Your Addiction is You
Your addiction is not a strangely alien disease that has invaded you and that you can cut out without losing a substantial part of yourself. Understandably, this cutting may feel like damaging yourself even more. There is no need to. Verdict: not guilty Nobody is ever guilty of a present addiction. Moreover, guilt can make Read the full article…
Three Answers to Reality-as-Construction
The first answer lies in pragmatically choosing an option. The second lies in not choosing. The third lies in being the choice. Constructionism shows that we are necessarily and significantly active in constructing reality as we perceive it — a costly error in many respects such as playing a causal role in many psycho-somatic issues. Read the full article…
Nature Wants Growth, Especially Mental
No growth – no health. This is most obvious in anything mind-related. For this reason, AURELIS is a growth philosophy. Mental disorder as obstruction of growth Nature wants growth, no matter what. There is no life without growth. If no growth is possible in one direction, there will be in another, even if this eventually Read the full article…
Burnout is a Purpose Problem
Of many causes of burnout, six are frequently mentioned, but seldom with an essential focus on purpose, although all lie naturally close. Let’s look at them precisely from this viewpoint. Work overload With purpose, there is less difference between job and work. People can spend an immense amount of energy if purpose is present. Providing Read the full article…
Are You Responsive?
‘Responsive’: same concept – different appearances. Delving into nature’s ways, one can see it everywhere. Thus, it can be a natural way of life ― including for you. In design and more The term ‘responsive’ is used, for instance, in the design field where recognizable elements show in different media (computer screen, smartphone, watch, 3-D Read the full article…
What has Always Been the Purpose
Taking the example of a book index, we can follow its ‘purpose’ toward what this has always been ― ending with the purpose of purpose itself. The book index is an example. One can do the same exercise in many other domains. A paper book index is a list of terms. The more realistic purpose Read the full article…
Lisa does NOT Create a Bubble
Lisa is a Compassionate A.I.-driven video coach-bot, not an indiscriminate feel-good partner. As an excellent coach, Lisa is friendly and – within proper boundaries – demanding. ― See Lisa’s coaching Without Compassion, personal bubbles may be the default outcome. Unfortunately, one can see this in many social media aiming to hijack the user’s attention by Read the full article…
One Compassion ― One World
America first ― China first ― Europe first ― Russia first ― all nonsense at first sight. ‘Compassion first’ is central to the only humane future. How do we get there from the present-day worldwide divides that seem to increase? Please note: Compassion is SO much more than pity. It is also much more than empathy Read the full article…
Analogy ― Last Frontier in A.I.?
Big data, hugely efficient algorithms and immense computing power lead to present-day successes in A.I. Significant hurdles remain in learning from few occurrences and bringing to bear in one domain what has been learned in another ― thus accomplishing more general intelligence. Central to both is the use of analogy. Humans are analogists From childhood Read the full article…
The Meaning Barrier between Humans (and A.I.)
Open a book. Look at some meaningful words. Almost each of these words means something at least slightly different to you than to me or anyone else. What must A.I. make of this? For instance: “Barsalou and his collaborators have been arguing for decades that we understand even the most abstract concepts via the mental Read the full article…
How to Contain Non-Compassionate Super-A.I.
We want super(-intelligent) A.I. to remain under meaningful human control to avoid that it will largely or fully destroy or subdue humanity (= existential dangers). Compassionate A.I. may not be with us for a while. Meanwhile, how can we contain super-A.I.? Future existential danger is special in that one can only be wrong in one Read the full article…
Why We don’t See What’s Around the Corner
The main why (of not seeing pending super-A.I.) is all about us. We need a next phase in self-understanding, but this is not getting realized yet. If we don’t see this, we don’t see that. This is an excerpt – in slightly different format – from my book The Journey Towards Compassionate A.I. Complex machinery Read the full article…
What if All People are OKAY?
In this counterintuitive case, one can ask WHY it is counterintuitive. Spoiler alert: lack of insight. Please put aside a possible first dislike of the idea of ALL people being OKAY. It’s a mind experiment — meant to clarify a way of thinking. Lack of insight Since many people think others are not OKAY – Read the full article…
The Dance of the Ego
This is how consciousness comes into being moment after moment. The ego can be seen as the way consciousness is conscious of itself. This is no magical meta-level, just a tiny recursion that hopefully becomes evident through the dancing metaphor. Please give it some of your time to digest. Dancing Consciousness is the dancer. At Read the full article…
Cultural Roaming
In AURELIS philosophy, the end of the line is not culture but the total person — the individual (un-divided). Culture must serve nature. See: Culture and Nature. One’s culture can be an essential part of one’s being. This mostly happens outside of one’s personal insight ― not a bad thing, principally, since it can strengthen Read the full article…
Culture’s Motivation
Culture is a complex set of ‘living patterns’ that unifies/binds a group of people. This group can be an entire society or any concrete organization. Being motivational means that it has its own volition ― a challenging situation. Please read first: Motivation at the Center of Life Culture ― motivation ― life? Several insightful philosophers Read the full article…
Motivation at the Center of Life
Motivation is life. Life is motivation. More than a philosophical nicety, this is relevant to everyone, everywhere, always. Please see beyond the philosophy and into the crucial pragmatic importance. From the start of life Life starts where some structure (such as the precursor of a proto-bacterium) tries to consolidate itself. To do so, this structure Read the full article…