In the case of digital technologies, the acceleration and intensification of information flows affects faculties such as attention, even in their non-conscious processes
for - adjacency - digital technologies - language - cognition - technology does play an important role in our evolution
for - from - LinkedIn post - Was Language Humanity's First AI? Golding's Forgotten Masterpiece - https://hyp.is/KLNvfrm3EfCqGUsWw6uuNg/www.linkedin.com/pulse/language-humanitys-first-ai-goldings-forgotten-willy-de-backer-xffze
any description made by an observer is part of that which is being described
for - quote - language - inherent circularity this harmonious whole is also incomprehensible, -since any description made by an observer - is part of that which is being described.
Katherine Hayles' concept of "distributed cognition"
for - definition - distributed cognition - to - article - N. Katherine Hayles: “We need a more comprehensive view of cognition” - https://hyp.is/Jc98ArsHEfClKP-8MkzNoA/lab.cccb.org/en/katherine-hayles-we-need-a-more-comprehensive-view-of-cognition/ -
Ben Okri notes in his brilliant analysis:
for - to - article - newspaper - book - The Inheritors - https://hyp.is/1GD8ErrSEfCZHg-bToHIBQ/www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/an-ancient-imagination-ben-okri-on-the-inheritors-by-william-golding-1.4717259
began with language itself.
for - adjacency - language - is the first AI
the exact transition from embodied to symbolic consciousness.
for - transition - from embodied to symbolic consciousness
when Homo sapiens develop symbolic languag
for - quote - symbolic language - when Homo sapiens develop symbolic language, - they create something unprecedented: - a cognitive technology that augments and fundamentally alters how consciousness itself operates
The Neanderthals share collective consciousness through direct "picture-sharing,"
for - ❓- what does he mean by "picture sharing"?
pre-linguistic thought
for - adjacency - pre-linguistic thought - book - novel
imagines the fateful encounter between the last Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens, told entirely from the Neanderthal perspective.
for - book - The Inheritor - storyline - Neanderthal experience of the first early Homo Sapiens and of language
Lord of the Flies
for - book - Lord of the Flies - The Inheritors - William Golding
humanity's original cognitive transformation when symbolic language first rewired consciousness itself.
for - adjacency - Deep Humanity - language - The Inheritor
for - from - LinkedIn article - Has language trapped humanity? - https://hyp.is/54ZYgrmmEfC5Oft3Op2Hiw/www.linkedin.com/pulse/has-language-trapped-humanity-willy-de-backer-vvwoe/
for - article - newspaper- book - The Inheritors - William Golding - from - LinkedIn article - Was Language Humanity's First AI? Golding's Forgotten Masterpiece - https://hyp.is/HKRN2rrTEfCvLMto-7f5EQ/www.linkedin.com/pulse/language-humanitys-first-ai-goldings-forgotten-willy-de-backer-xffze/
summary - good review of William Golding's book "The Inheritors"
Golding intuits the spirituality of Neanderthals
for - Neanderthal sympathy
‘The people’ are ill-equipped for survival
for - comparison - neanderthal vs homo sapien - ‘The people’ (neanderthals) are ill-equipped for survival, not having - the complexity of thought required to manipulate the material world. - They are doomed by - their lack of innovation, - their inability to create. -‘The new people’ (homo sapiens) - are creative, - they are makers and - have will and guile.
Whatever we inherit from the fortunateWe have taken from the defeated
for - quote - Whatever we inherit from the fortunate, we have taken from the defeated - T.S. Eliot - question - What does it mean?
The author is on the side of the Neanderthals. They are the underdog, the gentle people, destroyed by Homo sapiens.
for - comparison - neanderthal vs homo sapien - the bad guys won! unfortunately!
atavism
for - definition - atavism - Atavism is the reappearance of an ancestral trait in an individual after it has been absent for several generations. - Nice word!
o fashion a story around this encounter so that it radiates forward to our times is the true achievement of this work.
for - book - The Inheritors - its achievement
That question mark, standing for a question that the mind asks without words and cannot answer, is a stroke of genius.
for - quote - Lok's ear spoke to Lok. "?" - ah, now I get it! I had to read the context before I could understand what the significance of "?" is!
the old man tells them the stories of a paradisiacal time
for - question - novel - The Inheritors - how does the old man tell a story when there is no language yet?
They are not makers. They are.
for quote - human BEing vs human DOing - They are not makers. They are.- The Inheritors
Their sense of smell is so keen that it amounts to an elevated form of reading: ‘He performed miracles of perception in the cavern of his nose.’
for - adjacency - pre-lingustic - smell - sight - Gedanken - novel - The Inheritors
It is a tragic tale about the death of an older species. But it is also an incipient tale about those who survive them, those who inherit the earth.
for - mortality salience - of a species! - adjacency - novel - The Inheritors - mortality salience - birth of language - BEing journey - Gosh, a movie should be made of this!
We carry in our worlds that flourish Our worlds that have failed.
for - quote - We carry in our worlds that flourish Our worlds that have failed - Christopher Okigbo - Is modernity flourishing, on the back of a brutalized colonized world of the past? - Will post modernity flourish, on the back of a modernity that destroyed the biosphere?
The novel is the seeing of a new world, a transitional moment in the life of the earth.
for - Gedanken - novel - The Inheritors - imagine language coming into existence! - This would indeed be a most profound moment in our species history! - question - what would this mean from a spiritual enlightenment perspective?
