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Irish Growth to Moderate on Hiring Slowdown, Business Lobby Says
Ireland’s biggest business lobby group expects economic growth to moderate in 2026 on a hiring slowdown.
"MicroProse and Geoff Crammond Reunite to Revive a Racing Legend"
MicroProse is excited to announce its renewed partnership with legendary game developer Geoff Crammond, creator of some of the most influential racing simulation games of the 1990s and early 2000s. Together, we are bringing back his groundbreaking racing game engine in a re-release of the original game technology, enhanced with updates, new tools, and Steam Workshop support, through the upcoming Geoff Crammond Racing series: GCR1, GCR2, GCR3, and GCR4, scheduled to release in 2026. These titles are being reintroduced under new names to reflect our independent direction and to ensure full separation from any official motorsport licensing. While the names are new, the core simulation engine, physics systems, and pioneering gameplay features developed by Geoff Crammond remain at the heart of each release. Geoff Crammond’s original work helped define the foundations of modern racing games, introducing innovations such as advanced real-time physics, highly configurable driving assists (including the ideal racing line, steering help and auto braking), realistic AI driver behaviour, deep telemetry analysis, comprehensive car setup systems, extensive wet weather system, and the list goes on. The GCR series proudly carries this legacy forward. Steam Workshop support will enable the community to create and share custom tracks, cars, liveries, teams, drivers and more. This reunion marks the beginning of a long-term partnership between MicroProse and Geoff Crammond, with further announcements in the series to come. MicroProse is officially back on the track at full speed. GCR1 Steam Page GCR2 Steam Page GCR3 Steam Page GCR4 Steam Page -- MicroProse, founded in 1982, is a world-famous simulation software company known for developing groundbreaking classics and new blockbuster titles such as Falcon, HighFleet, B-17 The Mighty Eighth, Ground Branch, Gunship and many more! Today, MicroProse is not only remaking select classics from its past but also paving the road to next-generation, state of the art games that will create the memories and experiences of new generations of gamers.
Johnson Rules Out House Vote to Extend Health Insurance Subsidies
The speaker had planned to give moderate Republicans seeking an extension of the tax credits a vote on their proposal, but said on Tuesday it was simply “not to be.”
House GOP moderates weigh deal with Democrats on ACA subsidies
"It's idiotic, it's political malpractice," Rep. Mike Lawler told reporters of Johnson refusing to give them a vote on ACA subsidies
Ramanujan’s 100-year-old pi formula is still revealing the Universe
Ramanujan’s elegant formulas for calculating pi, developed more than a century ago, have unexpectedly resurfaced at the heart of modern physics. Researchers at IISc discovered that the same mathematical structures behind these formulas also describe real-world phenomena like turbulence, percolation, and even black holes. What once seemed like pure mathematics now appears deeply intertwined with the physical laws governing the universe.
House GOP moderates signal they’ll fall in line with Johnson’s health plan
Vulnerable members have agitated for a vote to extend Obamacare subsidies. But that appears unlikely to happen.
GM Revamps In-Car Entertainment, Adds Apple Music Directly to Cadillac and Chevrolet
General Motors ($GM) is taking a major step to modernize its in-car entertainment experience. The company is rolling out a built-in Apple ($AAPL) Music app to selec...
Johnson’s health bill hits snag with GOP moderate drama
Speaker Mike Johnson is facing a rebellion among moderates, which could blow up the GOP's proposed Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act.
The 25 best Christmas movies of all time, from 'Elf' to 'It's a Wonderful Life'
Our ranking of the greatest Christmas-themed films, from animated classics to modern favorites.
See how American's old and new Airbus narrowbody planes compare
American has axed first class for a single business cabin with beds and doors. The plane is overall chic and modern, but there's a row I'd avoid.
You Can Now Mimic Apple CarPlay In Any Vehicle With This Free App
If your car lacks Apple CarPlay, the free app Car Play Connect Sync Autolink can mimic its many features with an iPhone or iPad in any modern vehicle.
Jason Buechel, the man who's tasked with energizing Amazon's grocery business
Jason Buechel, a longtime Whole Foods leader with roots in food and tech, is now tasked with unifying Amazon’s sprawling grocery business.
Brain science, social media and a modern moral panic
In brain scans, social media addiction looks the same as gaming and gambling addictions and substance abuse, says grad student Kylie Falcione at UCSB's Media Neuroscience Lab
Moderna Founder Warns US Doubts on Science Threaten Biotech Edge
The US risks falling behind in biotechnology as the government cuts funding and skepticism over vaccines grows, according to Moderna Inc.’s co-founder and Chairman Noubar Afeyan.
UC San Diego Alumnus Honors Cognitive Science Pioneers with Endowed Chairs
UC San Diego alumnus Robert J. Glushko, Ph.D. and Pamela Samuelson have four endowed faculty chairs in honor of transformational scholars whose work shaped both modern cognitive science and Glushko’s career.
15 Of My Favorite Tech Gadgets Available On Amazon
See 15 essential pieces of technology that belong in any modern home or office. Find reliable, affordable gadgets reviewed by an experienced tech enthusiast.
