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Why an 18-year-old founder is still going to college
An 18-year-old founder is building her AI startup during high school — and explains why she doesn't buy the Silicon Valley dropout myth.
Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis says AI scaling 'must be pushed to the maximum'
Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis says AI scaling is key to reaching AGI, a still theoretical version of AI that reasons as well as humans.
Science Sunday: Balloons ‘matter’ inflation race
Science Central joined WANE 15 Saturday Morning to show how matter in the air might inhibit blowing up a balloon.
Why ‘Past Lives’ Resonates So Much For People Like Me
The Oscar-nominated film shows the pain I'm still in from leaving my country and the boy I loved.
Assessing Goldman Sachs After a 301% Five Year Surge and Business Model Shift
If you are wondering whether Goldman Sachs Group is still a smart buy after its huge run up, or if you are late to the party, you are in the right place to unpack what the current share price actually implies. The stock has climbed 3.5% over the last week, 8.7% over the past month, and is up a striking 48.6% year to date, capping a 45.4% 1 year gain and a 301.0% increase over 5 years that has clearly shifted how the market views its risk and growth profile. Recent headlines have highlighted...
Insurance coverage of hepatitis B vaccine won’t change, industry and officials say
Parents will still be able to get the hepatitis B vaccine for their children at no cost even though the US Centers for Disease and Control Prevention’s vaccine advisers recommended a major change to the immunization practice.
MGM Resorts (MGM): Reassessing Valuation After Technical Breakout and Improving Global Entertainment Outlook
MGM Resorts International (MGM) just caught investors attention, jumping about 14% on the XETRA exchange as traders reacted to a clean technical breakout and improving sentiment around global entertainment demand. See our latest analysis for MGM Resorts International. Zooming out, that breakout sits on top of a steady grind higher, with a roughly 10% 1 month share price return and a modestly positive year to date move. However, the 1 year total shareholder return is still slightly negative,...
Undermanned Wizards take on Hawks following historic loss
After flashing a few encouraging signs, the Washington Wizards' rebuilding efforts seem to be at a standstill.
Running Out of Time, Republicans in Congress Still Lack a Health Plan
Top Republicans have said they want to produce a proposal in short order to counter Democrats pressing for an extension of health care subsidies. They have not gotten far.
Horses is a hit, but its studio might still be in trouble
“This still does not compare to the kind of audience we would have on Steam.”
How science can phase out animal testing
New technologies could replace many procedures though some will still be needed
Deals: 512GB iPad Pro, 24GB M5 MacBook Pro, more 9to5Mac
Alongside the Black Friday pricing that is somehow still live on AirPods 4 with ANC down at $99, today’s 9to5Toys...
A Hospital Was Slated To Open in 2025. Amid a Legal Battle, It’s Still a Field of Dirt.
By Andrew Jones | KFF Health News Madison County, tucked in the mountains of western North Carolina, has no hospital and just three ambulances serving its roughly 22,000 people. The ambulances frequently travel back and forth to Mission Hospital in Asheville, the largest and most central hospital in ...
Where the hell is Samsung's Ballie robot?
Ballie has been promised to us multiple times over the last few years, but we're still waiting to see if it becomes a real product.
Caitlin Clark enjoys lucrative year despite injury woes
Despite Caitlin Clark's injury-plagued 2025 WNBA season, the Iowa women's basketball legend still hauled in a lucrative year through her endorsements.
Commentary: LDS faith may come first, but money still matters in BYU sports
Yes, BYU is focused on faith, but money still talks in big-time college sports — now more than ever.
Microsoft's Copilot+ AI PC plan fizzled, but it still served a purpose
Microsoft's Copilot+ AI PC plan launched with a ton of hype, but the company has little to show for it today.
My dad died unexpectedly. Picking up one of his hobbies has helped me feel more connected to him.
My dad died last year, and it still makes no sense to me. I've picked up his painting hobby, and it's created a tiny tether to feel connected to him.
Giant $450 price drop hits Apple's 512GB M4 iPad Pro at Amazon today
While there are still some $100 price drops live across the new M5 iPad Pro lineup, we just spotted a...
Global Scientists Anticipate Less Reliance on the United States in Future Carbon Monitoring
With Trump’s budget knife still poised over NOAA’s climate research operations, international researchers see a reduced role for the nation that pioneered CO2 measurement.
Column | The World Cup has always been about politics
The tournament played a role in early 20th century nation building, Jonathan Wilson says in a new book, and it is still political today.