Strange things happen to your sense of reality as you read.
for - BEing journey - novel - The Inheritors - novel - The Inheritors - strange things happen to your sense of reality as you read
There is a special quality to the writing.
for - novel - The Inheritor - special quality to the writing
The novel itself is like a strange dream. To read it is to feel as if a dimension of consciousness were missing
for - adjacency - BEing journey - The Inheritors - like a strange dream
A profound crisis provokes a deep examination. The urge to reach that far back in history is itself a sign of how deep the crisis was that provoked it.
for - quote - profound crisis provokes deep examination - A profound crisis provokes a deep examination. - The urge to reach that far back in history - is itself a sign of how deep the crisis was that provoked it. - Ben Okri
it is important to ask where we have come from. But to understand how we got here, it is important to understand the thinking that has led us here, the deep roots of our nature.
for - quote - deep roots of human nature
Eighty percent of the world’s problems involve old men who are afraid of death and insignificance - and who won’t let go
for - quote - mortality salience - Barack Obama - unpack - quote - mortality salience
for - article - LinkedIn - Has Language trapped humanity? - pre linguistic reality
Summary - very interesting exploration of our pre linguistic life - We modern humans spend most of our lives in the symbolosphere. - It is so ubiquitous that we don't even know it's relative and not absolute, like fish that don't know there's such a thing as water - until they are pulled out of it - Feral children are the ones who have been pulled out of the ocean of language, but they suffer a fate that none of us, from our conditioned language perspective would want to suffer - So how do we, who are deeply conditioned into language look at our situation of being so deeply conditioned? Is there life after (and before) language?
Approximately 3,000 years ago, humans did not possess self-
for - research further - Approximately 3,000 years ago, humans did not possess self-consciousness as we understand it today. - They operated through a divided mind: <br /> - one part spoke, experienced as divine command, and - another obeyed. Language did not describe consciousness. It created it.
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)
for - book - The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)
William Golding’s The Inheritors
for - book - The Inheritors - William Golding - to - LinkedIn article - The Inheritors - https://hyp.is/PS13cLmnEfCpw39_5R3t-A/www.linkedin.com/pulse/language-humanitys-first-ai-goldings-forgotten-willy-de-backer-xffze/
Language trapped us tens of thousands of years ago, fundamentally altering our minds.
for - language - origins - adjacency - language - AI
for - definition - city - definition degree of urbanization - UN Statistical Commission report 2020 - from - there are 10,000 cities on planet Earth - https://hyp.is/91Rx7LgAEfCT6ytaqg9C9Q/nextcity.org/urbanist-news/there-are-10000-cities-on-planet-earth-half-didnt-exist-40-years-ago
summary - This 2020 report was commissioned by the UN Statisticial Commission to develop a robust, standardized definition of cities, towns and rural communities (villages) to aid in international comparison of human settlements
Grid cell classification
for - definition - degree of urbanization - definition - grid cell classification - definition - urban centre - definition - dense urban cluster - definition - semi-dense urban cluster - definition suburban or peri-urban cells - definition - rural cluster - definition - low density rural grid cells - definition - very low density rural grid cells
Schematic overview of the degree of urbanisation classification
for - degree of urbanization - diagram
The degree of urbanisationclassification defines cities, towns and semi-dense areas, and rural areas.
for - definition - degree of urbanization - a UN Statistical Commission classification that standardizes the definition of city, town and semi-dense areas, and rural areas - definition - city - definition - town - definition - rural area
for - definition - city - towns and cities - to - UN Statistical Commission Report - https://hyp.is/Y4mBcrgGEfCKeB-o1NPMjA/unstats.un.org/UNSDWebsite/statcom/session_52/documents/BG-4a-DEGURBA_Manual-E.pdf
summary - A new definition of cities settles an outstanding ambiguity in urban planning - what is the definition of a city? - Defined as a location with minimum population of 50,000 and population density of 1,500 people / square kilometers, it turns out there are 10,000 cities on the planet, and 48% of humanity lives in cities. - 25% of humanity lives in towns, which are future cities
roughly 20 percent of cities in the world are shrinking
for - stats - cities - 20% of cities are shrinking
In Egypt, places listed as rural agricultural settlements on official maps are actually cities as large as 275,000, but making the official change puts the government on the hook for everything from schools to courthouses.
for - example - practical reasons for not naming a settlement a city - Egypt
new definition, which defines a city as a contiguous geographic area with at least 50,000 inhabitants at an average population density of 1,500 people per square kilometer
for - definition - city - a geographic area with - at least 50,000 inhabitants - an average population density of 1,500 people/square kilometer - stats - 25% of people live in towns - 48 % of people live in cities - 25% of people live in villages - towns and cities
towns, moreover, are the cities of the future
for - towns and cities - towns are the cities of the future
Gregory Scruggs about his reporting on a count that puts the world’s total number of cities at 10,000
for - definition - city - stats - cities - 10,000 in the world
Stop trying to boil the ocean. Focus where impact concentrates.
for - quote - stop trying to boil the ocean - COVID where impacts concentrate
The 80/20 Rule Is the Missing Lever
for - adjacency - carbon emissions - 80/20 rule - Psreto
for - climate crisis - YouTube - coral reef planetary boundary exceeded
summary - breached first planetary boundary - coral reefs - referred to a book about climate psychology worth checking out - also referred to a game called planet crafter and a biodiversity group called planet wild
Planet Wild is a community of nearly 15,000 people who collectively every month fund a new carefully selected project to protect
for - planetary boundary - biodiversity loss - planet wild
taking time at the moment to process and stay sane has meant playing a lot of a game called Planet Crafter
for - climate crisis - game - planet crafter - why not craft a game for collective action?
