When Mainstream "Science Information" Sites Promote Mind Poisons

 Many people have the idea that if you keep reading mainstream sites that are commonly called "science information" sites, you will become a better citizen. Some people think that if you read such sites, you will frequently be reminded of how bad a problem global warming is, and that you will therefore be moved to reduce your carbon footprint. Other people think that if you read such "science information" sites, you will be a good global citizen, get all of your required vaccinations, and eat genetically modified food like our corporations wish you to do.  

I'm not sure there is any very good evidence that science knowledge causes people to be better global citizens.  These days a person's carbon footprint tends to be proportional to his or her wealth, a factor that is independent of a person's science knowledge. Furthermore, it is possible that after reading the articles on "science information" web sites, you might have a greater tendency to become morally indifferent.  That's because sometimes our mainstream "science information" websites publish articles that might tend to destroy any moral tendencies you had, if you took seriously what you were reading. 

I may use the term "mind poisons" for theories that tend to produce moral indifference in anyone who believes in them. One such theory (occasionally promoted on mainstream "science information" sites) is the theory that there are an infinite number of parallel universes containing an infinite number of copies of you, each a little different.  This insane notion is the idea that every instant the universe is kind of splitting into an infinite number copies of itself, so that every possibility is actualized.  There is no evidence or any good reason for believing in such nonsense, but it is occasionally sold on mainstream "science information" sites as if it was a respectable physics theory.  

It is easy to explain why such a theory promotes moral indifference. If every possibility is happening, and there are an infinite number of copies of you and everyone else, each a little bit different, then there would be no point in ever acting morally. For example, if you were walking along the street, and saw someone bleeding heavily, rather than phoning for help, you would think there was no point in acting, on the grounds that regardless of what you do, there will be an infinite number of parallel universes in which the person survives, and an infinite number of parallel universes in which the person bleeds to death. 

Another example of a morally destructive mind poison is the theory of determinism, the theory that humans do not have free will.  Such a theory is based on the erroneous idea that decisions arise from brain states.  The idea is that you have no free will because your decisions are produced by brain states, that follow inevitably from atomic arrangements. The posts on this site do a good of exploding the rationale for this philosophical theory. There is actually no understanding of how mind or memory can be brain effects, and there are very strong neuroscience reasons for believing that neither mind nor memory can be brain effects. No one has any real understanding of how neurons could ever cause an idea, a memory storage, a memory recollection or a decision.  So your decisions cannot be explained away as mere brain effects, and you very much do have free will. 

It is rather obvious why determinism is a morally destructive idea. If you believe that you have no free will and must act exactly as you act, then you will tend to have no guilt about anything you do. Contrary to all human experience and also contrary to what we know about the brain (something very different from commonly peddled myths about the brain), and being a very morally destructive doctrine, determinism can be accurately described as evil nonsense. 

 But the other day I saw the evil nonsense of determinism being promoted on a widely read web site that is commonly regarded as a "science information" web site. I will not link to the article, because my new policy is never to cause readership for those who teach such morally ruinous absurdities. I may merely note that the blog post promoting this determinism bunk was written by someone who has never shown any signs of being a serious scholar of either mental phenomena or neuroscience.

So these are two cases in which mainstream "science information" sites have promoted morally ruinous mind poisons.  There is a third such case. On some  of the leading sites regarded as "science information" sites, I recently read an article promoting the simulation hypothesis, the hypothesis that you are merely part of some computer simulation set up by extraterrestrials. 

That sites calling themselves "science sites" would be promoting such nonsense is merely additional proof that much of what you read on such sites is neither science nor rational speculation.  We have zero reasons for believing that a computer could ever produce consciousness, and have never observed any computer produce the slightest trace of consciousness.  So believing that you are just part of some computer simulation is as silly as believing that your mother is merely a TV series character that climbed out of your wide-screen TV set. 

The simulation hypothesis is as morally destructive as the other two ideas I previously mentioned, although most people fail to see why that is so.  The reason is that once you believe that you are merely part of a computer simulation created by extraterrestrials, you will tend to doubt that the people you observe with your eyes really exist. 

If some extraterrestrials had caused your consciousness to arise by creating some computer simulation, there is not the slightest reason to think that they would follow some rule that every person observed in the simulation has their own consciousness.  It would be almost infinitely easier to set up a simulation in which most of the bodies seen in the simulation were merely software routines that had no consicousness at all. That would be rather like a video game. In a video game there is a single conscious agent (yourself) interacting with various computer-generated characters that are merely software routines without any consciousness. 

So once a person believes that he is part of a computer simulation created by extraterrestrials, he may  tend to believe that the people he sees in the world are not conscious minds like himself, but merely "characters in the simulation," like video game characters.   That simulation believer will then feel absolutely free to commit any wicked act he pleases, thinking he is not causing any real pain by doing such things.  Similarly, while playing a video game you feel free to cause as much on-the-screen bloodshed as you wish, and don't worry that pain is being caused by such actions that occur in your video game. 

So it should be clear that the simulation hypothesis is a morally destructive doctrine, which may lead someone to kill, injure and rape without having any remorse.  We can therefore accurately say that the simulation hypothesis is a type of mind poison. But exactly this mind poison was being promoted recently on several leading mainstream sites that call themselves "science information" sites. 

Clearly, we must use our critical faculties when reading what is on so-called "science information" sites, because while such sites mainly teach truth, they often promote claims that are untrue or vastly improbable, and occasionally promote mind poisons that are evil nonsense. Sadly, some of the world's worst nonsense is sometimes to be found on mainstream "science information" sites.