Home health aide who admitted to taking $1.4 million from elderly man back in court
‘I still love Dr. Braida,’ Fatumata Jaiteh said of man who died in 2022
The GOP Still Can’t Agree on a Health Plan
Senate Democrats were promised a vote by mid-December on extending enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, but Republicans still can’t decide whether they want to put forward their own alternative or what that might include. Meanwhile, the CDC and FDA are roiled by debates over vaccines. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine, and Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss those stories and more. Also, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’ Aneri Pattani about her project tracking opioid settlement payments.
Report shows California health care jobs pay, but waitlists clog college on-ramp
Community college programs promise mobility — but demand far exceeds capacity, the PPIC finds.
Yankees still trying hard for Cody Bellinger as stout competition...
Cody Bellinger remains the Yankees’ No. 1 target.
NFL playoff picture: How Cowboys-Lions impacts NFC seeding and wild-card race
Latest 2025 NFL playoff picture and standings update with which teams are in, out or still alive.
SEC may have won ACC/SEC Challenge, but it wasn't the true winner
The SEC ended up on top of the ACC/SEC challenge again. Yet the conference still has questions after most of the top teams struggled.
The key lessons for both parties from Tennessee: From the Politics Desk
Plus, a Ukraine peace deal is still proving elusive for Trump.
Why American Health Care Is Still a Mess
Jonathan Gruber on the broken American health-care system, Obamacare, the Trump administration’s war on vaccines and science, and being on the wrong end of Republican outrage. Plus: David on Donald Trump’s Ukraine “peace plan,” recent scandals, and They Thought They Were Free, by Milton Mayer.
Santa Monica Place celebrates holiday season with live entertainment, snow, decor
The holiday season has officially arrived at Santa Monica Place, where visitors to the outdoor shopping destination can enjoy a full festive experience through Christmas Eve. Here’s a breakdown of what guests can expect: While snow is common in Southern California, visitors can still experience a white Christmas, thanks to the new” Snowfall at Santa […]
Cowboys-Lions Preview
DETROIT (AP) The Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys are the top two teams in the hunt for an NFC wild card and are still holding on to hopes of competing for division championships.
Trump called his predecessor ‘Sleepy Joe.’ Now, he seems to be dozing off in meetings
The OpenAI-Google fight is the next critical juncture in the AI wars
OpenAI may have sparked the AI wars more than three years ago with the launch of ChatGPT, but it's still a long way from finishing them.
Colorado Springs-area districts settle with CHSAA’s role in transgender sports lawsuit
The case against the Colorado Civil Rights Division and the AG will still move forward.
Editor’s Letter: Why The WIE Issue Still Matters
In the 33 years THR has been publishing our annual Women in Entertainment issue, massive strides have been made — but not enough. We’re working hard to make sure some day it’s obsolete.
Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt says AI isn't overhyped — the biggest gains from automating corporate work are still ahead
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt says AI is 'under-hyped' and that its most 'extraordinary' benefits are still ahead.
Republicans avoided a nightmare in Tennessee. Their electoral picture is still scary
Republicans avoided disaster on Tuesday night by winning a special election in a solidly red Tennessee congressional district.
Why 'Home Alone' star Daniel Stern won't be celebrating the movie's 35th anniversary in person
Actor Daniel Stern still appreciates his 1990 holiday favorite, 'Home Alone,' but says he won't be celebrating the movie at in-person events.
Republicans are covering their backsides on the double-tap strike
After reports Friday that the US had conducted a second strike on a suspected drug vessel in order to kill survivors of its first strike – quite possibly in violation of the law of armed conflict – few defended the Trump administration more strongly than Republican Rep. Carlos Gimenez of Florida.
Trump announces more restrictions on legal immigration after DC shooting : The NPR Politics Podcast
The Trump administration has announced more restrictions on the country’s refugee and asylum programs after a shooting of two National Guard members last week in Washington, D.C., allegedly by an Afghan immigrant. How do these changes advance Trump’s immigration policy agenda and his vision of what it means to be an American?This episode: senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith, immigration policy correspondent Ximena Bustillo, and senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro.This podcast was produced by Casey Morell and Bria Suggs, and edited by Rachel Baye.Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.Listen to every episode of the NPR Politics Podcast sponsor-free, unlock access to bonus episodes with more from the NPR Politics team, and support public media when you sign up for The NPR Politics Podcast+ at plus.npr.org/politics.