that's an unhelpful binary
for - climate crisis - unhelpful binary - tell the right story
George Marshall wrote a book called Don't Even Think About It talks about why our brains are uniquely poorly wired to deal with climate change because of various psychological biases.
for - hyperobject - climate change - book - Don't even think about it - George Marshall - why our brains are uniquely wired to ignore climate crisis
for - youtube - MSNBC - book - 1929 - Great Depression - book - 1929
summary - A panel discussion about the parallels between the Great Depression of 1929 and the AI bubble today
for - to - youtube - Tucker Carlson - Trump regime change in Venezuela - false pretense - fighting drug problem - https://hyp.is/s-qthLcIEfCyey-n6NKEKw/www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Pc4xNqa9NM
for - youtube - Tucker Carlson - Trump regime change in Venezuela - false pretense - fighting drug problem - from - youtube - The Young Turks - Trump regime change in Venezuela - false pretence - fighting drug problem -
there are a lot of people making money off of people being sick and that's what we have to recognize.
for - adjacency - crony capitalism - drug addiction
an intimate relationship with drugs, Tucker, it was almost impossible for me to remove myself.
for - drug addiction - intimate relationship with drugs
out of the hundreds of people that I served in that industry, I only know two that got clean and sober
for - drug addiction - almost impossible to do it alone
for Trump corruption - inauguration bribes
hile today, films that focus on activism are common, back then, such movies were outliers and not typically successful at the box office.
for - Social change media - Participant Media - question - Did the success of Participant Media lead to its own obsolescence?
for - SRG Corporation2CO-OPeration program - worker-owned cooperatives - Apis & Heritage - inequality reduction - via worker-owned cooperatives
summary - Apis & Heritage is a unique US private equity firm that has established an investment fund called "The Legacy Fund" which is used to facilitate Employee-Led BuyOut (ELBO). Studies show the enormous potential for reducing inequality and it is an issue that receives rare bipartisan political support in the US. The "Silver Tsunami" describes 3 million small business owners likely to retire in 2035. Together, their businesses account for $10 trillion in assets. Apis & Heritage helps faciliate a smooth transition for owners to sell to their employees, increasing their net worth by as much as 10x by the time they retire.
This is perhaps the most viable and vital public policy tool we have to help lift regular working Americans up and to restore the American Dream
.> for - quote - worker-owned cooperatives - Michael Brownrigg
We need to be sure employee ownership becomes a movement
for - Apis & Heritage - champions of worker-owned cooperative movement
employee ownership; it’s a rare bipartisan issue
for - worker-owned cooperatives - rare bipartisan support
Aspen Institute,
for - stats - 2022 - US worker-owned cooperative potential - about 140,000 firms - employing around 33 million workers - would have been suitable candidates for ESOP employee buyouts, - nearly 1.1 million firms - employing over 25 million workers - [are] suitable candidates for cooperative employee buyouts. - Collectively, these firms accounted for roughly $25 trillion in total revenues. - Aspen Institute
The team believes there is ample opportunity for more players to join the ecosystem
for - worker-owned cooperative - opportunities
sees his time at work as an investment in his future—not just a paycheck
for - worker-owned cooperative - attitude shift - from paycheck - to investment in future
becoming owners has shifted employees’ mindsets toward greater accountability for their own success.
for - worker-owned cooperatives - attitude shift - more responsibility
process
for - Apis & Heritage Legacy Fund employee buyout process - Apis & Heritage values the enterprise and offers seller fair price for their life work - Once purchased, they transfer the company's assets to a trust - Using private debt capital, they finance a portion of that transaction. - The trust administers the ESOP - The seller has full liquidity upfront and can retire immediately, The Legacy Fund saves seller from having to manage the complex process of selling to employees. - ESOP is a retirement account for the new employee-owhers. - After 5 years, each employee become vested, with new share allocations made each year.based on wages as a percentage of total payroll - If value of business grows, so do employee share value. - When employee-owner is ready to retire, they sell back the shares based on current valuation - new employee-owners receive training from Democracy at Work Institute (DAWI) - The trust repays debt from initial transaction on behalf of the business to Apis & Heritage and its investors who make an attractive return -
research by the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing
for - stats - comparison - savings - worker-owned cooperative employee vs non - Rutgers - average median-earnings household - 17K - worker-owned cooperative - 165K
Legacy Fund
for - definition - Legacy Fund - Apis & Heritage fund that converts small businesses to worker-owned cooperatives - identify well run businesses that can deliver financial returns via interest and principal repayment. - target businesses with low- and middle-income hourly workers in industries: - construction, - manufacturing, - in-home care - uplifting everyday, hardworking Americans. - Deliver - competitive, - risk-adjusted returns - with rates in the low- to mid-teens - that are comparable to traditional investments for this asset class.
