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Blaming AI, Micron will shut down consumer business Crucial
Boise-based Micron Technology will shut down its consumer-facing brand Crucial Technology early next year. Crucial, which was founded in 1996, will cease all operations by the end of February, the company said in a news release. Crucial has operations on Commercial Ct. in Meridian. It is not clear how many people are employed by Crucial […]
Dr. Ashish Jha to step down as Brown University public health dean
Jha will lead an initiative that aims to bolster the nation’s defenses against emerging pandemic and biological threats.
Broncos vs Raiders Week 14: Keys to victory
The Broncos finish off their season series against Las Vegas in Vegas this Sunday, and this is a game that the team cannot afford to overlook, especially considering what went down the first time they faced off a handful of weeks ago. Here’s how the Broncos extend their winning streak to double digits. 1. Get […]
Isaac TeSlaa start or sit: Week 14 fantasy football advice
We break down the fantasy football outlook of Isaac TeSlaa ahead of the Lions’ Week 14 matchup vs. the Cowboys.
Kirsten Dunst Intriguingly Teases Role In Ruben Östlund’s ‘The Entertainment System Is Down’: “I Bared A Part Of Myself”
Kirsten Dunst Intriguingly Teases Role In Ruben Östlund’s ‘The Entertainment System Is Down’: “I Bared A Part Of Myself”
Trump is the President Who Just Won’t Grow Up
Instead of focusing on governing, Trump spends his days chasing entertainment, attention and renovation projects that reflect a presidency stuck in adolescence.
Why Trump and Democrats are speaking the same language on health care
President Donald Trump is pushing for an extension of soon-to-expire Obamacare subsidies – a key Democratic proposal that Republicans fought fiercely and that was the basis for the longest-ever government shutdown.
Why Trump and Democrats are speaking the same language on health care
President Donald Trump is pushing for an extension of soon-to-expire Obamacare subsidies – a key Democratic proposal that Republicans fought fiercely and that was the basis for the longest-ever government shutdown.
Trump wants a health care deal. He’s leaving the details to Congress.
Several GOP lawmakers have proposals to address the year-end expiration of enhanced ACA subsidies.
The overdiagnosis debate in mental health misses the point
“Focusing on who ‘counts’ as mentally ill will ultimately send us down the wrong path,” Miranda Wolpert, director of mental health at Wellcome, writes.
Waynesboro went blue this year. Changing demographics have changed the city’s politics.
The city voted Democratic for the first time in a governor’s race in 40 years. That realignment is being driven by an influx of new residents, many of them working in or around Charlottesvill…
Arsenal's 'beautiful' line-up change
Match of the Day pundit Danny Murphy says Arsenal's squad depth is "remarkable" after Brentford struggled to contain the right side of their attack in the 2-0 win on Wednesday: "It's becoming remarkable now how good their squad is because [Jurrien} Timber and [Bukayo] Saka play on the right hand side normally, which is arguably one of the best combinations down the right side in Europe. "Then they bring in [Ben] White and [Noni] Madueke, who looked like they have played together for seasons. It was a beautiful combination.
The brain’s 5 eras, the vaccine that protects against dementia, altruistic ants
Science editor Ian Sample sits down with co-host Madeleine Finlay and science correspondent Hannah Devlin to hear about three eye-catching stories from the week
Apple Removes Former AI Chief John Giannandrea From Executive Leadership Page
Apple today updated its executive leadership page to remove John Giannandrea, who is set to retire from Apple next spring. Earlier this week, Apple said that Giannandrea would step down from his role as AI chief, serving as an advisor until he leaves the company. Giannandrea's upcoming retirement was announced on Monday, and Apple wasted no time updating its leadership website.
Zeroday Brewing Co. to shut down flagship Taproom, adding to business closures in Harrisburg
Zeroday Brewing Co. plans to shutter its flagship taproom and restaurant, dealing another blow to Harrisburg’s once-vibrant dining and nightlife scene. On Wednesday evening, co-founder Theo Armstrong said that he and his partners made “the difficult decision” to close the location at 925 N. 3rd St. The last day will be Sunday, Dec. 28. “Closing […]
ENTERTAINMENT: BIG holiday parade set for Saturday; Keo hosts pecan festival
The Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau’s BIG Little Rock Holiday Parade through downtown Little Rock starts at 3 p.m. Saturday at Broadway and West Markham Street, continuing east along Markham street through the River Market and concluding near Interstate 30.
Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Lopez Celebrate “a Real Sense of Community” at THR Women in Entertainment Event
Robert Downey Jr., Dakota Johnson, Regina Hall, Kerry Washington and Rachel Sennott also took part in the star-studded breakfast gala, presented by Lifetime.
Robert Downey Jr. Playfully Roasts Gwyneth Paltrow at THR Women in Entertainment Gala: “Forever Confused by the Basic Tenets” of the MCU
The 'Iron Man' star presented his former co-star and onscreen love interest with the 20th annual Sherry Lansing Leadership Award.
Has your business got the best Christmas decor? Enter Deck the County competition
Montgomery County Parks and Recreation invites local businesses to showcase their holiday spirit in the 2nd annual Deck the County: Holiday Business Showdown.
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 […]
Why are Browns opening Deshaun Watson's practice window? Answering complex question
Though he'll be on the field during the week, the three-time Pro Bowler seems unlikely to play again for Cleveland. Let's break down team's thinking.
Sources: Louisville Coach Jeff Brohm Declines Penn State Offer
The Nittany Lions fired James Franklin in October and were turned down by BYU’s Kalani Sitake a day earlier with former Brian Daboll now rising as an option.
Hate, threats force more and more women out of public life
Often labeled as bad mothers, insulted for their looks and threatened with physical violence, female politicians face a particularly high level of hate. Many step down out of fear.
Is There Now an Opportunity in PENN Entertainment After Steep 5 Year Share Price Decline?
Wondering if PENN Entertainment’s beaten down share price is a hidden bargain or a value trap? This article will walk through the numbers with you, step by step. Despite some big swings over the last few years, PENN now trades around $14.69, with returns of -0.3% over 7 days, -11.6% over 30 days, -23.6% year to date, and a steep -33.0% over the last year that has clearly shifted market sentiment. Those declines sit on top of an even tougher long term picture, with shares down -55.9% over 3...
Micron to exit consumer memory business amid global supply shortage
Memory chipmaker Micron Technology said on Wednesday it will exit its consumer business, as it doubles down on advanced memory chips used in artificial intelligence data centers amid a global supply shortage of the essential semiconductors.
Texas health agency's executive commissioner retiring
Young, who spent decades in state government, will step down on Jan. 2. Gov. Greg Abbott will pick a successor.
Browns open 21-day practice window for Deshaun Watson
In recent weeks, Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski has said he has no update when asked about whether or not quarterback Deshaun Watson's practice window would be opened.
Olympic, Paralympic sports weekend preview: Grand Prix Final to sort figure skating favorites
The world's best figure skaters gather at the Grand Prix Final in a preview of the Milan Cortina Olympic competition.
November private payrolls unexpectedly fell by 32,000, led by steep small business job cuts, ADP reports
The payrolls decline marked a sharp step down from October, which saw an upwardly revised gain of 47,000 positions.
How does your Spotify Wrapped get made? 3 Spotify leaders break down the yearlong process.
Spotify Wrapped is "the thing that's most looked forward to," said one Spotify leader. "It's also the thing that gets the most scrutiny."
Gartner (IT) Slid on Weak Business Outlook
Scout Investments, Inc., an affiliate of Carillon Tower Advisers, recently released its third-quarter 2025 investor letter for “Carillon Scout Mid Cap Fund”. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The Russell Midcap Index posted positive returns in the quarter, fueled by strong corporate earnings, the continued momentum in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, and the […]
Modelo and Corona are unexpected casualties of Trump’s immigration crackdown
Constellation Brands, the US owner of Modelo Especial and Corona, bet big on Latino customers for growth. But that strategy is unraveling under the Trump administration’s mass deportation push.
Time running out for Trump, lawmakers to fix soaring health care costs
Millions of Americans will see a big jump in prices after year's end - if a bipartisan agreement remains elusive to keep costs down
Time running out for Trump, lawmakers to fix soaring health care costs
Millions of Americans will see a big jump in prices after year's end - if a bipartisan agreement remains elusive to keep costs down
Small Business Saturday sheds light on local storefronts, sees lower turnout due to winter storm
During a winter storm, members of the Evanston community battled howling winds and freezing temperatures to shop at Evanston’s third annual Small Business Saturday. Having begun in 2010 as a nationwide movement to support smaller, family-owned stores, this year’s Small Business Saturday featured special deals from 28 participating local businesses in Evanston. Downtown Evanston also...
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.
Satellites Detect Seasonal Pulses in Earth’s Glaciers
From Alaska’s Saint Elias Mountains to Pakistan’s Karakoram, glaciers speed up and slow down with the seasons.