Doctors still unsure about Trump’s heart health after ‘weird’ memo
It is still unclear which imaging services President Donald Trump underwent to evaluate his cardiovascular health. The White House shared a memo Monday as an attempt to put this topic to bed—but questions remain.
Amon-Ra St. Brown: It's still up in the air whether I'll play on Thursday
While Amon-Ra St.
‘A lot of heartburn in the Pentagon right now": CNN reporter on reaction to Hegseth dodging blame on boat strikes
Cyber Monday TV deals that are still available on screens 75 inches and bigger — shop larger sizes for an affordable price before the sales officially end
Turn your living room into a theater with up to $1,500 off these dazzling displays.
I found the best Cyber Monday laptop deals still live — 47+ last-minute sales I'd recommend to friends and family
Don't miss out on these last-minute sales
Cancer. COVID. Strikes. After a 9-year journey, 'A Little Prayer' was still worth the wait
Writer-director Angus MacLachlan explains how his tiny indie surmounted so many hurdles — and why he still feels the 'Movie Gods' smiled upon him.
We found 25 great laptop deals you can still grab for Cyber Monday
Many of our top picks are over $300 off.
Does Recent Business Model Shift Make DocuSign a Better Value for Investors in 2025?
Curious if DocuSign is trading at a bargain or if recent changes have made it less appealing? Let’s break down what has been happening and what it could mean for anyone eyeing the stock. DocuSign’s stock has experienced some volatility recently, climbing 5.2% in the last week, but still down 23.2% year-to-date and 13.6% over the past 12 months. Analyst discussion has focused on DocuSign’s evolving business model and strategic partnerships, both of which have been making headlines and...
After a Witcher-free decade, CDPR still promises three sequels in six years
CD Projekt Red says shift to Unreal Engine allows for more rapid development.
UNC-Cigna health deal at a standstill
UNC Health and Cigna have not reached an agreement as of Monday morning, leaving Cigna subscribers facing "out of network" costs for UNC providers and hospitals.
I toured the White House to see Melania Trump's Christmas decorations. The East Wing is no more, but the display was still dazzling.
First lady Melania Trump unveiled the 2025 White House Christmas decorations centered on the theme "Home Is Where The Heart Is."
Staff Spotlight: Adan Delval, College of Arts and Sciences
Adan Delval is the program manager with the Department of Computer Science where he oversees two National Science Foundation grants: the S-STEM Scholarship Program, which provides scholarships to...
Netflix ends casting from mobile devices for users of newer TVs
You should still be able to cast from your phone or tablet to older Chromecast or Google Cast devices if you're on an ad-free plan.
Netflix kills Google Cast support on 'most TVs,' still charges more for Chromecasts
In a wild turn of events, Netflix has killed support for Google Cast on the vast majority of products. Through...
Olympic sports weekend recap: Mikaela Shiffrin as peerless as ever in slalom, makes 4th Olympics
Mikaela Shiffrin extended a slalom win streak but still has work to do in another event.
10 US cities where home values are actually increasing
Home prices may be falling in many cities, but some homeowners are still seeing their property values rise in these US cities.