silver tsunami
for - definition - sliver tsunami
There are 3 million small businesses
for - stats - small businesses - USA - 3 million - 10 trillion in assets - 11 million baby boomers retiring by 2035 - US - worker-owned cooperatives - potential
employee-led buyout (ELBO)
for - definition - Employee Led Buyout (ELBO)
When we talk about radical change, it's more than window dressing in the status quo. It means
for - MTN - UNFR - whole system change - US
for - example - youtube - racial profiling - cop tries to frame judge - 30 million lawsuit - racial profiling - judge
for - US Republican governance failure - blue states provide welfare to red states - youtube - Dave Pakman - blue states vs red states - The US survives Trump's mismanagement because the US is a welfare state in which the blue states, with far better social policies is forced to bail out the tax-friendly red states - The red states keep choosing the same dysfunctional policies, and keep having to get bailed out by the blue states - In this sense, the federal government is being exploited to keep red states doing the same thing
for - youtube - Legal AF - Opus Day - question - Who is Opus Day? What harm have they been doing? - They seem to be associated with dark conservative forces
for - from - youtube - MTN - interview - religious supremacy - https://hyp.is/iU-8wrAZEfCztJ-ZfRs0DQ/www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsL81chx7m4
Life Take Two on YouTube
for - to - youtube - Life Take Two - https://www.youtube.com/@lifetaketwo7662/videos - https://hyp.is/w9QzjLAZEfC7eufi3zgC9A/www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXQa7jW_QmY
I think that religious superiority, religious supremacy is in some ways just because of the numbers a bigger problem even than white supremacy
for - quote - religious supremacy - religious is, in some ways, just because of the numbers a bigger problem than white supremacy - Jenny Gage
Jenny Gage
for - youtube - MTN interview - leaving Mormon Church - Jenny Gage
for - Deep Humanity - inspiration - youtube - MTN interview - leaving Mormon church
for - linguistically motivated information retrieval
for - adjacency - Trump - Inequality
That means four years of current emissions. If you go by Pierce Pierce Forc's recent paper, it's only about two and a half years of current emissions. If you look at the reduction rate here, these are global reduction rates. We'd have to bring emissions down at around about 20% every single year.
for - stats - climate crisis - decarbonization - 2025 - 2.5 to 4 years of carbon budget remaining for 1.5 Deg C - 20% per annum decarbonization rate
We're seeing um um a very strong unwillingness to get rid of the four5 trillion US in subsidies to fossil fuels and introducing a price on carbon
for - climate crisis - major barrier - unwillingness to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies - Johan Rockstrom
science still has the yellow the yellow leadership um um shirt and um business is still trying to keep keep you know in the in the pelaton
for - metaphor - Tour de France - decarbonization - Science in lead - business second - policy distant 3rd - Johan Rockstrom
after 2015 we know that policy actually did not step up and deliver. So there's a big disappointment with the political leadership in the world, but business actually stayed on track
for - quote - Paris Accord - 2025 - policy lagged but business stayed on track - Johan Rockstrom
for - Johan Rockstrom - planetary boundaries 2025 - earth system boundaries 2025
for - youtube - neuroscience - How the brain remembers and imagines - Donna Rose Addis - memory and imagination have the same basis
summary - Donna Rose Addis is a pioneer in a field that connects past memories to future imagination - Her research has demonstrated that the same brain region, the Default Mode Network is responsible for simulations of past memories as well as future imagination - It is theorirized that episodic memory is reactivated and reorganized for creating future simulations
overall effect was small it was actually double once you look at just positive events um and the the other finding that we had there was actually that samples that contain more male participants this effect was even stronger
for - adjacency - depression - double for positive future thinking - even more amongst males
Studies have shown that the default mode network is engaged by all kinds of autobiographical simulations so this includes
for - examples - autobiographical simulations invoking past episodic memories for future (goal-seeking) - counterfactuals - reimagining the past to see how we could have done better - anterior hippocampus supports imagination of - detailed, coherent and novel events and encoding the simulation so we can recognize when the opportunity arises in the future - creative cognition - populations with memory impairments also suffer difficulty with future imagination - depression results in loss of specificity of memories
constructive episodic simulation hypothesis
for - definition - Constructive Episodic Simulation Hypothesis - episodic memory is a constructive process that reactivates and reintegrates distributed information across the brain - these same memories can be used in new combinations for novel imagination of the future
interior hippocampus was more active when people imagin their Futures relative to to when they were remembering their past
for - unexpected finding - hippocampus - active for imagining future instead of remembering past
default mode Network
for - adjacency - memory - imagination - Default Mode Network active in both
in 2007 um we saw the publication of three empirical papers that really kind of galvanized this close relationship between past and future thinking
for - adjacency - memory - imagination critical papers - 2007 - some types of Alzheimer patient cannot imagine the future
autobiographical memory
for - definition - autobiographical memory - how we remember our personal past
Episodic memory provides the raw materials forfuture imagination,
for - adjacency - memory and imagination - episodic memory
. There is, however, an asymmetry inherent in this account, in that theneurocognitive overlap between past and future events reflects a unidirectional contributory relationship
for - question - asymmetry in past and future events - what does this mean?
