cheapesthostings2

On the day the iPad was launched, Apple sold over 300,000 of the tablet computers. Since then, over 3 million iPads have been sold. Our society is infatuated with technology, and this affects us in ways both obvious and subtle. Here I want to examine how our adoration of technology influences the way we think about science, and in turn how we see our whole world. I should note that I write this as a scientist, and someone with a long-time interest in, and fascination with technology. Because the words science and technology are often paired, their meanings tend to be conflated. But science can be pursued with few technological spin-offs (as is the case with astrophysics, for example) and technology can be developed without the use of science (as was the case with the early technologies developed by trial and error in prehistory). Certainly scientific discoveries can often be used to develop new technologies, and existing technologies can be evaluated scientifically. But science itself...

Two years ago I started thinking about consciousness (my earlier posts are here and here ), and ever since, what's in my mind has been on my mind. First, some of what I've been reading lately. About a year ago, Time magazine published an article by cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker titled " The mystery of consciousness ". Pinker refers to a distinction made by philosopher David Chalmers , between the Easy Problem of consciousness (what are the neural correlates of consciousness?) and the Hard Problem (why do is there such a thing as subjective conscious experience?). Chalmers' ideas are intriguing; see for example his Scientific American piece, " The puzzle of conscious experience ". There's also a fascinating video interview with Chalmers. Now, on to some of my thoughts ... First person very singular I know that I'm conscious (in fact for René Descartes , this was the one thing that could be known with certainty). But there's no way...