Science must move from materialism to mystery
Theoretical physicist and neuroscientist Àlex Gómez-Marín argues that modern science has become trapped in a framework that mistakes matter for the whole of reality. In this wide-ranging interview, Gómez-Marín challenges the foundations of materialism, defends the scientific study of near-death experiences, and calls for a new type of science grounded in mystery and a renewed sense of the sacred. He suggests that abandoning materialism could open the door to a deeper understanding of consciousness, death, and the purpose of human existence. Simon Custer: You are both a theoretical physicist and a neuroscientist, and you have also been fiercely critical of materialist theories of mind and consciousness. What do you think the ultimate nature of reality is?Àlex Gómez-Marín: I don't know what the ultimate nature of reality is, but what I try to first assess is whether the stories that they [mainstream science] have told us about it are right, or maybe whether there are other alternatives. That's why I've been a fierce critic of materialism. As a scientist, I realized that they had sold us this idea that to be a good scientist you also had to subscribe to many other -isms, like materialism, reductionism, and even secularism. And so first I think one needs to unmount these -isms, and then, as is happening today in consciousness studies, we have a huge landscape where there isn't only one game in town, the idea that matter is the only thing that really exists. But because we are studying the hard problem of consciousness, it may be the case that other views of reality, like idealism, or even dualism, or other theories like dual aspect monism... these are philosophical ideas that now, I think, have room in science to be taken seriously. How does something like materialism relate to dualism or idealism? What is materialism in the first place?Well, materialism is the philosophical position that matter is the only really ‘real’ thing in the universe. And I think that worked kind of well because science started 400 years ago and Galileo made that split, I call it the foundational wound. It was a great business move.He said, let's start doing science on that portion of reality that lends itself more easily to mathematization and measurement. So, for some reason, the solidity of this table or the movement of planets lend themselves very well to this foundational idea of science. But as time went on, 400 years later, we realized that we had forgotten the other side, which is what really matters.What really matters is pain, is love, is feelings, sensation, consciousness, which is very hard to define, but very intimate. We all know what it is. It's that thing that disappears when we go into deep sleep and comes back in the morning. SUGGESTED VIEWING On the edges of knowledge With Michael Shermer, Rupert Sheldrake, Güneş Taylor It's what it is like to be, as Nagel said. It's the feeling of being alive. So, materialism is good to study certain things, but then when it ossifies into this ideology and then is dressed like science, now it's preventing us from understanding these key questions that are really that everybody wants to know.Why are we here? Why do we feel reality? Where do we go when we die? And so we need other ways. We need pluralism. I'm only asking for having more options on the table and taking them seriously. Why does materialism fail to explain consciousness? For example, if you were to lobotomize me, I would not be a functional human being. What do you say to someone who might think that materialism adequately explains the mind?Well, here we could speak about different things. We could talk about physics or about neuroscience. I happen to have training with both.For instance, for neuroscientists, 99% of them, I'm not included in that portion, believe that the brain can only be a productive organ. It's an organ that somehow, somewhere, consciousness emerges. It's like a lamp. And then something happens, magic happens, and then consciousness emerges.That's the position you need to be if you're a materialist because if the only really ‘real’ thing is matter, then you need to say, just give us some more time and money and we'll figure out how mind emerges or is produced from matter. There are many philosophically sophisticated ways of criticizing this.Now there's another option, which is the brain as a permissive organ. This was said by William James more than 100 years ago.Now then the brain wouldn't be like this machine, like for instance, a heat engine whose smoke is consciousness, which is what we would have in the first big model, the productive model. But in the permissive model, the brain would be a kind of a filter. And so the brain would still have a very important role in consciousness, but it wouldn't be a productive role.It would be permissive, much like a filter or much like a prism which would receive light. And - I'm speaking metaphorically - it would receive the light of the mind and then it could reflect it and refract it.Now, with these two big options on the table, I think we can make progress into what I call the edges of consciousness, which are all these experiences, weird experiences that many people have, but we don't talk about enough, like near-death experiences, precognitive dreams, synchronicities. These experiences are very important for humans and they have a place in the permissive hypothesis and they are literally impossible in the productive hypothesis. So that's yet one more reason to explore alternatives to materialism. There may be anecdotal evidence for near-death experiences, but is there robust evidence that would be accepted by the majority of scientists who subscribe to the scientific method?Sure. And the plural of anecdotes, someone said, is data.And there's a lot of data. Actually, this year is the 50th anniversary, half a century, since Dr. Raymond Moody realized that we have two ears and one mouth and started listening to what his patients had to say about their experiences while they were clinically dead.The heart had stopped, breathing had stopped in these patients. These patients would come back and tell him these amazing stories that some people may say are hallucinations, but for the patients were hyper-real, like seeing light at the end of the tunnels, seeing deceased family members waiting for them, feeling bliss.___I would say the evidence suggests that the mind can survive the death of activity of the brain.___And so he and others started taking them seriously and writing their accounts down. And then you can do a science based on that material of experience that people have. Now, on the more objective side, more recently people have started to measure what's going on in the brain when people are clinically dead and brought back. This has opened a proper field of study, which is near-death studies.Evidence is a difficult word, because sometimes people think that when you say evidence, this is just the final proof. Evidence is like in a jury. You bring testimony, you bring pieces of data that point in one direction or another.I would say the evidence suggests that the mind can survive the death of activity of the brain. When brains are broken or shut off, there can still be mind going on. And that's revolutionary.That would entail that when we die, it's not game over, which, by the way, is the thesis of materialism. If consciousness survives, materialism dies. It's game over for materialism if something of us continues after we die. Do you think that there is mental continuity after death?Well, I think so, and I believe so, and I could also say I may have experienced it myself, because four years ago I had a near-death experience. I was in the hospital, I lost a lot of blood, and I saw those beings at the end of the tunnel, three beings, and there was yellow light. I was in a well, I was looking upwards, and I hadn't read about NDEs by then, but when I came back from this experience, I decided I would try to integrate this also in my professional life. Not just my personal life, of course, but my professional life as a physicist and as a neuroscientist. So I may have had the experience of glimpses of what an afterlife would be, and I'm not ashamed to say it in this way, and then one can do science of it, and then one can do philosophy of it.One can think about what -isms we were discussing, what views on reality would allow those experiences to be really ‘real,’ as opposed to, well, poor guy, the brain was kind of broken, it must have been a hallucination. Do you have a view about whether individuality or “the ego” persists after death, or whether we sort of merge into some sort of cosmic consciousness instead?I don't know, but my view would be along those lines you're suggesting. I think we could speak about a kind of universal mind, and then the problem is not how we emerge from matter, but how we fragment from a more holistic consciousness into these individual eddies and then when we die, this kind of dissipates.But I'm not sure. For instance, idealism would promote that view, but then what would survive of us after these eddies just vanish and become again the big Consciousness, I'm not sure what that would be. I don't know for sure, but I would tell you I believe something of us survives.And there are other lines of research, not just near-death experience, that can address this really hard question of survival. For instance, there are children who remember previous lives. This was studied by Ian Stevenson at the University of Virginia for more than 50 years.___Research takes place within a selection mechanism that also sometimes reinforces things that are not very scientific.___It's amazing research. He went all over the world, especially in the East, and collected all these case studies, all these stories. In plural, these were data of kids, very young age, who would describe up to 40 items that then he could go and verify.There was no internet. There was really no way the kid could know. Why would the kid say that when I was living in this other body and I was a woman and that's how my house would look like or that's how I would die, right? Again, there is evidence, not proof, but there's evidence not only that something weird and interesting is happening as we cross the threshold, but also when we come back to this life.Scientists should not be afraid of studying this, but they are because there's stigma. There's usually stigma upon the enigma, and this is so unfortunate. And one of the reasons is because of the ideology of materialism, because those things cannot be possible. What is wrong with the politics of science such that they have generated this stigma?So many things. Science is a human activity to begin with.So it falls prey to all our passions and ego and greed. That's one thing. Science is a job for the good and for the bad.You need to get a salary. You need to get grants. Research takes place within a selection mechanism that also sometimes reinforces things that are not very scientific.And then, we didn't have time to unpack this, but science for many years become entangled, as I was suggesting before, to other -isms, materialism, secularism. So anything that smells like the afterlife, people may think has to do with God, and then they freak out.Anything that suggests that there's something about the mind that may not need a physical material substrate to exist, it smells like non-materialism. So, all these -isms are ideologically blocking that kind of research, and then there are all these sociopolitical constraints as to what should be studied and what shouldn't be studied.I call it the backstage of science. Sometimes we scientists or science communicators seem to speak as if the data is the only thing that matters. We say, well, data and theory.But then there's a third leg of this stool, which is all the politics that goes behind the scenes. And we often don't speak about this, and it's quite vicious and petty, and it's very real. Why is materialism so attractive to most scientists?Well, an easy answer is because we've grown up with it.It's what the educational system promotes, and that's what you hear when you go to university. So it's like growing in a culture. It feels like the air in which you breathe.So it's very hard to begin with to detect, well, maybe there's another alternative. Maybe there are other ways of doing science, other environments in which one could do science. That's one reason.And other reasons maybe are more profound, and I'm not qualified to explain them, but I could say, looking at this 400-year history of science, since it started around 1623 with