House GOP moderates revolt against Johnson on health care with new discharge petition
Panasonic Whisper Symphony™ Transforms Your Bathroom with Entertainment, Comfort, and Innovation
Panasonic, a leading provider of ventilation and sustainable home comfort solutions, today announces its new Whisper Symphony™ exhaust fan, now available for purchase in stores and online at The Home Depot and Do it Best. Designed for modern homeowners and DIYers, this innovative fan enhances daily bathroom routines by combining Panasonic's superior ventilation, energy-efficiency, and immersive audio into a single, easy-to-install solution.
Is Live Nation Entertainment Stock Underperforming the Nasdaq?
Is Live Nation Entertainment Stock Underperforming the Nasdaq?
Call of Duty won’t release Modern Warfare or Black Ops back to back anymore
“We will drive innovation that is meaningful, not incremental.”
Call of Duty Will No Longer Do Back-to-back Releases of Modern Warfare or Black Ops Games
Call of Duty will no longer release multiple Black Ops or Modern Warfare games back-to-back, after two Modern Warfare releases in 2022 and 2023, and two Black Ops releases in 2024 and 2025, respectively, and negative feedback and concerning sales reports for the most recent release, Black Ops 7.
Mission Valley Bank Unveils Sleek, Bold, Contactless Mastercard® Business Debit Card
Mission Valley Bank today announced the launch of its new Mastercard® Business Debit Card, a major enhancement to the Bank's suite of business banking solutions. Designed with sleek, bold, contactless functionality and built for entrepreneurs, nonprofits, and business professionals who demand speed, security, and control, the new debit card reinforces Mission Valley Bank's commitment to delivering high-touch, high-performance financial tools that move at the pace of modern business.
The imperative to lead: The future of athletics at the U
This bold and innovative approach reflects the university’s commitment to modernization, entrepreneurship and reinvention.
Analogue 3D Game Console Rolls Out Throwback Transparent N64 Colors
Tonight we're going to game like it's 1999, as the modern recreation of the Nintendo 64 launches in "funtastic" colors of that year.
GOP Rep. Fitzpatrick: Doing nothing on health care ‘not an option’
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), the author of a bipartisan health care plan and a moderate Republican whose district voted for former Vice President Harris in 2024, said taking no action on the exp…
GSPM director to confront enrollment challenges in shifting political, higher education landscape
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a former member of Congress and university official, said she is aiming modernize the school and increase enrollment amid declines and heightened political polarization.
Humans are built for nature not modern life
Human biology evolved for a world of movement, nature, and short bursts of stress—not the constant pressure of modern life. Industrial environments overstimulate our stress systems and erode both health and reproduction. Evidence ranging from global fertility declines to chronic inflammatory diseases shows the toll of this mismatch. Researchers say cultural and environmental redesign, especially nature-focused planning, is essential.
A Love Triangle Isn’t The Real Story In ‘Materialists’
The most compelling parts of Celine Song’s new film lie not in a classic love triangle, but in a poignant observation of modern dating culture.
From Antarctica to AI: India International Science Festival 2025 brings science enthusiasts under one roof
The festival features over 150 technical and thematic sessions spanning science, technology, innovation, and industry. Key focus areas include artificial intelligence (AI), bio-economy, space, quantum technology, and the integration of traditional knowledge with modern science, alongside sessions on deep-tech entrepreneurship and the blue economy.
Why do Gen Z have a growing appetite for retro tech?
Gen Z are going retro, with studies showing a resurgence in people buying tech in the modern age that can be dated back decades.
Politics-first Christians are living in the wrong chapter of history
Ryan Sanders: The Bible describes distinct chapters in humanity’s relationship to the divine. The mistake of many modern evangelicals, like 7 Mountain...
Conejo Valley’s life science moment has arrived
The Conejo Valley’s life science moment is here — driven by global leaders, emerging innovators, modern infrastructure, and a skilled workforce.
Analysis: The cracks in Trump’s base
No politician in modern history has held as much sway over his base as President Donald Trump. And perhaps nothing has mattered more to his political career than that.
The Age-Old "Grandmother Rule" Of Washing Is Backed By Science
Age-old wisdom, backed by modern science.
Video: Opinion | How Charismatic Can a Moderate Politician Be?
“I think Americans — those who are not spending all their lives on social media — are so tired of the temperature of our political discourse,” Frank Bruni says on “The Opinions.” The solution? A “poetic and charismatic” centrist.
VA making changes to veterans' health records
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has been making changes to veterans' health records as part of a move to modernize the system.
Google outlines MIRAS and Titans, a possible path toward continuously learning AI
A year after publishing its Titans paper, Google has formally detailed the architecture on its research blog, pairing it with a new framework called MIRAS. Both projects target a major frontier in AI: models that keep learning during use and maintain a functional long-term memory instead of remaining static after pretraining.
