The presumption of materialism lies at the root of much of today's journalism and speculation about the future of artificial intelligence. Indeed, it has generated volumes and volumes of hype. A materialistic understanding of human abilities like consciousness, creativity, love, and freedom produce two corollary errors: an overestimation of the potential of algorithms and a downgrading of those qualities in humans. In this episode of Great Minds, Michael Medved discusses these inherent limitations of artificial intelligence and the prospects that AI will evolve into something like ourselves.
To be a conservative, says Yale polymath David Gelernter, is to “give due credit to the ideas that created the civilization we live within.” A simple and beautiful summary. In a new podcast episode of Great Mind with Michael Medved, Dr. Gelernter talks with our host Mr. Medved about the shocking irresponsibility in the failure to introduce young people to the best achievements in thought. They also, however, discuss evidence that our civilization is due for a healthy correction as we “snap out” of the torpor that suppresses consideration of great ideas. If Gelernter is right, there’s reason for optimism.
Human intelligence sits between fundamental, unbridgeable chasms on either side: animal and artificial intelligence. The capacity for creativity, for one thing, stands permanently outside the reach of algorithms. In a wide-ranging conversation, Robert Marks and Michael Medved tackle questions like what it means for something to be not just unknown but “unknowable.”
Join Discovery Institute Senior Fellow and nationally-recognized talk show host Michael Medved for a once-in-a-lifetime experience in Israel from September 8-17, 2019. Visit the sites of both modern and ancient Israel as you explore the relationship between faith and science, discover the archeological evidence for Biblical history, investigate the role of entrepreneurship in the development of new technologies, and learn the amazing behind-the-scenes story of how modern Israel has survived against all odds.
Addressing one of today's most acclaimed technological frontiers, Michael Medved and professor of electrical and computer engineering Robert Marks discuss the limits of artificial intelligence. They begin with definitions — What is a computer? What is an algorithm? — before tackling some pervasive media myths. Can a computer innovate or only imitate? Can computers now really do anything different from the Turing Machine, devised as a model by Alan Turing in the 1930s? Could a computer be programmed to interact with humans like the sinister HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey? The answer is yes, says Bob Marks, and whatever flaws such a machine displayed would be the faults inadvertently woven into it by its human programmers.
Stephen Meyer acts as host and quester to discuss Michael Medved's latest book, The American Miracle: Divine Providence in the Rise of the Republic. Topics includes the settling of North America and the momentous Constitutional Convention. The series of “happy accidents” is strongly suggestive of providence, “divine favor,” as many Americans have perceived today and in the past. Medved makes a couple of additional provocative points. First, that seeing “design” in your country’s history, or you own marriage or your life, is healthy and beneficial. He discusses his own marriage in this context. Second, that it keeps front and center in your mind, as a citizen, that America’s “miracles” are not meaningless accidents but instead are arranged to serve a goal: “serving the world” by rescuing it from evils including Communism and Nazism. He understands that mission as being still before us today.
The focus in this episode of Great Minds with Michael Medved is on a pair of giants, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, who dazzle the student of our country’s history with evidence of a special guidance at work at numerous key junctures in their lives. The outcome of two great conflicts, the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, seem to have turned, in remarkable ways, upon bizarre providential twists. The consequences have been profound not just for the United States but for the world.
ID is a scientific theory competing with neo-Darwinian evolution, but it’s more than that: a paradigm for understanding human history, especially the history of the United States. In a new podcast episode of Great Minds with Michael Medved, Michael switches places with ID theorist Stephen Meyer to discuss his latest book, The American Miracle: Divine Providence in the Rise of the Republic.
Biology reveals evidence of design, Dr. Meyer explains in this conversation with Michael, but it can’t take us very far in identifying the source of that design. Proponents of intelligent design have been clear about that. For an idea about who or what the designer might be, you need to turn to other scientific fields — physics and cosmology — that consider the ultra-finely tuned laws that permit a livable planet in the first place. The awesome design extends from the origin of the universe, down to the tiniest particles. Drawing from physics and cosmology, Meyer sketches the evidence for theism.
Adolf Hitler is long dead. Nevertheless, his name is still uttered every day as a rhetorical smear. By drawing some parallel to Hitler and the Holocaust, however dubious, many charge others with guilt by association. This unfortunate cultural twitch has even been canonized as Godwin's Law or reductio ad Hitlerum. At the top of the list, Hitler's supposed Christianity is often raised by the critics of religion. But was Hitler a Christian? When you get down to the bottom of it, what’s the truth? Was Hitler in any meaningful sense a “Christian”?
Michael Medved is a nationally syndicated radio host, best-selling author, and veteran film critic. He joined Discovery Institute as a Senior Fellow in November 2007.
Great Minds
Authors, Artists, Scientists, Thinkers
Great Minds with Michael Medved features deep conversations with leading educators, scientists, authors, and filmmakers.
