September 12, 2007
Charles R. Baron
From its origins at Bletchley Park in England during WW II, where a group of scientists and mathematicians decrypted the Nazi military codes, to the defeat of the reigning world chess champion by IBM’s Deep Blue software program in 1997, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has scored a number of successes over the years.
But in recent years progress has ground to a virtual halt. AI has somehow failed to build on its earlier successes and now appears a bit dispirited, as if it had wandered off and gotten lost.
Such is the theme of David Gelernter’s Artificial Intelligence Is Lost in the Woods (MIT Technology Review, July-August 2007), a thoughtful essay that presents a dissenting view against the reigning beliefs of the majority of AI theorists, neuroscientists, cognitive scientists, and philosophers of mind.
The debate centers on the concept “consciousness” and the two camps on either side of the battle lines are known as “cognitivists” and “anticognitivists.”
The cognitivists believe that a machine can be built that would be indistinguishable from a human mind-that is to say: If you were to carry on a heartfelt, deeply personal conversation with this machine, say, over the telephone, you would swear you were speaking with another human being. In other words, the machine would simulate human consciousness if not perfectly then at least convincingly. Many cognitivists believe that the creation of such a machine is “just around the corner.”
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June 20, 2007
For years known as “Special K” or “vitamin K” on the street, ketamine is now being touted by the National Institute for Mental Health as a drug that can kick depression in hours instead of weeks.
Ketamine, developed as an animal anesthetic, has been used as a party drug since the 1960s. The DEA classified Ketamine as a Schedule III controlled substance in 1999 after an alarming increase in its abuse as a street drug.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), certain doses of ketamine can cause dream-like states and hallucinations. In high doses, it can cause delirium, amnesia, impaired motor function, high blood pressure, depression and potentially fatal respiratory problems.
It may seem strange that NIDA is warning public about ketamine causing depression and other dangerous side effects, while the NIMH is busy getting stories placed about the wonders of Ketamine in relieving symptoms of depression. But it’s not surprising.
A similar thing happened with methylphenidate (Ritalin). The NIMH clinical trials on ADHD helped to popularize and legitimatize methylphenidate for children. Yet the DEA classifies methylphenidate as a Schedule II drug-along with cocaine and amphetamines-and published a paper in 1995 warning that it shares many of the same pharmacological effects as methamphetamine and cocaine.
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May 29, 2007
Charles R. Baron
In a hypothetical world ruled by science, religion would be a relic of the past, banished from everyday life and relegated to the dusty archives of history.
Such was the scenario envisioned by a handful of the participants gathered together for a conversation on science and religion hosted at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California in November 2006. The conference, Beyond Belief — Science, Religion, Reason, and Survival, featured 34 scientists and philosophers drawn mainly from US, UK, and Australian universities to discuss a pressing set of questions:
* Is this the beginning of a new age of unreason?
* Will faith and dogma trump rational inquiry?
* Is it possible to reconcile religious and scientific world views?
* Can we be good without God? And, if not God, then what?
What prompted these questions and served as the genesis for the conference was the 9/11 tragedy and increasingly dangerous trends that have since developed.
Cited as the most serious of those trends were the alarming rise in religious fundamentalism, some brands violent in the extreme — to wit, suicide bombing; the continuing conflicts between science and religion in the classroom and in the courtroom; and the strident calls for a return to religious values as an antidote to a decline in public morality.
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May 10, 2007
Excerpted from of an article published in a French FREEDOM in May 2007
Thanks to the latest scientific discoveries, man has a growing knowledge of the mechanisms of life. But are we sure that these discoveries will be used for good? In tomorrow’s world, will our children still be free?
In the spring of 2006, French public opinion was in turmoil. Newspapers and magazines are overwhelmed by readers’ letters. Parents, educators, child specialists, associations mobilize and a web petition (Pas de 0 de conduite pour les enfants de 3 ans - No 0 for misconduct for 3-year-old children) were signed by almost 200,000 people in a few weeks. INSERM (Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale- National Institute for Health and Medical Research) has just issued an expertise, which recommends the screening of very young children for “conduct disorder” and created unprecedented opposition. All the more so as, in its law project to prevent criminality, the government referred to these conclusions to promote very early detection of “conduct disorders,” which allegedly would help to detect future criminals in the nursery, or even in the mother’s womb.
Stop the thieves of building blocks
“Don’t put babies under police watch” wrote the journalist of magazine Elle. “Who wants to fine children?” asks daily Libé while Le Monde titles on “3-year-old criminals”. Specialists of young children and practical prevention criticize the biased methodology used by INSERM and the ideology underlying this study: any manifestation of unwell-being by the child is to be treated with drugs. The emotional and family environment is hardly mentioned, though its importance is only too well known in any child’s development.
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Those following the controversy over the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill passed in England on January 31, 2006, may not have noticed there was one word that was never used–”brainwashed.” At no time during that intense debate was anyone whose beliefs clashed with those of others ever slandered as having been “brainwashed.”Mitt Romney, U.S. presidential candidate of a faith (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), has beliefs run a different course than other presidential candidates. While his chosen religion may be the topic of controversy, his clarity of mind and intelligence are obvious in his appearances and speeches.
