Practicing Compassion
Deep, spontaneous, difficult. Looking for a shortcut? Then it’s even much more difficult. Formal meditation Yes, the beautiful action ― in my view, warm and friendly. [see: “True Meditation is Warm and Friendly”] At least this kind of meditation is a direct practice of Compassion towards yourself, then towards others, and all sentient beings. Soto, Read the full article…
Where’s the Mind in Medical Causation?
I don’t know. It has vanished or has never been present. I’ve written quite a lot about this and don’t intend to repeat much. Disastrous opportunity One can see this as the big disaster that it is. Looking from within the present situation itself, one can also see it as a huge opportunity for doing Read the full article…
Causation in Humans and A.I.
Causal reasoning is needed to be human. Will it also transcend us into A.I.? Many researchers are on this path. We should try to understand it as well as possible. Some philosophy Causality is a human construct. In reality, there are only correlations. If interested in such philosophical issues, [see: “Infinite Causality”]. In the present Read the full article…
Culture over STEM
Much talk is about the importance of STEM in schooling, while profound culture gets sidelined. STEM = Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics Profound culture = what makes us deeply human in future society. In this text, culture is always ‘profound.’ In my teenage years, I was very motivated in both directions. From my first medical school Read the full article…
Is All Learning Associational?
Most probably. This is a domain where animal/human learning and A.I. learning can learn much from each other. Three forms of learning in A.I. Generally, learning in A.I. is divided into two distinct kinds, with a third one dangling in the appendix, referring to another book (*). supervised learning: training with specific input and labeled Read the full article…
Wanted, the Truth!
Humans are truth-seekers in many different ways ― a worthy and challenging adventure. Paraphrasing Zhuangzi I don’t know whether I have been dreaming last night and am writing this after waking up, or whether I am still dreaming and writing this, hoping that you, dear reader, will read it in your dream. As far as Read the full article…
Who We Are. What A.I. Can become.
In the near future, we will learn many exciting things in both domains. They will turn out to be very inspiring in both directions. “I think one of the big breakthroughs that’s going to come is we’re going to understand the brain… so that suddenly it all begins to click” Quoting Geoffrey Hinton, ‘godfather of Read the full article…
Robotizing Humans or Humanizing Robots
The latter may be necessary to prevent the former. The power of A.I. can be used in both directions. Hopefully, the next A.I. breakthrough brings us more of the latter. Challenging times. We are living in an era of transition in many ways. One of them is the birth of a new kind of intelligence Read the full article…
Explainability in A.I., Boon or Bust?
Explainability seems like the safe option. With A.I. of growing complexity, it may be quite the reverse. Much of the reason can be found inside ourselves. What is ‘explainability’ in A.I.? It’s not only about an A.I. system being able to do something but also to explain how and why this has been done. The Read the full article…
The Next Breakthrough in A.I.
will not be technological, but philosophical. Of course, technology will be necessary to realize the philosophical. It will not be one more technological breakthrough, but rather a combination of new and old technologies. “Present-day A.I. = sophisticated perception” These are the words of Yann LeCun, a leading A.I. scientist, founding father of convolutional nets, which Read the full article…
Into the Not-Knowing
It is good to know many things. It is also good – indeed necessary – to not-know. Without not-knowing, we are not going to have a bright future, as we have not made a bright present. Where the hyphen makes all the difference. Not-knowing is not about a lack of knowing. It is certainly not Read the full article…
Where is Causal Research on Mind in COVID?
It is nowhere. Yet the human mind may be half of the story through social nocebo, etc. If possible, please join this scientific group at ResearchGate, or ask interested scientists to join. One year into the pandemic, the human mind is still absent in the causal story as well as strictly COVID therapy at any Read the full article…
Empathy ― Sympathy
Differences are subtle yet essential ― even more so in healthcare, for instance. Semantics To avoid conceptual misunderstanding, please see the image at [see “Landscape of Empathy”] before reading further. To me, empathy is sitting in the boat, while sympathy is swimming in the water of the stream. Even so, there is no strict delineation Read the full article…
AURELIS in Healthcare Context
Can AURELIS be a part of healthcare as one corner of a triangle with the client/patient central to the happening? The ‘deeper mind’ as domain Many people with persistent mind-related problems, including psycho-somatic issues, do not seek professional help. With AURELIS – including Lisa [see: “Lisa“] – they have additional options while staying totally within Read the full article…
Your Mind as Cure
It’s about time I blog-introduce my book, published a year ago. [see: “Your Mind As Cure”] I get an uneasy feeling in any pharmacy. Most of the drugs for sale do not cure a disease. They’re cosmetic. [see: “Most drugs are sheer symptomatic”] That’s OK. People may have symptoms they want to get rid of. Read the full article…
Looking at Suffering
We should never forget the suffering. Numbers don’t suffer. People do. Children and mothers and fathers, as you know. Husbands and wives. We know. Should we then all keep thinking about the suffering of so many who are in misery? Yes, we should, in a way. Of course, we cannot, for several reasons. We don’t Read the full article…
Patterns in Neurophysiology
Mind-related concepts are not held by single neurons but by patterns of neurons. This is increasingly being visualized, carrying immense consequences. Neuronal ensembles (‘neuronal patterns’) The human brain is no clockwork. There is no database nor a collection of crisp, Platonian concepts. [see: “About Concepts”] There is no one concept present in one brain cell Read the full article…