‘time’ and‘travel’ may not be defining characteristics.
for definition - Mental Time Travel - Neither Time nor Travel may be defining characteristics of Mental Time Travel - Mental rendering of experience may be the defining characteristic
MTT into the past and future are instantiations of one ‘simulation system
for - claim - Mental Time Travel into the past and future are instantiations of one simulation system
I suggest that underpinning MTT as well as these other ‘non-MTT’forms of cognition is simulation – a mental rendering of experience.
for adjacency - simulation - Mental Time Travel
For millennia, humans have debated whether memory and imaginationare the same or distinct capacities
for - adjacency - past - future - Michael Levin - memories - goal-seeking - Michael Levin's research validates that memories serve the role of goak-seeking - This is another way of saying that the past plays a critical role in the future
This ability isknown in contemporary psychology and philosophy as mental time travel
for - definition - Mental Time Travel - ability to look at the past and the future
growingevidence of the similarities of remembering past and imagining future events, dominant theories stillconceive of these as distinct capacities. I propose that memory and imagination are fundamentally the sameprocess
for - adjacency - memory - imagination - the same - claim - memory - imagination - the same
for - paper - title - Mental Time Travel? A Neurocognitive Model of Event Simulation - author - Donna Rose Addis - adjacency - memory - imagination - the same - from - paper - https://hyp.is/0Fb6NqdjEfCyTTddI20_aQ/www.dovepress.com/memory-sleep-dreams-and-consciousness-a-perspective-based-on-the-memor-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-NSS
summary - memory and imagination are proposed as fundamentally the same process. - It is the ‘mental’ rendering of experience that is the most fundamental function of this simulation system enabling humans to - re-experience the past, - pre-experience the future, and - comprehend the complexities of the present.
it is the ‘mental’ rendering of experience is the most fundamental function of thissimulation system enabling humans to re-experience the past, pre-experience the future, and alsocomprehend the complexities of the present.
for - key insight - Mental Time Travel (MTT)
Mental time travel (MTT
for - definition - Mental Time Travel (MTT) - projecting the self into the past and the future
Donna Rose Addis
for - researcher - neuroscience - memory - perception - imagination - to - Mental Time Travel? - Donna Rose Addis - https://hyp.is/wqV4gKdkEfCRZGPrIOjeOA/utoronto.scholaris.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/3232f1fb-ed19-4614-9dd5-648c4d443629/content
temporally extended, multimodal representations must be integrated within a unified subjectivity for experience to be coherent
for - Memory Theory of Consciousness - MToC - definition - Memory Theory of Consciousness - temporally extended, multimodal representations - must be integrated within a unified subjectivity for experience to be coherent - unapack - MToC - unpack - Memory Theory of Consciousness - temporally extended, multimodal representations - multiple sense inputs associated with an event - We could think about it from the perspective of Thousand Brain Theory and cortical columns integrating sense inputs - Do these create memory structures? - Those memory structures must be salient to goal-seeking activity, especially for fitness and survival of the organism
question - memory - evolution - goal-seeking - Is it possible that consciousness emerged early on in our species evolutionary history in the context of memories of multimodal sensory structures that help us achieve goal-seeking activity? - Then extra affordances of memory and consciousness could have evolved and diversified into a wide variety of non-traditional goal-seeking behaviors.
Deduction of the Categories
for - Kant - memory
the sleeping brain is poor at laying down new memories because it is instead taking on the work of re-organizing existing memories, unconsciously.
for - sleep - explanation
for - paper - title - Memory, Sleep, Dreams, and Consciousness: A Perspective Based on the Memory Theory of Consciousness - author - Andrew E. Budson, Ken A Paller - adjacency - memories - sleep - dreams - Memory Theory of Consciousness - MToC
summary - The authors present a theory of dreaming and sleep that I resonate with, that sleep is a time in which the brain performs unconscious processing of memories, consolidating them by taking advantage of consciousnesss down time to perform massive parallel processing to connect memories together. - dreams are seen as a small conscious byproduct of the massive parallel processing task, and their meaning may have value depending on how we interpret them.
How can wake experiences be direct reflections of the sensory world at that moment while comparable dream experiences are created by the brain based on novel combinations of fragments of memories from the past? The answer must be that our experiences are always constructed by the brain; the very same processing that gives us dreams gives us waking experiences of reality.
for - key insight - similarity of waking and dream state - How can - wake experiences be direct reflections of the sensory world at that moment while - comparable dream experiences are created by the brain based on novel combinations of fragments of memories from the past? - The answer must be that our experiences are always constructed by the brain; the very same processing that - gives us dreams - gives us waking experiences of reality. - In other words, our brains do not need incoming sensory input to produce realistic experiences. - Our waking experiences are the way that they are - not because of sensory input but - because of the functional capabilities of the human brain. -The MToC argues that the functional capability that produces our experience of reality, whether - we are awake - or asleep, - is the explicit memory system. - During sleep, we speculate that our brains are simply carrying on with functioning - akin to what happens when we are awake. - The typical modes of action of the human brain persist across wake and sleep. - While we are awake, our brains are producing a stream of experiences of being in the world, punctuated by thoughts. - While we are asleep, without the tremendous barrage of sensory input to constrain experience, perhaps our brains tend to return to these waking habits, - producing a stream of experiences in the world punctuated by thoughts.
when we recognize the dream as a dream while still dreaming—is known as a lucid dream
for - definition - lucid dream
Prior to awakening, we generally mistake our dreams for waking reality.
for - dreams - vividness
memory is critical for jumping around from one simulation to another or back to the context of the present moment, and to do so without disorientation.
for - key insight - memory - memory is critical for - jumping around from one simulation to another or - jumping back to the context of the present moment, and to do so without disorientation.
memory impairment can feel very disoriented
for adjacency - memory - Alzheimer's disease - disorientation
When individuals with middle-stage Alzheimer’s disease travel to a new environment,
for - adjacency - memory - Alzheimer's disease
Thus, when I wake in the morning
for - example - MToC - When I wake in the morning, it is memory that allows me to experience myself as the same person who went to bed the night before. - I can remember my past experiences and what they mean in the sense of a sequence defining my existence spreading out over time. - Episodic memory enables me to remember - why I set the alarm 30 minutes earlier than usual (a plane to catch) and - why I am wearing these ridiculous pajamas (packed the usual pair for the trip). - Semantic memory maintains my sense of self, including that I am - a professor, - a spouse, and - a parent. -The next morning, when I wake in a hotel room, - episodic memory enables me to recall - my arrival to the hotel, - the city I am in now, and - the face of my new grandchild that I saw yesterday for the first time.