KSAT team shares photos from their high school sports days
Members of the KSAT team took a trip down memory lane during KSAT Sports Now on Tuesday, sharing photos from their days playing high school sports.
City, business leaders launch vision for Madison’s downtown future
MADISON, Wis. -- The City of Madison is beginning work on its new Downtown Area Plan in conjunction with Downtown Madison Inc.’s Greater Downtown Economic Investment Strategy as part of
Gutfeld: Democrats only care about victims for ‘politics’
‘The Five’ co-hosts discuss the Trump administration’s drug crackdown and alleged ‘double tap’ of suspected drug boats in Venezuela.
Will Trump Break the Health-care Deadlock or Make It Worse?
Obamacare subsidies expire this month and there’s a shutdown deadline in January. If Trump can’t make a deal, things could get bleak.
Amon-Ra St. Brown: It's still up in the air whether I'll play on Thursday
While Amon-Ra St.
Politician Ayachi Hammami latest arrest in Tunisia opposition crackdown
Tunisia opposition says charges are fabricated, as police enforce a five-year prison sentence.
Tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee to shut down wallpapers app
The app, which was criticised at launch for its $11.99 (£9) a month fee, will close on 31 December.
Red Dead Redemption Out Now on Netflix, iOS, Android, PS5, Xbox Series, and Nintendo Switch 2
Experience John Marston's journey across the sprawling expanses of the American West and Mexico to hunt down the remaining members of the Van der Linde Gang in Red Dead Redemption along with his fight to stop a virulent zombie plague in Undead...
Director Ken Burns almost turned down an offer from Steve Jobs 20 years ago. They struck a different deal.
Ken Burns and Steve Jobs made a $1 million deal to bring the "Ken Burns Effect" photo technique to iMovie in 2002.
‘My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman’ Sets Season 6 Premiere; MrBeast, Michael B. Jordan & Jason Bateman Join Show
David Letterman is back with Season 6 of My Next Guest Needs No Introduction on Netflix. The former late-night host recently sat down with Jay Kelly star Adam Sandler for a special episode. That December 1 episode was not part of Season 6, which will premiere on December 16. It comes after Netflix renewed My …
Colts’ Stock Up/Down: Week 13 vs. Texans
Stock Up Alec Pierce No player in the NFL has earned himself more money than Pierce has this season. He has elevated his game to a whole different level and is right now the Colts’ best wide receiver on the roster, not just a deep threat specialist like last year with AR. He gets open […]
Fallout 76: Burning Springs Release Notes
Grab your duster, hat, and your favorite weapon because it’s time for some Bounty Hunting! Explore our largest map addition yet and hunt down some of the largest bounties Burning Springs has to offer.
How to watch 2025 Grand Prix Final figure skating
The Grand Prix Final in Nagoya, Japan, is the top figure skating event of the fall.
Letters to the Editor: As production moves overseas, it’s American entertainment workers who suffer
'As with any business that goes to other countries, people here start losing their incomes and life possibilities. This leads to a downward spiral of any household, community, town, city or state now missing spending potential and tax benefits,' writes an L.A. Times reader.
27 Science Words That Only People With Above-Average Intelligence Know The Definitions Of
Welcome back to science class. Take a seat.
How AI is reshaping risk management in the entertainment industry
In this Q&A, we sat down with Brian Taliaferro, Entertainment and Gaming Industry Practice Leader at Marsh, to discuss the top risks facing clients in the entertainment industry today.
Drake Maye, 'aggressive' Patriots pummel Giants for 10th straight win
Drake Maye tossed two touchdowns and the New England Patriots out-gained the New York Giants by more than 150 yards to earn their 10th straight win.
Younghoe Koo on botched field goal: The ball was slipping so I pulled up
Giants kicker Younghoe Koo made one of the strangest plays of this NFL season when he kicked the turf in front of the football, not the ball itself, leaving holder Jamie Gillan with nothing to do but pick up the ball and run, which he did for a 13-yard loss.
The Bear’s Den, December 2, 2025
The Chicago Bears start working towards showdown with Packers
5 wallpaper apps you need to download now that MKBHD's Panels app is dead
MKBHD's Panels app is shutting down. Looking for a new wallpaper app to replace it? I found five excellent choices.
Holiday events entice New Haveners to shop at small businesses
Downtown New Haven and Union Station featured two celebrations of the city’s small businesses on Saturday.