Galileo's book The Assayer, that science went and coupled with all what's going on in the West.And so the fall of religion, you could say, and science presented us this new alternative that then could be coupled very well with other -isms, and this idea of growth, and then science losing its good twin brother, which was philosophy. There's a whole natural history of science starting as philosophy, kind of emancipating or breaking out from philosophy, and then marrying technology, and then marrying other social systems.From that point of view, materialism is a very convenient idea to propose. There were attempts, like the German idealists tried to do a more romantic science. But no, the idea prevailed, like Francis Bacon said: You should pursue nature through all her corners, he said, and make her spill her secrets.Our attitude towards nature in the science that dominates is very much reflecting how we treat nature in our society, in our culture, like a resource to extract secrets by force and then dominate it. How is materialism related to the notions of growth and progress? What's wrong with having a productive citizenry?This is another very interesting and very difficult question to answer.But there's this recent book coming out by Paul Kingsnorth. In it, he explains this idea of the machine and this idea of progress. And this, again, this conflation of more is better, of we need to go forward always, and convincing us that the way to do that is to continually extract more from nature. But because we don't have the religious context anymore, because God is dead, then what do we have? We have what we can do as humans with our own gadgets.It's kind of the story of the Promethean fire. We will just build anything to make ourselves God.A good example today is transhumanism. Transhumanism is this pseudo-religion dressed in technoscientific language whose goal is very religious. They promise immortality, they promise redemption, they promise transformation of the entire natural world, but it's done by human means through technology. Are you suggesting that we can't have ethics without religion?Well, we should have ethics with or without religion. That's another pruning that has happened in science. We say, forget about aesthetics, although some physicists still think that beautiful means probably true, and forget about politics. We pretend there's no backstage of science, and even let's forget about ethics.___Science needs to be in the service of mankind.___Scientists, when they become more like engineers, they're just thinking how to make things work so that they can go to the moon, go to Mars, make machines that think, but they don't think whether that's a good idea.And also consider metaphysics. Many scientists for a long time pretended, and maybe that comes from the stream of positivisms, that really one doesn't need metaphysics at all, except that materialism is always the metaphysics running the system.You see, it's not just ethics. It's the pruning of all of these, you could say, five main legs of philosophy that just makes a kind of unconscious science, a science that doesn't really know what it's doing. It's doing it very well locally, but it just doesn't know what it's doing globally. Do you think science has to have an ultimate vision and purpose behind it for it to be effective or for it to be meaningful and transformative?Yes, a way I would say that is that science needs to be in the service of mankind. And it hasn't been that. And we can see it through, you know, when we discovered the secrets of the atom, and all of a sudden, the Manhattan Project, and then we create nuclear weapons.And now we're trying to crack how machines may think, and now we're creating this mess, right? So science needs to be in service of mankind, not in service of a few ideas that maybe want to make more money or just dominate upon nature. What about planes, trains, automobiles, and modern medicine? Hasn't science served mankind by helping us develop those technologies?Yes and no. I see where you're going, and it's fair.I came here by plane, and it's a blessing. When I almost died, the surgeons did their job, and they saved my life. But these two forced choices between Luddites and Silicon Valley types, I think, of course, it's a false dichotomy.Progress, in a way, it's good, but we often don't speak about the dark side of the moon. We say the great things that progress has brought, and we don't speak about the disasters, the side effects that it has come with, and the same when we promise new technologies. We tend to think that any technology is great, that email is going to save us so much time because we don't need to write letters and send them anymore.Is that true? I spend so many hours a week writing emails. Let's just say there are great things about it and bad things about it. People like Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, for example, argue that we've made moral progress over time because of the Enlightenment. Do you think that's totally wrong-headed?I think he's emphasizing a side of the moon, and he does that very well, and you can find tons of plots where there's a slope going up and say it's great. But I think he should also tell the not-so-friendly story.But if your ideology is just to resist and continue to explain that the Enlightenment is the best thing ever and reason is the best thing ever… this feels to me like you're worshipping these abstractions.I'm very critical of it and also of these, again, science communicators and scientists that say, Oh, science says, in the name of science, experts say. It's like, come on, let's be careful because we can shoot ourselves in the foot by putting forth to the people an image of science that we know is not really true. Recently there's been a resurgence of spirituality and of people who say that they're spiritual but not religious, especially in the United States. If materialism is going away, what is going to fill that gap? Are we going to return to traditional religion? Do you see that being connected with the rise of the political right?I'm not a fortune teller, so I don't know what's going to happen. But, yeah, we could say we're in this post-materialist age and even post-secular age. One cannot come back to the past, but maybe just to contact with the roots is a good idea.What do