Deric Bownds

LATEST ARTICLES ( 2661 )

• Titles and URLs for Key MindBlog Posts on Selves

  I pass on a chronological list of titles and URLs of MindBlog posts assembled in preparation for a video chat with a European MindBlog reader:An "Apostle's... Read more

  Posted on 21 January 2024 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• If Psychedelics Heal, How Do They Do It?

  I pass on from a recent issue of PNAS this informative "News Feature" article by Carolyn Beans (open source). It discusses studies trying to determine the... Read more

  Posted on 10 January 2024 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Importance of Not Being Earnest

  I pass on some of the paragraphs from Rao's latest piece to archive them for myself here on MindBlog, and to make them available to other readers:For my... Read more

  Posted on 08 January 2024 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Capturing Non-dual Reality in Language

  For my own future reference and for MindBlog readers interested in my previous MindBlog posts on non-duality, I want to pass on the start of a discussion... Read more

  Posted on 05 January 2024 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• On Shifting Perspectives....

  I pass on clips from a piece in the 12/202/23 Wall Street Journal by Carlo Rovelli, the author, most recently, of ‘ White Holes: Inside the Horizon’ Somnium By... Read more

  Posted on 01 January 2024 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Origins of Our Current Crises in the 1990s, the Great Malformation, and the...

  I'm passing on three clips I found most striking from David Brooks, recent NYTimes Sydney awards column:I generally don’t agree with the arguments of those on... Read more

  Posted on 28 December 2023 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Large Language Models Are Not Yet Providing Theories of Human Language.

  From Dentella et al. (open source): Significance The synthetic language generated by recent Large Language Models (LMs) strongly resembles the natural... Read more

  Posted on 25 December 2023 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Three Common Assumptions About Inflammation, Aging, and Health That Are...

  The abstract of a recent PNAS article by Thomas W. McDade (motivated readers can obtain the whole article from me): Significance Inflammation is one of the... Read more

  Posted on 22 December 2023 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• In Search of Hardness - Protocol Studies, the Next Crypto Cycle, and the Next Ag...

  I’m using this posting to save for myself some clips of text from Venkatesh Rao’s most recent piece, to continue mulling over where I place it on the trivial... Read more

  Posted on 20 December 2023 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Traumatic Memories Are Processed as Present Experience

  Ellen Barry points to work by Perl et al. showing that different patterns of brain activity underlie sad versus traumatic autobiographical memories. The Perl... Read more

  Posted on 18 December 2023 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Ebb and Flow of Physical and Cognitive Fatigue

  Matthews et al. Have investigated moment-to-moment fluctuations in fatigue using behavioral experiments and computational modeling to offer a precise account... Read more

  Posted on 15 December 2023 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• AI is a Camera, Not an Engine.

  Yet another brilliant essay from Venkatest Rao on how modern AI puts us into an age of exploration of computational reality. I got halfway through my usual gig... Read more

  Posted on 13 December 2023 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• There Are More Living Cells on Earth Than Stars in the Universe: ~ 10^30 Vs. ~...

  These numbers come from a fascinating piece by Dennis Overbye summarizing work by a team of biologists and geologists. Selected clips: According to the fossil... Read more

  Posted on 11 December 2023 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Goggle's Bard and Chat GPT-4 on Using AI to Explore Beyond Language and Words...

  I show first the prompt I addressed yesterday afternoon to both Bard and ChatGPT-4. The more nuanced response I received from Bard makes me wonder if Google... Read more

  Posted on 07 December 2023 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• A Flash of Clarity on What Current LLMs Can and Can Not Do. An AI Apocalypse Doe...

  In his most recent newsletter, Venkatesh Rao pulls up a twitter thread he wrote in 2017 making what he calls an ontological distinction between boundary... Read more

  Posted on 03 December 2023 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Meta-Learned Models of Cognition

  I pass on the text of a recent email from Behavioral and Brain Sciences inviting commentary on an article by Binz et al. I am beginning to plow through the... Read more

  Posted on 29 November 2023 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Feasibility of Artificial Consciousness Through the Lens of Neuroscience

  Some interesting perspectives from Aru, Larkum, and Shine in Trends in Neurosciences. Motivated readers can obtain a copy of the article's text from me. Read more

  Posted on 27 November 2023 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Religious Wars in the Tech Industry.

  In this post I continue to use MindBlog as my private reference library to put down essential ideas I want to hang onto by extracting relevant clips, in this... Read more

  Posted on 26 November 2023 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• AI is Infusing Our Daily Lives. Is It an Existential Threat?

  As AI is being subtly melded into our daily lives by the Google, Apple, and Microsoft clouds there is continuing debate over whether it is or Isn’t an... Read more

  Posted on 19 November 2023 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Personalized Chatbots and Wearable AI Devices for Melding AI with Our Everyday...

  Personalized GPTs are here, but apparently not yet at the level of consumers like myself who don't want to do coding. I've been looking into making my own... Read more

  Posted on 10 November 2023 PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE