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Trump hosts Kennedy Center honorees for medal presentation ceremony
This year's recipients are actor Sylvester Stallone, singers Gloria Gaynor and George Strait, the rock band Kiss and actor-singer Michael Crawford
UK IVF couples use legal loophole to rank embryos based on potential IQ, height and health
British fertility clinics raise scientific and ethical objections over patients sending embryos’ genetic data abroad for analysis
Judge orders Google to rebid for default search deals every year in a major antitrust blow
A federal judge orders Google to limit default search deals to one year, in an antitrust effort to open doors for rivals in search and generative AI.
Malicious Links Target California Elections, Business Sites
Google users seeking information from the state’s official elections and business registration websites found questionable links instead. A site for the Kansas attorney general was similarly singled out.
New 'Postal' Game Canceled One Day After Reveal, Following Generative AI Allegations
Postal: Bullet Paradise has been scrapped and the developer is shutting down after gamers claimed the trailer used generative AI assets.
December 5, 2025
A boom in construction of AI data centers is facing backlash over soaring electricity and water usage, and the resulting utility hikes. Plus, to save spotted owls in the Pacific Northwest, one plan suggests killing thousands of barred owls. And, geologist Anjana Khatwa explains how embracing wonder and awe adds to our scientific understanding of the rocks that form our planet.
How Sony’s PlayStation changed gaming and entertainment forever
Celebrating its 30th anniversary in North America and Europe, the PlayStation brand has penetrated popular culture like few others.
F.10 PRISM Correction, FAQ posted, and pre-proposal teleconference today December 5, 2025.
F.10 Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon (PRISM) solicits development and flight of a science-driven suite of instruments and
Sardine-inspired washing machine filter removes 99% of microplastics
The home appliance can easily generate as much as 500 grams of microplastics each year.
15 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 26.2
Apple is about to release iOS 26.2, the second major point update for iPhones since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least 15 notable changes and improvements worth checking out. We've rounded them up below. Apple is expected to roll out iOS 26.2 to compatible devices sometime between December 8 and December 16. When the update drops, you can check Apple's servers for the download by going to Settings ➝ General ➝ Software Update on your iPhone.
Developer of New Postal Game Shuts Down Studio After Game Was Announced, Then Canceled Over Gen AI Allegations
The studio behind the Postal franchise just announced that it will be publishing a brand new Postal game, to be developed by Goonswarm Games. Unfortunately, it even more recently announced it would be cancelling said game, due to accusations that Goonswarm had used generative AI in its development.
"Has caused extreme damage to our brand and our company reputation" - Running with Scissors cancels Postal: Bullet Paradise over AI-generated assets... two days after reveal
After receiving pushback for its flagrant use of generative AI, Postal: Bullet Paradise has been cancelled… just two days after being revealed.
Fed's favored inflation gauge shows consumer prices remained elevated in September
The Commerce Department's delayed September PCE inflation report showed that inflation remained well above the Federal Reserve's 2% target ahead of a central bank decision next week.
Most iPhone 17 Screen Protectors Could Break A New Display Feature
Apple has introduced numerous features to its iPhones with the iPhone 17 lineup. However, using a generic screen guard could break the anti-reflection feature.
Albritton on SSUT lawsuit: 'Politics has repercussions'
Sen. Greg Albritton, chairman of the powerful Senate General Fund budget committee, wanted to send a message Thursday to Alabama cities considering joining a lawsuit against the state over the distribution of sales taxes collected from online purchases.
Transformative AI is coming, and so are the risks
Google AI guru Demis Hassabis says artificial general intelligence is just a few years, and a couple of breakthroughs, away.
Scientists Discover The First Single Gene to Directly Cause Mental Illness
Surprisingly simple.
His lab was humming with discovery. After one year under Trump, it’s almost silent
John Quackenbush built a lab that is at the forefront of human genetics research and bioinformatics. Trump administration cuts have put it in danger of collapse.
CVS Health generates over $474 Billion in 2024 U.S. economic impact, supporting communities throughout the United States
New report highlights the company’s role as a top U.S. employer, investing in improving health and supporting local communities
Exclusive: Some AI dangers are already real, DeepMind's Hassabis says
The race to develop AI is changing society in real time, generally for good — but bad actors are taking advantage, too.
Pediatrician and Geneticist to Receive 2026 Trinity College President’s Medal for Science and Innovation
Pediatrician and geneticist D. Holmes Morton, M.D., IDP’79, H’90 will receive the 2026 Trinity College President’s Medal for Science and Innovation, which recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the STEM fields.
Grand jury declines to indict Letitia James again
A grand jury voted against indicting New York Attorney General Letitia James after being asked to look at the mortgage fraud case against her a second time, according to multiple people familiar with the development Thursday.
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.
New Illinois laws will bring big changes to insurance, healthcare
Hundreds of new Illinois laws are set to hit the books in 2026, and many could have a big impact on your health and wellness.
Amplitude CEO says Sam Altman is the 'best salesperson of this generation, bar none'
Amplitude CEO Spenser Skates praised Sam Altman's ability to get people to rally behind a "very ambitious vision" — and invest billions.
Alternate proteins from the same gene contribute differently to health and rare disease
MIT Whitehead Institute research helps identify genetic mutations that may contribute to rare diseases, by studying when and how single genes produce multiple versions of proteins. The work includes case studies of affected patients at Boston Children’s Hospital.
PNW First-Gen College of Business Student Honored for Persistence and Determination
PNW student Jaelyn McDuffie received a Golden Brick Award, celebrating first-generation student resilience, leadership and academic commitment.
Americans under 30 are ‘under profound strain’ and deeply mistrust institutions, poll finds
Young Americans are “a generation under profound strain” with little confidence in institutions and widespread economic concerns, according to a Harvard Institute of Politics survey of adults younger than 30 released Thursday.
How U.S. Employers Can Meet the Healthcare Needs of Younger Workers
Employers and health systems can do a better job of serving the specific healthcare needs of Millennials and Gen Zers by embracing the following seven approaches: 1) Enlist AI in the design of benefits and the delivery of care; 2) Harness virtual technologies to boost employees’ engagement in choosing and making the most of their healthcare benefits; 3) Shift to prepayment reimbursement models, which emphasize maintaining patients’ health rather than generating revenue when patients become ill; 4) Train physicians to connect with younger patients both technologically and culturally; 5) Combat the physician shortage by supporting educational programs and advocating for legislation to increase residency slots; 6) Treat mental health as an essential part of overall health; and 7) Adopting ways to make care for younger workers more affordable.
New workforce development labs at Mote SEA open doors for aspiring marine scientists
As Mote continues to grow, it is setting the stage for the next generation of marine science professionals with new STEM Workforce Development Labs.
Lawyers for New York attorney general’s office expected in court to seek disqualification of another US attorney
Lawyers for the New York attorney general’s office are expected to appear in federal court in Albany on Thursday to try to disqualify a US attorney from investigating the state’s civil case against President Donald Trump.
Small Business Saturday Redo
Small, locally owned shops can be found throughout the Kenosha Area. Some have been here for generations, while new ones continue to open. Since Mother Nature snowed all over our special day (on November 29) to support small businesses, let's try again! See the Facebook link of what businesses to visit in person on Saturday, December 6 during normal business hours for great deals and more!
Scott Jennings: ‘massive propaganda campaign’ around federal raids
Scott Jennings shares the question he asked Donald Trump in person
K-State AD Gene Taylor rips state of college sports after football coach Chris Klieman's retirement
Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor was vocal in his criticism of college sports on Wednesday, blaming it in part for driving football coach Chris Klieman into retirement.
Google shares 10 of its favorite Chrome extensions from 2025.
The list is heavy on extensions that use AI like Monica and Sider that can summarize web pages and videos, Quillbot for proofing or generating text, and eJOY that can expand your vocabulary while surfing the web. But Google also gives a shoutout to the simple but powerful image editing tools in Adobe’s Photoshop extension. [Image: https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/12/google_chrome.jpg?quality=90&strip=all]
House bill aimed to counter N.Y. all-electric buildings mandate moves forward
The Energy Choice Act passed the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday.
Watchdog finds Hegseth risked endangering troops by sharing of sensitive war plans on Signal, sources say
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth risked compromising sensitive military information, which could have endangered American troops and mission objectives, when he used Signal in March of this year to share highly-sensitive attack plans targeting Houthi rebels in Yemen, according to four sources familiar with the contents of a classified Inspector General report that was sent to Congress Tuesday night.
'An extreme end of human genetic variation': Ancient humans were isolated in southern Africa for nearly 100,000 years, and their genetics are stunningly different
Ancient genomes from southern Africa show that people evolved in isolation for upward of 100,000 years.
Inside Honeywell's business strategy for Golden Dome
In this fireside chat, Honeywell Aerospace executive Matthew Milas tells Breaking Defense how the firm is positioning itself in hopes of joining one of the biggest defense projects in a generation.
Smartphones before age 12 tied to poorer health, study says
Parents join 'Fox & Friends' to discuss the impact of smartphones on younger generations and a new study linking early age smartphone use to poorer physical and mental health.
School Specialty's New Edition of Its Phenomena-Based Science Curriculum--FOSS Pathways™--Wins Parent and Teacher Choice Award
School Specialty, a leading provider of supplies, furniture and curriculum for the education marketplace, today announced that its newly released FOSS Pathways™ Edition for PreK–5 has been named a Parent and Teacher Choice Award winner. The new edition of the highly-respected Full Option Science System™ (FOSS®) curriculum, developed at the Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California, Berkeley, introduces a next-generation, phenomena-based, hands-on science program designed to meet rigorou
iPhone 17e to Use Same OLED Panel But Feature Slimmer Bezels
Apple's upcoming iPhone 17e is set to feature slimmer display bezels while retaining the iPhone 14–based OLED panel used in the 16e, according to a new report from The Elec. Citing supply chain sources, the Korean-language report says BOE will again produce most of the panels for the second generation of Apple's more affordable "e" iPhone model, with Samsung Display and LG Display supplying the rest.
Google is replacing Discover news headlines with laughably awful AI-generated titles
Google is replacing news headlines in Discover with downright awful AI-generated titles. Here's how bad they really are.
China’s tech war warriors; trying to jam Starlink signals: 7 science highlights
From a chief scientist’s detention to a revealing DNA discovery, here are some highlights from SCMP’s recent science reporting.
Future Fund spent $20,000 to send CEO’s former executive assistant on business class trip to scope hotels in US
Government also reveals it spent nearly $100,000 sending Annika Wells and two others to the US during the UN General Assembly
Ex-JAG Officer: Hegseth not being in room for strikes is hard to believe
PENN Entertainment opens second hotel tower at Las Vegas’ M Resort
Public opening ceremony set for Dec.3
Microsoft 365 Copilot Business: The future of work for small businesses
Microsoft announced the general availability of Microsoft 365 Copilot Business—a comprehensive, full-featured AI solution for SMBs. Learn more.
Live Results: Tennessee 7th Congressional District special election
Less than a month after Democrats scored a string of victories over Republicans in the Nov. 4 general election, the next test at the ballot box for both parties heading into the 2026 midterm season will be Tuesday in a Tennessee special congressional election on usually reliable GOP turf.
Meredith Whitney Sees Affordability as Top Political Issue
Meredith Whitney Advisory Group CEO Meredith Whitney warns about the debt of the "avocado toast" generation and sees affordability being the top political issue in 2026. She speaks on "Bloomberg Open Interest." (Source: Bloomberg)
Green Science Alliance Proposes New 3D "Jungle Gym like" Structure for Solar Power Generation
Dr. Ryohei Mori of Green Science Alliance Co., Ltd. - a company engaged in the research and development of cutting-edge environmental and energy technologies for decarbonization and building a carbon-neutral society—has proposed a new solar power generation system utilizing a 3D "jungle gym" structure, with proof-of-concept testing planned in the near future.
Shein faces Texas probe into materials, labor, and data privacy
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Shein is selling cheap and dangerous products to US consumers.
Analysis: Trump struggles with Venezuelan dilemma as Maduro digs in and storm builds at home over potential ‘war crime’
President Donald Trump’s Venezuela regime change adventure is in danger of degenerating into a strategic, political, and legal morass.
Ex-Army JAG: Hegseth shifting blame is indication ‘something’s gone terribly wrong’
Justice Department could present a new indictment against James Comey to a grand jury this week
No matter what, prosecutors will likely present new indictments against the former FBI director and New York Attorney General Letitia James to grand juries in the Eastern District of Virginia.
Genesis Mission: why Trump’s plan to put AIs in charge of science could backfire
AI enthusiasts are right that projects like AlphaFold are a huge leap forward, but the philosophy of science shows why excluding humans undermines it.
HGTV's Hilary Farr Sets the Record Straight on Viral Rumors About Her Health
Hilary Farr shared an update on her well-being after alleged AI-generated posts claimed that the Love It or List It star's health was on the decline.
Seattle’s younger college grads far more likely to have studied science
Among younger Seattle adults who earned a college degree, 64% majored in a science-related subject, a higher share than older generations, writes FYI Guy.
Why Your Company Needs a Chief Data, Analytics, and AI Officer
Who should be in charge of data, analytics, and AI? While there are many possible divisions of responsibility and reporting structures, a combined role—the CDAIO (Chief Data, Analytics, and AI Officer)—will best prepare organizations as they plan for AI going forward. To succeed, this role needs a clear mandate that includes owning AI strategy, preparing for a new class of risks, developing the AI tech stack, ensuring the company’s data is ready for AI, creating an AI ready culture, developing talent and partnerships, and generating significant ROI on AI investments. Given the emphasis on business value creation, in most cases CDAIOs should be positioned closer to business functions than to technology operations.
AP Decision Notes: What to expect in Tennessee's special congressional election
Less than a month after Democrats scored big victories in the Nov. 4 general election, voters in a heavily Republican Tennessee congressional district will fill a vacant seat Tuesday in the closely divided U.S. House
Mapping the exposome: Science broadens focus to environmental disease triggers
After decades of intense focus on genetics, the biomedical research community is undergoing a major shift, focusing on a new framework called "exposomics."
Clinical Research Unit moves environmental health research forward
New medical director Lawrence Kirschner highlights the CRU’s role as a hub for translational studies connecting environmental exposures, genetics, and human health.
CNN Academy Brings Real-Time Sports Newsroom Simulation to Georgia Tech
ATLANTA—CNN and the Georgia Institute of Technology today announced the launch of the CNN Academy Sports Journalism Bootcamp and Simulation, a two-week immersive program designed to prepare the next generation of storytellers for the fast-paced world of sports media.
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.
McKnight foundation honors founding member of Oral Health Task Force
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