unpack this memory-consciousness connection
for - adjacency - memory - consciousness -unpacking - memory - consciousness connection - The principal postulate of the MToC is that consciousness is a function of the explicit memory system. - The explicit memory system is not only required for explicit memory - it is also required for our ability to - consciously perceive the world around us, - understand what is happening, and - make conscious decisions that lead to actions. - Thanks to the explicit memory system, - sensory impressions can reach consciousness, and - we can think about what is happening in the world. - In the process of consciously perceiving the world, we rely on - working memory to - maintain and - manipulate the information, on - semantic memory to make sense of it, and on - episodic memory - to relate the current situation - to prior episodes and - to understand the current context.
How do we manage to recover from the interlude of slumber? It is, of course, memory that allows us to experience this feeling of continuity.
for - adjacency - sleep - continuity - memory is the bridge!
MToC emphasizes that it is bottom-up sensory memories and top-down episodic and semantic memories that lead to conscious perceptual experiences.
for - MToC emphasizes - bottom-up sensory memory - top-down episodic and semantic memories - lead to conscious perceptual experience
We differ from Dennett
for - comparison Multiple Draft Theory - vs - MToC - similar - unconscious bottom-up and top down processes produce memory that produce consciousness - different - no waiting til experience is reported before consciousness - similar to sleep based unconscious memory consolidation of MToC
Daniel Dennett’s Multiple Drafts theory of consciousness
for - definition - Multiple Drafts theory of consciousness - - Daniel Dennett
MToC argues that “first-order” processes can be conscious without meta-representations.
for - MToC - first order processes can be conscious WITHOUT meta-representation. - interesting! - Question - does this mean sensory input is somehow conscious?
whereas
for - comparison - neuroscience - perceptual reality monitoring - vs - MToC - PRM focuses on veracity while MToC focuses on the instantaneous subjective experiences of reality
Perceptual reality monitoring theory
for - definition - perceptual reality monitoring theory - a theory that seeks to explain the difference between - the perception of external reality and - internal imagination or dreaming
MToC suggests that consciousness developed as part of explicit memory, such that the purpose of consciousness aligns with the purpose of explicit memory
for - MToC claim - purpose of consciousness - same as - purpose of memory - understand the present - imagine possible futures - plan accordingly - adjacency - MToC - memory - consciousness
only the simulation is consciously experienced
for - like - Donald Hoffman's Interface Theory of Perception - ITP - to - Mental Time Travel (MTT) - https://hyp.is/wqV4gKdkEfCRZGPrIOjeOA/utoronto.scholaris.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/3232f1fb-ed19-4614-9dd5-648c4d443629/content
binding the elements of an experience together, thus creating the stream of consciousness and allowing for memories of experiences to be stored and later retrieved.
for - adjacency - MToC - binding - memory storage - retrieval
no natural boundary between perception and memory
for - adjacency - memory - perception - no boundary - Hinze Hogendoorn - to - - adjacency - Memory Theory of Consciousness - Donald Hoffman
Hinze Hogendoorn
for - researcher - neuroscience - perception - memory
the synthetic process described in the MToC is similar to an idea from the first edition of Kant’s 1781 Critique of Pure Reason,44
for - adjacency - Memory Theory of Consciousness - author's study of - Kant - Critique of Pure Reason
memory theory of consciousness (MToC).
for - definition - Memory Theory of Consciousness (MToC) - The very awareness we have of sensory analysis, of perception, is based on the operation of this memory system. - In other words, the sensory information that constitutes an event is assembled at encoding and consequently can be remembered later.
From a memory perspective, sleep can be understood as critically important for normal memory function, given the lasting ramifications of consolidation.
for - key insight - paraphrase - adjacency - memory consolidation - sleep - massive unconscious parallel processing - From a memory perspective, - sleep can be understood as critically important for normal memory function, - given the lasting ramifications of consolidation. - Consolidation is the establishment of new connections - anchoring recent memories within relevant knowledge networks - While consolidation happens, some conscious experience (the dream) may be synthesized as the memory processing unfolds - Dreams reflect a storyline generated to make sense of a subset of activated memory fragments. - Consolidation that wires new connections happens across the entire cerebral context, without the constraints that come with conscious experience. - Unconscious processing during sleep takes advantage of massive parallel processing to connect all these thoughts together. - Dreams reflect a small portion of overnight memory consolidation work.
a reasonable speculation (expanded upon further below) is that memory reactivation during sleep is generally unconscious.
for - adjacency - claim - sleep - memory reactivation is - unconscious
dream contents include some memory fragments that are reactivated in the service of consolidation, but additionally, a narrative structure is produced to provide a storyline for the experience.
for - adjacency - memory consolidation - storyline - dreams
we consider dreaming as a by-product of sleep-based consolidation
for - research claim - dreaming - byproduct of sleep-based memory consolidation - adjacency - dreaming - sleep-based consolidation
A central aspect of our position is that sleep-based consolidation occurs unconsciously and in parallel across many cortical regions simultaneously.
