CDOQ

Fears that GenAI (Generative AI like ChatGPT, Gemini, etc.) will make us dumber are greatly exaggerated. Did calculators make us dumber? Did computers? Sure, every new tool shifts what we practice, but history suggests we adapt, and often end up smarter in different ways. Brain damage? (image credit: Gemini) A commonly cited worry is that ChatGPT takes away independent thinking. Who has that anyway 😀? It’s true that you can lose elements of critical thinking if you hand over all the mental work to GenAI. Just as using a calculator without understanding math fundamentals can be a problem, using GenAI without grasping the basics of writing or coding could lead to skill loss. But for most adults, that’s not what’s happening. Those who outsource all their writing or coding to ChatGPT usually didn’t enjoy those tasks in the first place. Generally, repetition doesn’t magically make us love a task we dislike, nor does it guarantee we get much better at it. I’ve been cleaning for decades,...

Artificial intelligence is a part of our daily lives. What we see on Twitter, Facebook, Google; the shows recommended to us on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and face detection are all using a form of AI called supervised machine learning (ML) i.e. you can teach a machine (computer) to learn something, it has no clue about, based on a lot of data. For example, you can show a machine thousands of images and train it to detect cats. After being sufficiently trained, you can input an image, which the machine has not seen before, into the machine and it would tell you if there is a cat in the image. The more data the ML models get exposed to, the better they get over time.  Most of the practical applications we see today are using ML. And, everything ML is doing can be done by humans. So, why do we need ML? Three main reasons:  1. Automation: You don't need to hire humans to figure out if there is a cat in the image or if an email is spam. Machines can do a good enough job. This can resu...

Is the mind aware of the body movements during sleep? 

Art communicates the unexplainable, Science proves the explainable.  Religion provides certainty about the future,  Psychotherapy makes sense of the past.  Meditation makes it easier to live in the present,  Movies help escape the present.  Social Media brings attention, Reading takes attention.  In the end, it is all made up by the mind to occupy the mind. 

For over a year, walking around in Palo Alto, CA, I have noticed that there has been a change in how traffic lights work.  Generally, the signals for motor vehicles and pedestrians work in sync i.e. when light turns green, the walk sign comes on at the same time. Sometime ago, the "walk" sign for the pedestrians started coming up before the light turned green. . Traffic light in Palo Alto I wonder why the city would do that. Knowing Palo Alto, it must have something to do with pedestrian safety or priority. While driving, I noticed that when the traffic light changes for the pedestrians to walk and the light for the cars remains red, my first reaction is to take the foot off the break. It takes a few microseconds to realize the light is still red. This might be dangerous for the drivers.  Does the brain notice changes in the environment first before realizing what the change is? Or, is it just social conditioning that the brain is used to seeing a ...

Last month, I attended a workshop in Ojai, CA on Krishnamurti's teachings. He is my favorite philosopher and I find his ideas on thinking fascinating. Krishnamurti gave talks under an oak tree in Ojai from 1926 to 1986. Ojai is a beautiful place and the workshop was held at Krishnamurti's former residence which is a public library now.  Following are my random notes from the workshop: Krishnamurti teaching under the oak tree in Ojai 1. Knowledge makes you less attentive. See and listen without knowledge.  2. What is attention if it has nothing to do with thought?  3. Desire is the essence of will. 4. Attention = hearing + seeing + learning  5. Attention is not concentration because the idea behind concentration is to build resistance to all other thought except the one you want to concentrate on.  6. Awareness without choice (i.e. no comparison) is required for attention. In that attention there is no "me".  7...

Last month, I was in Victoria, BC, to attend a workshop on Awareness based on teachings of my favorite philosopher, Krishnamurti (K). The workshop was held at the Krishnamurti Education Center of Canada . It is a beautiful and calm place, perfect for introspection. Following are my random notes from the workshop: 1. What drives our actions? The general understanding is that thought drives action. Hence, we try to control our thoughts with meditation. The idea is that if you control your thoughts then you will control your actions and if you control your actions then you will be happy. Everybody is looking for happiness and the cause for happiness or unhappiness is thought. However, K says that what you think is result of the state of your mind. And, the state of mind is influenced by one's unconscious. So what one thinks is caused by one's unconscious and thought becomes the effect and not the cause of one’s actions.   2. The Mind, which always wants to sati...

One who understands breathing understands life. 

How does the mind go from one thought to another? Is it random? Or, is there interconnectedness of thoughts? How does the mind decide what thought will follow after the one you are having now?

When I am reading at a cafe, people around me speaking in a foreign language that I don't understand is significantly more distracting than people speaking in English. The question is why. Logically, if people are saying things that I understand then I should be able to focus less on what I am reading because the brain has to process two unrelated inputs simultaneously- reading and hearing. On the other hand, if I am hearing things in another language that I don't understand then my brain should be able to ignore this as noise and focus more on reading. Does the brain have to work really hard to understand the foreign language even though it knows that it will not understand what is being said? Is that what causes the increased distraction? Do you know why?

In my never-ending pursuit to better understand human behavior, I recently attended a workshop by Dr. Warren Farrell to learn how women think. Dr. Farrell has done a remarkable job of combining Psychology, Sociology, and Biology to create pragmatic insights on Romantic Relationships between Men & Women in the US. Following are my random notes from the workshop: The more creative a thought is the faster you will forget it because creative thoughts by nature are out of context and the brain does not retain thoughts which are out of context. So, when you get a creative idea, write it down immediately. The secret to happy marriage is mutual respect between husband and wife and a happy wife. There is truth in the saying, "Happy wife = Happy life". In their pursuit to find a man, women exercise "veto power" i.e. they wait for the men to approach them and then decide, after sizing up the men, if they want to go out with the men who approached them. Most women don'...

I recently attended a weekend workshop on Neuroscience with David Presti who is a professor at UC Berkley . Although Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system, the workshop was focused on Neuroscience of the mind. David Presti is wonderful man. Talking to him is like talking to a monk. I hope to connect him with Ralph Abraham who is another wonderful and brilliant man. David and Ralph talking to each other may solve a few problems of the world. Following are my random notes from the workshop: The Human Brain is considered to be the most complex structure in the Universe. More complex than then the Universe itself. The reason being interconnectedness of 1 trillion cells inside the brain. So far, what we know of the Universe, this level of interconnectedness does not exist among diverse entities in the Universe. The Human Brain weighs between 2 and 3 pounds. The basic structure of the brain is same in all human beings. However, why all human beings think/behave differe...

Last week, I attended a workshop on Global Human Potential at Esalen . It was an educating workshop taught by three distinguished people: 1) Ralph Abraham : Chaos theory pioneer and mathematician 2) Mary Catherine Bateson : Cultural anthropologist and Margaret Mead's daughter 3) Jean Houston : Philosopher The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know. Following are a few interesting things I learned during the workshop: The teachers are worried about the cultural crises we are in. Humans are facing multiple crises- Identity, Intimacy, Generative, etc. If we don't take an initiative to change things today, the civilization may end in 150 years. Fractals , which are a fascinating phenomenon in nature i.e. a self repeating pattern which creates a shape that is like the self-repeating part, has a philosophical definition as well. In philosophy, fractal is a boundary between two regions. Humans repeat same patterns over and over and these patterns come to define ...

Why is brain on top part of the body of most organisms? Is it because the brain is always close/connected to the eyes? Then, why are the eyes on top? Is brain always inside in the "head"? Why is there only one head?