The Zen of Technology & Scientific Discovery! (& Robots)

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  • Jakuden
    Member
    • Jun 2015
    • 6141

    Originally posted by Inshin
    "Our world and the self are constructions of the brain, a pioneering neuroscientist argues."

    Anyone had a go at this book?
    https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...droidApp_Other
    Wow to say this sounds fascinating is an understatement.

    Gassho
    Jakuden
    SatToday/LAH

    Comment

    • Jundo
      Treeleaf Founder and Priest
      • Apr 2006
      • 40317

      Originally posted by Inshin
      "Our world and the self are constructions of the brain, a pioneering neuroscientist argues."

      Anyone had a go at this book?
      https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...droidApp_Other
      Only excerpts, the book is on its way ...

      But the basic premise is so common sense, so much in harmony with "Buddhism 101," that there is little to doubt. You, Inshin, Jakuden and pretty much all the rest of the human race seem to share a similar experience of the world, with many shared assumptions, because we are all human beings with similar brains, taught to experience the world with similar ideas and language concepts. For example: Today I fixed our "toaster" in the kitchen, but there is no "toaster" in the universe (sorry Plato and Aristotle) absent our having come to associate, in our shared language and conventions, a certain configuration of atoms that processes electricity and heat a certain way, into something that makes, out of other molecules, that which we call "toast." The "toaster" exists as much between our ears as it does as something outside. We may not determine the atoms or their configuration (talk to the quantum physicists about that, however) except to the extent an engineer designs and builds the thing, but we make "toasters" and "toast" between our ears.

      We just don't realize, usually, the extent to which we do so. We just all, mutually, are thinking there are actually "toasters" because we share this common dream made of common ideas and conventions.

      Now, expand from toasters to the whole kitchen, the whole house, the town, country and planet ... the universe ...

      I believe that this fellow uses the analogy of the "file" icon that appears on your computer desktop. The universe is always revealed to us as "icons" instead of the much more complex and hidden processes that we have no need to fully see or witness. Actually, there is no "file" there, but clicking on it commences a serious of transactions of 0s and 1s in the motherboard that cause some software process to proceed. Likewise "toaster" is a kind of semi-fictional icon we "click" for a whole series of physical and chemical molecular changes that, when activated, eventually result in some tasty calories and nutrients fueling our cells.

      Gassho, J

      STLah

      Sorry to have run long
      Last edited by Jundo; 09-27-2021, 11:35 PM.
      ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

      Comment

      • Inshin
        Member
        • Jul 2020
        • 557

        I'll just eat my toast
        Gassho
        Sat

        Comment

        • Inshin
          Member
          • Jul 2020
          • 557

          "Samsung Electronics Puts Forward a Vision To ‘Copy and Paste’ the Brain on Neuromorphic Chips"

          The future of AI looks interesting...

          With Harvard Researchers, Samsung introduces a new approach to reverse engineer the brain on a memory chip, in a Perspective paper published in Nature Electronics

          Gassho
          Sat

          Comment

          • Jundo
            Treeleaf Founder and Priest
            • Apr 2006
            • 40317

            There was a time that I could have walked from Japan to New Mexico. When I went to visit Shinshi this summer, I just flew and drove.

            (Now, who says that America was "discovered" in 1492??)

            Fossilized footprints show humans made it to North America much earlier than first thought

            North and South America were the last continents to be settled by humans, but exactly when that started is a topic that has divided archaeologists.

            The commonly held view is that people arrived in North America from Asia via Beringia, a land bridge that once connected the two continents, at the end of the Ice Age around 13,000 to 16,000 years ago. But more recent -- and some contested -- discoveries have suggested humans might have been in North America earlier.

            Now, researchers studying fossilized human footprints in New Mexico say they have the first unequivocal evidence that humans were in North America at least 23,000 years ago.

            ...Bennett and his colleagues were able to accurately date 61 footprints by radiocarbon dating layers of aquatic plant seeds that had been preserved above and below them. The prints, which were discovered in the Tularosa Basin in White Sands National Park, were made 21,000 to 23,000 years ago, the researchers found.

            https://us.cnn.com/2021/09/23/americ...scn/index.html
            They walked all that way ... but no shoes!



            Gassho, J

            STLah
            Last edited by Jundo; 09-28-2021, 11:13 PM.
            ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

            Comment

            • Jundo
              Treeleaf Founder and Priest
              • Apr 2006
              • 40317

              Originally posted by Inshin
              "Samsung Electronics Puts Forward a Vision To ‘Copy and Paste’ the Brain on Neuromorphic Chips"

              The future of AI looks interesting...

