Foosball or Football
Years ago I began conceiving of these two pictures as analogous to the difference between a game of foosball and football. In honor of the ... » Go
Nathan B Jacobson
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- Nathan is the creator and editor of Afterall.net and a seeker of understanding.
Defining “Artificial Intelligence” (AI)
At a popular level, “AI” is the marketing label du jour for virtually every innovation in software, hardware, and technology that is up for sale ... » Go
Run Into Reality
With the emergence of generative software like Suno to generate music for texts and lyrics, I’ve become taken with songwriting. Ideas for stories and essays ... » Go
AI Empowers Creativity and Creates Work
Many are anxious about the rise of generative software marketed as "artificial intelligence": software such as ChatGPT for text, Midjourney for images, Sora for video, ... » Go
Cognitive Autonomy and Personal Truth
We’ve been living in the lengthening shadow of postmodernism, relativism, subjectivism, and standpoint epistemology since at least the eighties, when I came of age. For ... » Go
Undefining Sex and Sowing Chaos with Edge Cases
Some things are this, and others are that. Some things are not like the others. We learn this. We know this. We depend upon our ... » Go
Christians, Don’t Question Authority
In the face of a huge loss of faith in our leaders, Michael W. Austin and Gregory L. Bock recruited a couple dozen evangelical professors ... » Go
The Paper Chase
When strong evidence for a specific and falsifiable claim is presented, the response is a barrage of article and paper recommendations on larger and related ... » Go
Rank Censorship Behind the Scenes
The term censorship conjures up images of piles of burning books or dissidents locked away in the remotest reaches of Siberia. We can take heart ... » Go
Rupert Sheldrake Enumerates the Dogmas of Scientism
In a very provocative and dense TEDx talk, Rupert Sheldrake posits ten core tenets of current, “materialistic” science, and suggests they should be questioned. The subversive ideas ... » Go
Freedom of Conscience Is For Everyone
There are virtually endless scenarios in which an employee, a small business owner, or a sole proprietor might decline to participate in a business activity ... » Go
Steven Pinker’s Sense of Style and Placing Commas
In a recent interview, “‘Literally,’ Emojis, and Other Trends That Aren’t Destroying English“, Steven Pinker directs his characteristic optimism to writing style. I’ve been guilty too ... » Go
Broken and Unbroken
Unbroken is a well-produced film that tells the story of World War II survivor Louis Zamperini. Zamperini survived crashing in the Pacific, interminable weeks lost at ... » Go
Pigliucci’s Exhortation to Skeptics, Atheists, and Secularists
No matter their cause, every group falls short of its aspirations. Amongst skeptics, atheists, and secularists, some less fêted voices like Michael Ruse and Julian Baggini ... » Go
A Mess Around Here
I was recently forced to move this site into a new content management system before I had all my ducks in a row for the ... » Go
The Boob Tube for Brooders
Recently a number of philosophically arresting moments have managed to insert themselves into the television landscape. True to form, Ronald D. Moore and company continue ... » Go
The Adjustment Bureau
Into the ever-expanding catalog1 of films predicated on our anxiety about the extent of our free will, enter The Adjustment Bureau, perhaps the most cerebral ... » Go
Roger Penrose On The Grand Design
With all the hand-wringing about whether Stephen Hawking’s The Grand Design changes anything — whether “philosophy is dead” and whether M-theory promises to explain the ... » Go
Ad Hominem
The person presenting an argument is attacked instead of the argument itself. ... » Go
A Plea for Civil Disagreement
We interrupt this broadcast for a rare excursion into contemporary politics, but only to make a broader plea. Last night, here in the U.S.A., the ... » Go
Our Inescapable Pluralism
Whatever our worldview, that view must countenance the fact that many others think it mistaken. This is the problem of pluralism. The implication of this ... » Go
Common Sense on Ultimate Explanations
Luke, the wunderkind over at Common Sense Atheism, continues to be a tremendously salutary voice in the online conversation about God. Recently, Luke set out ... » Go
Regarding Haiti: An Imperative
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set ... » Go
The Decade of Atheism?
Radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt concluded 2009 by broadcasting a debate about God between polemicists Michael Shermer and Gregory Koukl, thereby bidding adieu to ... » Go
The Captain of My Soul
Central to the plot of Clint Eastwood’s Invictus is William Ernest Henley’s short poem of the same name. Though the role of the poem suffers ... » Go