for - adjacency - memory consolidation - sleep
However, if your name is spoken within your earshot, the sensory memory sensation enters your working memory as an auditory perception and not only can you hear your name easily but you can generally recall the earlier part of the sentence in which your name was spoken.
for - adjacency - salience landscape - memory
for - training wheels - words that show you how they are pronounced
for - language - Wordbank - children's vocabulary - from - article - Atlantic - The Mystery of Babies’ First Words - https://hyp.is/OKsHnqU-EfCLelsZRWUhxw/www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/04/babies-first-words-babbling-or-actual-language/588289/
Wordbank
for - directory - Wordbank - baby vocabulary - to - Wordbank - https://hyp.is/dsbUfKU-EfCLKH8JOS680A/wordbank.stanford.edu/
for - language - first words of babies
constitutive
for - definition - constitutive view of language
for - from - search - Google - how new words divide the world in new ways - https://hyp.is/55MHUKUxEfC-TAfy9q1VjA/www.google.com/search?q=how+new+words+divide+the+world+in+new+ways&oq=how+new+words+divide+the+world+in+new+ways&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigAdIBCDgwODFqMGo0qAIAsAIB&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
There is gold in these pages but the reader has to work hard to mine it and cast it into something useful.
for - book review - The Language Animal
The Cartesian idea that the individual ego comes first has to be inverted, and we must “see self-awareness as emerging out of a prior intersubjective take on things.”
for - relationship defines the self - adjacency - relationship defines the self - Melanie Klein - Taylor
the meanings of words hang together in complex webs in which culture and semantics cannot be disentangled
for - language - word meaning - adjacency - language - culture - adjacency - Taylor - Pearce
Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor’s latest work, The Language Animal.
for - language philosophy - book - The Language Animal - Charles Taylor - language philosophy - book - Sources of the Self
Language is enabled and grows through interactions. And each interaction, each new occurrence of a word, may modify a concept, but we don't like that at all. We want the world to not change, to be solid, to be stable.
for - key insight - language - wanting stability - adjacency - wanting stability - interpretant - Charles Saunders Pearce
These children taught me that tables do not exist. That anything does. And they did it every day with a simple game over and over and over. Of course, it works with anything. And I finally called that game "Let's destroy a table." (Laughter) Or "Let's destroy anything,"
for - language - game - let's destroy anything - adjacency - game - let's destroy anything - Buddhist teachings on interdependent origination - this game reminds me of Buddhist teachings on interdependent origination - nothing really has an essential nature - if you try to look for it in its parts, you won't find it
He grew up in a family where people were talking to each other, where the TV set was always on, but where nobody ever spoke directly to him. No interaction, no language development.
for - language development - depends on social interaction
We don't know what is a table, we can't define a table, we can't define anything. We don't know what is anything. Take a few seconds to experience that feeling in you.
for - language - difficult to define anything
for - search - Google - how new words divide the world in new ways - https://www.google.com/search?q=how+new+words+divide+the+world+in+new+ways&oq=how+new+words+divide+the+world+in+new+ways&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigAdIBCDgwODFqMGo0qAIAsAIB&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 interesting results returned - How words shape our world - https://hyp.is/v03HxqUxEfCM7h8cfH031w/www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/48612/how-words-shape-our-world
there are numerous spaces that are very difficult for us to uh visualize as humans and because we have trouble visualizing
for - key insight - there are other spaces where beings live that we cannot visualize - Michael Levin
I I think we've gone way beyond now understanding that a lot of these assumptions were were not good.
for - invalid assumptions - Michael Levin - finding counterexamples that invalidate long standing general principle
you're following the science and it's basically leading us out of a framework that was given to us a fundamental ontological epistemological framework given to us by the enlightenment
for - paradigm shift - outdated framework - Michael Levin
I'm not looking for um you know to match any philosophical notion of causation. What I want as an engineer is where should I be looking in order to understand and control the system that I want to understand and control.
for - comparison - causation - engineer vs philosopher - Michael Levin
we have had since since, you know, the time of Pythagoras and before that, we've already had examples of non-physical facts um determining reality in the physical world.
for - adjacency - mathematics - physical reality - Descarte - Micahael Levin
if the standard version of causation doesn't capture what's going on here, too bad
for - causation - Michael Levin
patterns being goal states and uh and not just uh you know, here are the patterns that happen to show up. this is this is an actual goal state that a system that an intelligent system is pursuing
for - quote - patterns are goal states intelligent systems are pursuing - Michael Levin
you make an interface and then you better have some idea of what's going to show up
for - progress traps - perspective - Michael Levin
poor eco sai and Mike's take on biology
for - adjacency - 4E science - platonic space
I think that's what we're on the cusp of right now. Now I think the anomalies have piled up too high. We're looking for a kind of systematicity
for - paradigm shift - anomalies reaching threshold - John Vervaeke
when you move into that neoplatonic space you get a shared ontology that can bind that biology and that cognitive science together even more tightly
for - adjacency - cognitive science - biology - platonic space - John Vervaeke
I think that some of the more complex high agency patterns from the space are behavioral propensities aka kinds of minds. I think that's what minds actually are is that they're they're actually the the the inhabitants of that of that space.
for - quote - minds occupying platonic space - Michael Levin - I think that some of the more complex high agency patterns from the space are behavioral propensities - aka kinds of minds. - I think that's what minds actually are - they're actually the inhabitants of that of that space. - adjacency - claim - minds in Platonic space - spirituality - Michael Levin
I'm organizing an an um asynchronous symposium on the platonic space
for - to - platonic space symposium - https://hyp.is/N9oZJIwoEfC99VP017xTLg/thoughtforms.life/symposium-on-the-platonic-space/
when were the computations done to make zenobots and anthrobots, there's never been any selection pressure to be a good anthropot or a good zenobot.