I mean by that? I think we need to do a science 2.0, a science that says thank you to Galileo and thank you to materialism, but we need to reinvent even a new kind of scientific method. We need to do so in a culture where we realize humans cannot thrive in a vacuum where there's this idea that the sacred has to be removed.Now, how do we do that without bringing in back all the vices of religion? I don't know. I'm from a Catholic country.Here we are in England, so there are differences and interreligious dialogue has always been a challenge. But I think maybe a way of putting it is: after all these conflicts and branchings I was quickly alluding to, science from philosophy and then also from religion, now there's a time of reconciliation perhaps and maybe debates in the proper sense, like exchange of ideas in service of learning and getting into something higher than both poles. We need science to talk to religious people and it's interesting when people say they're spiritual and not religious.I think this is just a way of saying, no, I don't want to go back, I want to go forward. But at the end of the day, religions have offered us practices and grounding that we now desperately need. Everybody can and should just meditate or pray or do whatever they want, but we're in a crisis and it's time for reconciliation. What do you say to critics that say you are merely projecting our need for meaning onto a fundamentally indifferent universe?Yeah, I know that the typical science communicator says something like this. But we're not projecting. Human beings feed on meaning.It's the other way around. If you're a materialist, because the only thing that there is is matter, all that comes next, free will, consciousness, meaning, this is a kind of illusion that we need to explain.They're just craving for meaning, but there isn't really for them. I would also like to remind my materialist friends that for decades, if not centuries, they've said in the name of science, we know that this and this and this doesn't really exist. I think now they sense they're forced to say, well, actually, we don't know. We've been saying, for instance, that there's nothing after you die, and now probably they need to admit that they don't know the answer.___We need to do a science 2.0, a science that says thank you to Galileo and thank you to materialism, but we need to reinvent even a new kind of scientific method.___So it's a moment to open up possibilities and also to gently but fiercely critique these claims that I think harm society. If you say in the name of science, get on with it, when your father dies, you'll never see him again. Well, what the F do you know about it? You haven't studied the literature, you haven't had any of those experiences, and basically what you're doing is you're just doing marketing on ideology. This needs to stop. Do you think that it's scarier for some people to entertain the thought that there might be life after death, compared to a materialist worldview where you just die, given that there might be consequences for unsavory behaviour?Well, death and dying is scary. It's maybe the ultimate ending. It's a limit on life, and when we're in this conquest mode, we don't like limits.And it also has, there's a shockwave backwards, so I think if you change your notion of what death is or may be, you live differently. It also has consequences, as you're saying, for the future because this is not our only goal here and we come back in whatever form. And again, different religions would say different things. I the East, they are more happy with the idea of reincarnation, and here in the West, there are other preferences. But in any case, it changes how we live, and that's really what matters.It's not about just projecting or imagining what we'll be after, but how we live now and also how we treat those who are dying. So it goes from the individual to the families, to the hospitals.Now in the near-death research I do, this has ramifications at all these levels, all the way to society.But our society is thanatophobic. It has a phobia of death. We don't want to hear about death, and this is another thing we need to put on the table and be willing to talk about it. Do you think that we might get closer to answering ultimate questions like why is there anything at all if we jettison materialism?That’s an excellent question, Simon. Two things: we should stop treating reality, I believe, as a great sudoku, as an enigma, as something that with intelligence, money, and time that we will crack and instead treat reality more like a mystery. And what you do for in front of a mystery is not to be the clever guy in a class and say “I’ll solve you” but more like “I will bow and you will transform me.”I know this sounds a bit like a scientist speaking like a mystic. But I think this reorientation is needed. In the end, we won’t crack the big questions, but they will transform us. If we free ourselves from this prison of materialism, the way we will explore these questions will be freer, more creative, and in service of mankind. Do you think exploring mystery is the reason why we are here?I think we are here because, and this pseudo-theological argument I’m making off the cuff, But the One, the Absolute, if there is such a thing, had everything except limitation. We are that absolute experiencing that contingency. It’s like an act of divine proprioception. It’s a wonderful adventure, it’s just incredible to be alive. Perhaps we have forgotten why we are here and the whole point is to experience the flesh.Let me end by saying this. I criticize materialism harshly. I bang on this dead horse, because I think it’s dead. But matter is a great mystery. So maybe my invitation is as follows: hey materialist friends, come here, let’s work on materialism 2.0! Consciousness is a mystery, but matter is also a mystery. The fact that we can have an intersubjective experience consensus, the fact that we can apply mathematics, that we can measure things... the physical world we take for granted, but it is a great mystery too.Maybe that’s related to your last question: why are we here? Why did spirit decide to incarnate? Being in the flesh may be a great thing if spirit decided to do so.Àlex Gómez-Marín, thank you very much.My pleasure.
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