ObamaCare anxiety rising among House GOP centrists: ‘To do this is buffoonery’
Frustration is mounting among moderate House Republicans as various competing health care plans appear to be going nowhere, with less than 10 working days left on the calendar before millions of Am…
Microsoft finally has a better looking Run dialog for Windows 11
The modern Run prompt is hidden in the latest Windows 11 builds
FDA chief says Biden administration withheld data on heart risk from Covid vaccines
Myocarditis is a known — but small — side effect of the mRNA Covid vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, information that federal agencies have discussed openly since 2021.
Google Messages rolling out big photo viewer redesign
After testing earlier this year, Google Messages is now rolling out a big redesign and modernization of its photo viewer.
After 30 years, Microsoft is redesigning the Run dialog box on Windows 11 — now with an updated modern UI for the first time
After 30 years, the Run dialog box (Win+R) is being updated with a modern interface that matches the rest of Windows 11. Here's a first look!
Erika Kirk to open up about life, loss and politics in town hall airing on CBS
Three months after her husband, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated, Erika Kirk will open up about life, loss, the state of political discourse and more in a one-hour town hall event moderated by Bari Weiss, CBS News' editor-in-chief.
Not all local arts entertainment has to be Christmas-y this month
Looking for a few arts options in December that aren't holiday-themed? Check out these choices at MSU, LCC and in REO Town.
Jennifer Lopez, Dakota Johnson and More Favor Modern Elegance for The Hollywood Reporter’s 2025 Women in Entertainment Gala
Both Lopez and Gwyneth Paltrow were honored at the annual event.
A glass of morning orange juice has a surprising role in your health
Studies suggest 100% or plant-sterol-fortified orange juice may reduce LDL cholesterol modestly. Experts urge moderation and medical advice.
Unfinished business (part 1): quantum physics turns 100
Our podcast on science and technology. This week, Paul Davies explains how a mind-bending theory shapes modern technology
San Francisco’s mayor faces test over his key allies: Business execs
Moderate Mayor Daniel Lurie has leaned on personal ties to business execs to revamp the city, but they could be facing a backlash.
Hims & Hers to Acquire YourBio Health, Pioneer Behind Advanced, Pain-Free Blood Sampling Technology
Acquisition Combines Hims Hers’ Leading Wellness Platform with YourBio’s Patented, Virtually Painless Micro-Needle Technology to Redefine the Future of Blood Sampling Hims Hers Health, Inc. (NYSE: HIMS), the leading health and wellness platform, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire YourBio Health, Inc., a Boston-based pioneer in capillary whole blood sampling technology. Powered by YourBio’s advanced blood sampling devices, the acquisition will help accelerate efforts to redefine and modernize the overall blood collection experience, making pain-free blood sampling the new standard. YourBio Health develops technologies designed to simplify the process and expand when, where, and how blood samples can be collected—including beyond traditional clinic settings. Its TAP® device, built on HALO™ technology, uses bladeless microneedles thinner than an eyelash to produce high-quality capillary blood samples in seconds, without the pain or
Winter in Saudi Arabia: Where Ancient Heritage Meets Modern Entertainment
Saudi Arabia's winter season features the "Winter Is Alive" campaign with more than 1,000 cultural and entertainment events.
New league aims to drag ancient Olympic sport into entertainment era
Fencing may be one of the Olympics' oldest events, but three-time Olympian Miles Chamley-Watson says it urgently needs a reboot, hoping his new World Fencing League (WFL) will drag the sport into the modern entertainment age.
Is postmodernism wrecking science? In a provocative book, scientists weigh the evidence
War on Science takes aim at science’s global culture wars. Edited by controversial physicist Lawrence Krauss, it argues evidence-based science is under threat.
Business Trades Support Bank Capital Rule Reform to Boost Economic Growth
“Now is the time to modernize our capital framework to unleash economic growth for American businesses and consumers across the country.” WASHINGTON, D.C. — A coalition of leading business trade organizations urged prudential regulators to examine and modernize large bank capital requirements to ensure they support consumers, businesses, and the…
Replay Sports Cards Awards First-Ever Franchise to Business Partners Josh Stigdon and Jason Buckel
Replay Sports Cards ("Replay") – America's first national franchise dedicated exclusively to the hobby – has signed its first-ever franchise agreement with business partners Josh Stigdon and Jason Buckel, marking a pivotal moment in the company's growth and franchise expansion. The duo will open a new Replay shop in Seymour, Indiana, bringing the brand's modern, community-first take on the local card shop to collectors and families in the region.
Broadening Science and Bridging Divides in a Complex, Interconnected World
Investment in science is a pillar for any dynamic, equitable modern society, and promoting scientific literacy across all levels of society can help foster innovation, dialogue, and consensus that crosses disciplinary and cultural boundaries.
Today's biggest science news: X-class solar flares | Chernobyl fungus | Modern humans interbred with 'hobbits'
Monday, Dec. 1, 2025: Your daily feed of the biggest discoveries and breakthroughs making headlines.
Netflix Kills Casting From Its Mobile App to Most Modern TVs
Netflix has quietly removed the ability to cast content from its mobile apps to most modern TVs and streaming devices, including newer Chromecast models and the Google TV Streamer.
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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