverse the abortion process. APR is treated as medically/scientifically unsound and dangerous to women. However, what does the reality tell us? Does objective reality support the narrative fed to the public? This presentation will seek to address the objective scientific reality underlying APR, including recent findings from my laboratory. The presentation will also address briefly the previous preclinical findings pertaining to the negative consequences of abortion and aspects relating to the abuses and manipulation of objective scientific truth in the current mode of operation of the scientific and medical fields that are driving the attack on APR.

    STACY TRASANCOS, PHD

    FROM BLUE JEANS TO VACCINES: THE CONSCIENCE OF AN ABORTIFACIENT WORLD

    Stacy Trasancos has a Ph.D. in chemistry from Penn State University and worked as a senior research chemist for DuPont before converting to Catholicism. She left her career to stay home with her children. In those years, she earned a M.A. in dogmatic theology and published five books on the integration of science and theology. Dr. Trasancos teaches online science and theology courses for Seton Hall University, Holy Apostles College and Seminary, and Belmont Abbey College and is a Fellow of the Word on Fire Institute. She is, at last, pursuing a second M.A. in systematic philosophy.

    ABSTRACT

    An abortion is characterized by pro-choice advocates as a concern of personal autonomy, expressed most succinctly in Planned Parenthood v Casey (1992): “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life. Beliefs about these matters could not define the attributes of personhood were they formed under compulsion of the State.” The abortion industry naturally exploits this narrative by politicizing in the name of human rights a procedure that denies those very rights. At the heart of these politics is an anti-personhood agenda that counts on the complicity of pro-life advocates. Such a shaky moral landscape became apparent during COVID when prominent Catholic leaders were promoting, under the principle of double-effect, immorally created vaccines as morally licit. This presentation will engage the moral dimension of an issue that pervades even those areas of our lives where we least expect it to surface.
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    1 hr and 53 mins

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