              With Harvard Researchers, Samsung introduces a new approach to reverse engineer the brain on a memory chip, in a Perspective paper published in Nature Electronics

              Gassho
              Sat
              So, will our phones someday be "sentient beings?" MU!


              Gassho, J

              STLah
              ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

              Comment

              • Rousei
                Member
                • Oct 2020
                • 118

                I'm very much a humanities person, however I find the sciences and mathematics to be fascinating. While I do not understand any of it, the concepts alone really open my eyes. Case in point, a British mathematician called Roger Penrose and I just learnt won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2020.

                I learnt about him through his idea of a cyclical universe. That is to say, according to him when the universe has expanded so far for so long it's mathematically no different to the moment before the big bang. So the Universe births itself anew, a rebirth so to speak over and over and over. This aligns quite nicely I thought to the Buddhist idea of aeon/kalpa.

                Gassho
                Mark
                ST
                浪省 - RouSei - Wandering Introspection

                Comment

                • Jundo
                  Treeleaf Founder and Priest
                  • Apr 2006
                  • 40317

                  UPDATE:

                  Oh, ya gotta love folks who know their stuff! Some challenges on the authenticity of this PICTURE!

                  Beautiful but probably FAKE!

                  This is actually a montage of Earth sky on to Mars foreground. 'Mars' is near Regulus and Saturn is near Spica; so the sky images are from April 2012. ... the sky on mars is not so dark at night ...
                  https://www.facebook.com/SocialJunki...43315067435809
                  Sorry folks, although it is lovely.
                  This truly BREATHTAKING JAW DROPPING MIND BLOWING 360 degree view of the night sky on MARS, taken by the Rover ...

                  ... do not miss this.

                  (Thank you, Bion, it popped into my Facebook feed from you)

                  Use your mouse to look around ...



                  Last edited by Jundo; 10-05-2021, 01:06 PM.
                  ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

                  Comment

                  • rj
                    Member
                    • Aug 2021
                    • 53

                    That sky... just...


                    st/rj

                    Comment

                    • Jundo
                      Treeleaf Founder and Priest
                      • Apr 2006
                      • 40317

                      Originally posted by nefertiti120
                      That sky... just...


                      st/rj
                      Oh, ya gotta love folks who know their stuff! Some challenges on the authenticity of this PICTURE!

                      Beautiful but probably FAKE!

                      This is actually a montage of Earth sky on to Mars foreground. 'Mars' is near Regulus and Saturn is near Spica; so the sky images are from April 2012. ... the sky on mars is not so dark at night ...
                      https://www.facebook.com/SocialJunki...43315067435809
                      Sorry folks, although it is lovely.

                      Gassho, J

                      STLah
                      ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

                      Comment

                      • Jundo
                        Treeleaf Founder and Priest
                        • Apr 2006
                        • 40317

                        Well, now my family and Treeleaf won't be rid of me, even when I'm dead!

                        William Shatner 'AI' will chat with you about the 'Star Trek' actor's life

                        You've got questions; Shatner's got answers.


                        Got a question for "Star Trek" actor William Shatner? You could see it answered in an interactive conversation powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and using video responses that Shatner prerecorded.

                        This two-way conversational video platform was developed by StoryFile, and the company recently introduced the "conversation" with Shatner on its website as a way to commemorate the actor's 90th birthday this past spring. In the video, a jovial-looking Shatner sits in a room awaiting users' questions about his life and career, which can be posed as audio or text. Once Shatner is asked a question, the system swiftly selects an appropriate answer from the prerecorded options, providing the response in real time.

                        The company recorded Shatner's answers in front of a greenscreen at StoryFile's studio in Los Angeles over four days; questions covered various topics, including details of his life story, according to a behind-the-scenes video that StoryFile shared March 22 on Vimeo.
                        https://www.livescience.com/william-shatner-ai-chat
                        Give it a try! Ask him about religion or football or Star Trek, and sit back ...

                        StoryFile revolutionizes the way we connect through conversation. We make AI feel more human. Conversa powers conversational video AI. The patent-protected platform provides tools to collect video, create and train AI interactions, and to publish anywhere on the web.


                        Gassho, J

                        STLah
                        ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

                        Comment

                        • Kotei
                          Treeleaf Priest
                          • Mar 2015
                          • 4160

                          Originally posted by Jundo
                          Well, now my family and Treeleaf won't be rid of me, even when I'm dead!
                          Tuning a GPT-3 like model (GPT-Neo) with your writings from the last 15 years is something I am thinking about for quite a while now.
                          Gassho,
                          Kotei sat/lah today.
                          Last edited by Kotei; 10-08-2021, 07:52 AM.
                          義道 冴庭 / Gidō Kotei.