U.S. ski resorts are bracing for a steep drop in international travel due to politics
Canadians usually head south for the skiing, shopping and nightlife in American ski towns. But due to cross-border politics, tourism to the U.S. is down, and some resorts are worried.
Apple just named a new AI chief with Google and Microsoft expertise, as John Giannandrea steps down
The move is being characterized as a shake-up, but was seemingly inevitable in retrospect.
Here's a list of the 15 must-see high school basketball games of the season
The list starts with a Catholic League showdown Friday
Madison leaders launch new entertainment district to boost downtown business
Mayor Ranae Bartlett says this project shows the city’s commitment to the future of downtown Madison.
Madison leaders launch new entertainment district to boost downtown business
Mayor Ranae Bartlett says this project shows the city’s commitment to the future of downtown Madison.
Viola Nation 91: A New Hope (not really)
Mike, Mike, and Tito break down the start of a new Viola error that looks suspiciously like the preceding Viola era.
Map unveiled as Indiana House gets down to redistricting business
Millions of Hoosiers would have different representation in the U.S. House under a proposed redrawing of Indiana’s congressional maps that aims to produce a 9-0 GOP delegation.
Last Call for 12.1.25 – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida
A digest of the day's politics and policy while the bartender refreshes your drink.
BREAKING: New historic entertainment district designated in Downtown Madison
🚂 GREEN CUP DISTRICT IN MADISON: Check out the newest entertainment district in North Alabama.
Apple Artificial Intelligence Head to Leave After AI Struggles
Apple Inc. artificial intelligence head John Giannandrea plans to step down from the job, ending a challenging stint at the iPhone maker.
Pup Mayor Cooper marks first official duty: Launching Downtown Madison’s Entertainment District
Celebrate the launch of Downtown Madison’s Entertainment District with Pup Mayor Cooper and the community at this special event.
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...
Ribbon-cutting ceremony held for Historic Downtown Entertainment District in Madison
MADISON, Ala. (WHNT) – A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Monday for the newly designated Historic Downtown Entertainment District in Madison. The ribbon-cutting took place at Garner St. Alley, and city officials said the event marked a milestone in efforts to bring more traffic to the heart of the city. “Today marks a commitment to our […]
MKBHD's wallpaper app Panels is shutting down
"We knew it was niche... and ultimately, we weren't able to turn it into the vision I had," Marques Brownlee said.
Full-length Replay: Michigan vs Syracuse
The No. 6 Wolverines draw the Orange as the Hall of Fame Women's Showcase winds down in Connecticut.
Congress begins final session of 2025 with healthcare (and a dash of AI policy) on the docket
At the top of lawmakers' economic agenda is a promised vote on healthcare left over from the 43-day shutdown fight. Also being debated are two limited AI measures that have a last chance for action in 2025.
Shopify suffers Cyber Monday outage, with checkout services down for some businesses
Some merchants that use Shopify's platform for online sales may experience an issue with checkouts, the company said.
MKBHD’s ‘Panels’ wallpaper app is shutting down at the end of the year
High-quality wallpapers sourced from MKBHD were, for a time, available through a proprietary app called “Panels.” The Panels app is...
Forsberg: Jordan Walsh emerging as the 'violent defender' C's were promised
After Jordan Walsh's career night, Chris Forsberg breaks down how the young Celtics wing has become a legitimate difference-maker on defense.
André Carson drawn out of Indy House district in proposed redistricting map
Carson's home near downtown Indianapolis, currently in the 7th District, which he's held since 2008, would now be in the ninth congressional district.
iPad Mini Drops to New All-Time Low Price of $349 for Cyber Monday
Amazon and Best Buy have introduced new low prices on the iPad mini 7 for Cyber Monday, starting at $349.00 for the 128GB Wi-Fi tablet, down from $499.00. You'll also find a few deals on cellular models during this sale. Note. MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
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.
Chronology: How We Got Here and What’s Happening Now with McAllen’s Entertainment District
McAllen’s Entertainment and Cultural Overlay District (ECOD) in the downtown/17th Street area was formally created by Ordinance 2005-95, adopted on November 14, 2005.
Mayor Villalobos intensifies effort to confront ongoing issues in McAllen’s Entertainment District
McAllen’s Entertainment and Cultural Overlay District, commonly known as the 17th Street entertainment district, was created in 2005 to allow bars, clubs, and music venues to operate under special permits with added safety requirements.
CA migrant workers delay medical care during Trump’s immigration crackdown
Fewer immigrant farmworkers in California are showing up at pop-up medical clinics since Trump’s immigration crackdown.
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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