for - adjacency - questioning evolution - xenobots - anthrobots - Michael Levin - Is Levin's lab experiements bringing evolution's primacy into question? Is there an even MORE fundamental foundation for life? - Is the platonic form more fundamental than evolution?
we've made things like zenobots
for - new life forms - xenobots - anthrobots - novel electric faces - Michael Levin - progress trap - xenobots - anthrobots
for - youtube - interview - MIchael Levin - John Vervaeke
the electric face
for - definition - electric face - electric profiling of early embryos - that predict facial features - platonic?
I've been thinking about this stuff for decades, and I had not broached the topic of platonic patterns until until this year. And that's because I think it is now actionable.
for - quote - platonic patterns are now actionable - Michael Levin - I've been thinking about this stuff for decades, and I had not broached the topic of platonic patterns until this year. - And that's because I think it is now actionable. - question - progress trap - moral questions and alarm bells? playing God? - Michael Levin
my strong suspicion is that uh it's universal. So if you wanted to have wings and you had the hardware
for - opinion - mutant life - possible - Michael Levin
regenerative medicine
for - regenerative medicine - regrow body parts - Michael Levin
a goal is a type of memory because you're always aligning yourself towards that goal you have to remember what you're doing you know as you're moving towards towards the goal
for adjacency - goal - memory
ormalize the tumor the cells will go on to do normal build healthy organs
for - Michael Levin - experiment - normalized cancer cells
that's a key part of this. You have to convince the material. This is not you. It it it you know there's ways that it will ignore you. If you do it wrong, it'll ignore you. So you have to be convincing
for - interlevel communication - Michael Levin - What he's really saying is that we have to find the RIGHT LANGUAGE to speak to the agents at that different level - This is an important lesson for interlevel communication in social systems! - comparison - interlevel comm - cells vs societies
We don't micromanage the cells. We figured out a a message that says, "Build an eye here." And the reason that works is because we're dealing with an aential material.
for - adjacency - not micromanaging the cell - high level instruction - Michael Levin
the question is, why didn't that biochemical story get you to this discovery?
for - quote - Michael Levin - what is a good story? - the question is: Why didn't that biochemical story get you to this (new) discovery? - adjacency - good models - predictive power - good story - a good model is a good language - new words frame the world in new ways, - it allows us to divide reality in different ways - and can lead us to look in places we otherwise might now - and that can lead to new observations
Platonic Space
for - definition - Platonic Space - a structured, non-physical space of patterns, - such as the properties of mathematical objects, - perhaps other, higher-agency patterns that we detect as forms of - anatomy, - physiology, and - behavior - in the biosphere. - Thus, the contents of this space may inform (in-form) events in our physical world (constraining physics, and enabling biology).
for - source - telegram channel - Michael Lennon - Forms of Life, forms of mind - Michael Levin and Hananel Hazan-led weekly symposium exploring platonic space - from - youtube - interview - Michael Levin - John Vervaeke - https://hyp.is/H727RKOrEfC5IAN-dmo5uw/www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwOJ9PWcPmo
this level the level L acts as an environment returning an observation
for - comparison - multi-level agents - scaffolding
level environment.
for - definition - level environment - the level environment for each agent at that respective local level of a multi-level, hierarchical intelligent system
whole system behavior has to emerge through the agents interaction
for - key insight - whole system behavior emerges form the emergent coordination of all the agent interactions at different levels
what happens in living beings uh in living organisms
for - adjacency - TAG - living systems - cell agents - consciousness agent
tag the t agent framework t
for - definition - TAG - Tame AGent framework
how we can build AI system that are more like biological system
for - building AI systems more like biological systems
basically absent or very seldom present in current AI systems
for - comparison - biological vs AI systems
we don't tell the cells explicitly to uh contract or relax
for - adjacency - inter level communication - environmental steering - this is very interesting (and obvious) but far from trivial. - adjacency - meditation - interlevel communication - enlightenment? - could we naturalistically frame meditation that leads to non dual awareness, or enlightenment - as being a way for higher level agents - to get in touch with / communicate with - lower level agents - in a multi-agent environment?
question - could we interpret enlightenment as an ecosystem goal of intentional whole system environmental steering? This suggests a new term: - new definition - intentional whole system environmental steering - when environmental steering is intentional done at the highest level for the wellbeing of every level - The author uses the example of hunger as being a high level experience driven by lower level needs - This could qualify as an intentional whole system environmental steering so the term doesn't distinguishing enlightenment drive as anything special. We need some other distinguishing quality
the way the levels control each other is not through direct control but is through environmental steing.
for - definition - environmental steering - interlevel communications via environmental steering - interlevel control - interlevel communications
for - Michael Levin - Multi Scale Competency Architecture - Hierarchical systems
Summary - Biomimicry - mimicking natural systems for new AI models - human body is a hierarchical system - society is extension of human body and also hierarchical system
multi-level cognition
for - definition - multi-level cognition
living beings are organized in hierarchical structure from cells up until ecosystem.
for - multi-scale competency architecture - extend hierarchy of human body to society - continuation of levels - human being as cell in social superorganism - adjacency - multi-scale competency architecture - social superorganism