                          Comment

                          • Jundo
                            Treeleaf Founder and Priest
                            • Apr 2006
                            • 40317

                            However one feels about this silly rocket ...


                            Gassho, J

                            STLah
                            ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

                            Comment

                            • Jundo
                              Treeleaf Founder and Priest
                              • Apr 2006
                              • 40317

                              And, in keeping with that, more to ponder regarding the happenstance and blind fortune (or was it?) of our being alive on this precious planet right now ...

                              New findings a 'complete reversal' in understanding why Earth became hospitable to life and its 'twin' didn't

                              Venus may be a sweltering wasteland today, but scientists have questioned whether the planet was always so inhospitable. While previous studies suggested Venus might have once been covered in oceans, new research has found the opposite: Venus has likely never been able to support oceans.

                              Researchers also determined that a similar story could have played out on Earth as well had things been just a bit different.

                              Venus, our closest planetary neighbor, is called Earth's twin because of the similarity in size and density of both planets. Otherwise, the planets differ radically. While Earth is a natural hub for life, Venus is a lifeless planet with a toxic carbon dioxide atmosphere 90 times thicker than ours, clouds of sulphuric acid and surface temperatures that reach 864 degrees Fahrenheit (462 degrees Celsius) -- hot enough to melt lead.

                              To understand how these two rocky planets turned out so differently, a team of astrophysicists decided to try to simulate the beginning, when our solar system's planets formed 4.5 billion years ago. They used climate models -- similar to what researchers use when simulating climate change on Earth -- to peer back in time at young Venus and Earth. Their new study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.



                              More than 4 billion years ago, Earth and Venus were piping hot and covered in magma. Oceans can only form when temperatures are cool enough for water to condense and fall as rain over thousands of years. That's how Earth's global ocean formed over tens of millions of years. Venus, on the other hand, remained hot. At the time, our sun was about 25% fainter than it is now. But that wouldn't have been enough to help Venus cool off, since it's the second-closest planet to the sun. The researchers questioned whether clouds could have played a role in helping Venus cool down. Their climate model determined that clouds did contribute, but in an unexpected way. They clustered on the night side of Venus where they wouldn't have been able to shield the planet's day side from the sun. ... Rather than shielding Venus from heat, the night side clouds contributed to a greenhouse effect that trapped heat within the planet's dense atmosphere and kept temperatures high. With such consistent, trapped heat, Venus would have been too hot for rain to fall. Instead, water could only exist as its gaseous form, water vapor, in the atmosphere.

                              ...

                              Things could have turned out the same way for Earth if our planet had been slightly closer to the sun or if the sun was as bright back then as it is now. Because the sun was dimmer billions of years ago, Earth was able to cool down enough from its molten state for water to form and create our global ocean. The faint young sun "was a key ingredient to actually form the first oceans on Earth," Turbet wrote in an email.

                              Researchers have determined that Venus has likely never been able to support oceans – and Earth could have turned out the same way had things been slightly different.
                              Let's just hope that, with global warming, we don't eventually catch up to Venus!

                              Gassho, J

                              STLah
                              ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

                              Comment

                              • Jundo
                                Treeleaf Founder and Priest
                                • Apr 2006
                                • 40317

                                Yes, the body is pretty amazing ... "empty" or not ...

                                Stunning images show how muscles heal themselves after a workout

                                Exercise leaves muscles riddled with microscopic tears, so after a rigorous workout, the control centers of muscle cells — called nuclei — scoot toward these tiny injuries to help patch them up, scientists recently discovered.

                                In the new study, published Oct. 14 in the journal Science, researchers uncovered a previously unknown repair mechanism that kicks in after a run on the treadmill. Striking images show how, shortly after the exercise concludes, nuclei scuttle toward tears in the muscle fibers and issue commands for new proteins to be built, in order to seal the wounds. That same process likely unfolds in your own cells in the hours after you return home from the gym.

                                The study authors discovered that "nuclei moved toward the injury site within 5 hours of injury," Dr. Elizabeth McNally and Alexis Demonbreun, of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, wrote in a commentary, also published in Science. And within only 24 hours of the injury, the repair process was "nearly complete."

                                Nuclei (purple) in a muscle cell migrate toward the site of an injury to help repair the tear. (Image credit: William Roman)



                                Now, off to the gym!

                                Gassho, J

                                STLah
                                ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

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