In an ever more pluralistic world, labeling a person as brainwashed because of their religious beliefs is nothing more than hate-speech, justifying discrimination and marginalization.
In fact, the notion that participating in peaceful religious practices could ever constitute “brainwashing” is outdated, long discredited by social scientists who call it a form of slander, a social weapon, a term used against groups with which someone happens to disagree.
Real brainwashing - defined by those same sociologists as the use of isolation, deprivation, force, drugs, pain, hypnosis and indoctrination to break the human will - is torture.
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Secures parental right over son’s future
From the Clearwater edition of Freedom Magazine. Single father Roland Stroud bucked the system and freed his son, Steven, from state-enforced psychiatric drugging that had turned Steven violent. A bill now moving through the Florida legislature will prevent similar abuses and frightening outcomes.
At the age of 11, sixty-five pound Steven Stroud, taking state-enforced psychiatric drugs since the age of five, stood defiant in front of a Florida judge. Found guilty of striking a Sheriff’s deputy, Steven was escorted straight from the courtroom to a psychiatric facility and held there for ten days.
Steven’s ordeal had started in kindergarten where he was considered “too active” by school personnel, then labeled by a psychologist as suffering from “Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder” (ADHD). A disorder, not a disease, decided on with no medical tests, no second opinion. Not even a thermometer or stethoscope was used before Steven was labeled. Instead the condition was determined based on a checklist of behaviors, behaviors such as fidgeting, speaking out of turn and losing homework. Over the next six years, Steven was placed on a cocktail of psychiatric drugs. A class of drugs not only the FDA, but Canadian, Japanese, British, Australian and other medical agencies have warned can cause mania, suicide, violence and sudden death.
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March 6, 2007
On February 22, friends of Native American artist and human rights advocate John Trudell joined him in performing at the Gibson Ampitheatre to benefit research to find a cure for ovarian and other gynecological cancers. The concert was the fruition of plans envisioned by John and actress Marcheline Bertrand, mother of Angelina Jolie.
The evening was dedicated to Marcheline, who passed away on January 27, 2007, from ovarian cancer. Joining John Trudell and his band, Bad Dog, were musical legends Jackson Browne and Willie Nelson and their band.
A VIP reception followed the event, at which the photo below was taken.
(Photo: Mark Shark (lead guitarist for Bad Dog), Freedom’s Tom Whittle, John Trudell)
“Whistleblowing is a lonely effort,” opened Allen Jones, accepting his human rights award at CCHR’s (Citizens Commission on Human Rights) Anniversary dinner on February 17th. He speaks from experience.
In April 2004, after persisting in speaking out about corruption and the influence of drug companies on state officials in Pennsylvania, Jones was fired from his job as an investigator in the Pennsylvania Office of Inspector General, and escorted from the building where he’d worked.
(Jones vs. Goble et al.)
But that didn’t stop him. Jones filed a lawsuit in 2004 that will hopefully bring up the public’s awareness on Big Pharma’s marketing schemes that are causing Medicaid costs to soar. The facts are laid out in detail in his report, “Smoke and Mirrors” [http://psychrights.org/Drugs/AllenJonesTMAPJanuary20.pdf]. In December 2006, the Texas Attorney General joined the lawsuit. (“State official was paid consultant for drug company”) (more…)
February 13, 2007
Charles R. Baron
British billionaire John Templeton is giving away heaps of philanthropic money, some of which is finding its way to a UCLA computer lab where an experiment to determine whether testosterone plays a role in financial decision making is underway. Paul Zak, director of the Claremont Center for Neuroeconomics Studies, is conducting the UCLA experiment. (Testing the Role of Trust and Values in Financial Decisions)
Zak believes “humans are hard-wired to trust and cooperate. By linking brain chemistry to financial decision making,” he believes he can prove it. Early results in the UCLA experiment show that the testosterone-fueled alpha males were “more generous.”
A good thing, right? Maybe — but, strictly speaking, there seems to be little new here.
Zak is dealing with what are, essentially, foregone conclusions. That mood-altering substances-whether street drugs, anti-depressants, hormones, etc.-can influence behavior is a well-known fact. The question is: Is this kind of research value-add?
For the sake of argument, let’s suppose Zak is on the right road. Suppose his experiments will show that testosterone can influence financial decision-making that is more moral, more conscientious, less greedy. Where do we go from there? Do we pass a law requiring CEOs to use a testosterone patch every morning along with their cup of coffee so as to avoid another Enron fiasco? (more…)
January 30, 2007
Freedom Magazine interviewed Rod Vienneau, spokesman for the Duplessis Orphans of Quebec, as part of their investigation into the psychiatric abuse of these children. You can see the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6on526KsVs. For the full story of the Duplessis Orphans tragedy go to http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol38i/page18.htm .
