Dr. Swamidass then headed to Seattle where he spoke last night at the University of Washington on “Human Identity and the Meaning of Artificial Intelligence: A Conversation with a Secular Humanist and a Scientist Christian.” It was good to see Josh in the flesh.
Josh gave a nice presentation with AI/consciousness basics about Alan Turing, John Searle’s Chinese Room, etc. The most interesting thing I heard was his passing mention of Alfred Wallace, co-founder with Charles Darwin of the theory of evolution by natural selection, and “Wallace’s Doubt” about whether human consciousness could have evolved in a Darwinian manner. Actually, this is a question on which Wallace broke with Darwin, becoming arguably a forerunner of ID.
…you could submit questions through a website. I asked, under my first name only, “Where do you think Alfred Russel Wallace’s doubt about the unguided evolution of human consciousness stands today? Sounds a bit like intelligent design
