In work he performed in 1896, the American zoologist Frederick Kenyon showed that the brain of the tiny bee was infinitely more complex than anyone had imagined, with thousands upon thousands of connection points, and also showed, for the first time in any organism, that neurons fell into clearly identifi­able classes. He died, forgotten, in a lunatic asylum.

Frederick Kenyon

“American writer and biologist Frederick Kenyon (1867–1941) was the first to explore the inner workings of the bee brain. His 1896 study, in which he managed to dye and characterize numerous types of nerve cells of the bee brain, was, in the words of the world’s foremost insect neuroanatomist, Nick Strausfeld, ‘a supernova.’ Not only did Kenyon draw the branching patterns of various neuron types in painstaking detail, but he also high­lighted, for the first time in any organism, that these fell into clearly identifi­able classes, which tended to be found only in certain areas of the brain.

The Inner Workings of the Bee Brain

One such type he found in the mushroom bodies is the Kenyon cells, named in his honor. Their cell bodies — the part of the neuron that con­tains the chromosomes and the DNA — decoding machinery — are in a peripheral area enclosed by the calyx of each mushroom body (the mush­room’s ‘head’), with a few additional ones on the sides of or underneath the calyces.

The Kenyon Cells

A finely arbored dendritic tree (the branched struc­ture that is a nerve cell’s signal ‘receiver’) extends into the mushroom body calyx, and a single axon (the neuron’s ‘information-sending output cable’) extends from each cell into the mushroom body pedunculus (the mushroom’s ‘stalk’).Extrapolating from just a few of these characteristically shaped neu­rons that he could see, Kenyon suggested (correctly) that there must be tens of thousands of such similarly shaped cells, with parallel outputs into each mushroom body pedunculus.

Shaped Cells

(In fact, there are about 170,000 Kenyon cells in each mushroom body.) He found neurons that connect the an­tennal lobes (the primary relays processing olfactory sensory input) with the mushroom body input region (the calyces, where the Kenyon cells have the fine dendritic trees) — and even suggested, again correctly, that the mushroom bodies were centers of multisensory integration.Kenyon’s 1896 brain wiring diagram [is a marvel]. It contains several classes of recognizable neuron types, with some suggestions for how they might be connected.

A Marvel

Many neurons have extensions as widely branched as full­grown trees — only, of course, much smaller. Consider that the drawing only shows around 20 of a honey bee brain’s ~850,000 neurons. We now know that each neuron, through its many fine branches, can make up to 10,000 connection points (synapses) with other neurons. There may be a billion synapses in a honey bee’s brain — and, since the efficiency of synapses can be modified by experience, near-infinite possibility to alter the informa­tion flow through the brain by learning and memory.

A Billion Synapses

It is a mystery to me how, after the publication of such work as Kenyon’s, anyone could have suggested that the insect brain is simple, or that the study of brain size could in any way be informative about the complexities of information pro­cessing inside a brain.Kenyon apparently suffered some of the anxieties all too familiar to many early-career researchers today. Despite his scientific accomplish­ments, he had trouble finding permanent employment, and moved be­tween institutions several times, facing continuous financial hardship.

Financial Hardship

Eventually, he appears to have snapped, and in 1899 Kenyon was arrested for ‘erratic and threatening behavior’ toward colleagues, who subsequently accused him of insanity. Later that year, he was permanently confined to a lunatic asylum, apparently without any opportunity ever to rehabilitate himself, and he died there more than four decades later — as Nick Strausfeld writes, ‘unloved, forgotten, and alone.’It was not to be the last tragedy in the quest to understand the bee brain.”

"Unloved, Forgotten, and Alone"

In work he performed in 1896, the American zoologist Frederick Kenyon showed that the brain of the tiny bee was infinitely more complex than anyone had imagined, with thousands upon thousands of…

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Artificial Intelligence

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In the quest to understand the bee brain …

In the beginning, let's face it, we had a blast playing with generative AI. There are those who have created hundreds of avatars of themselves out of vanity, those who have improvised themselves as illustrators and those who have sensed the business, have started studying to become a new genre of generative artist. Someone spent the Christmas holidays conversing with Open Ai's ChatGPT, others sat down on the couch as if in front of a psychoanalyst, many limited themselves to questioning him as if he were a child. But most have used it to discover new things to learn. In some cases it worked.

Who will pay for Generative Artificial Intelligence?

But then the anxiety set in. Because after years of expected revolutions such as the metaverse, the blockchain or self-driving cars, after mobile phones and tablets that are more beautiful every year but almost always all the same, something new was needed that worked. Artificial intelligence in 2022 was a surprise. Starting with image generators such as Dall-E 2, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion. So much so that some traditional artists are even shot the boxes. Not for the theoretical competition with the "machine".

Something New

But having someone who knows how to copy the style of others very well and produces continuously is not the best of life for a content producer.Thousands of messages have appeared on social networks with pieces of conversation where we read blunders, gender stereotypes and math errors. And all this just to say that AI is not omniscient. Who doesn't know everything, which we already knew. There are even those who have imagined a new world order of the Web no longer dominated by search engines, but by these chatbots that dialogue with you and provide more articulated answers.

AI is not Omniscient

But what no one did was try to understand the "fundamentals" of this phenomenon as a financial analyst. How do they work, how much do they cost? Or to be more direct: how do you make money with these tools? No one has figured it out yet. According to some observers, these tools will soon replace search engines. The new version of Microsoft's Bing, which could arrive as early as March 2023, will make use of the AI technology behind ChatGPT for certain search keywords.But to be usable, these algorithms should be able to guarantee a very high level of accuracy in the answers they return.

Understand the "Fundamentals"

It's not like this today. There is the issue of energy costs. As Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI admitted, when they reach one million users, the costs for maintaining and managing the system are very high. In the case of ChatGPT we know that it is hosted on Microsoft's Azure cloud. On the web, they calculated based on Microsoft's cloud costs that each word generated on ChatGPT costs $0.0003. It means burning at least 3 million a month for management costs. Sooner or later someone will have to start finding a business model and a price for these services. Until then Google can rest easy.

A Business Model

Chi pagherà l’Intelligenza Artificiale generativa?. All’inizio, diciamo la verità, ci siamo divertiti un mondo a giocare con l’intelligenza artificiale generativa. C’è chi ha creato per….

Who Will Pay for General Artificial Intelligence?

When I wrote The Global Brain, forty years ago, we were in the very early stages of computer networking. These early networks soon became the Internet, and later the Worldwide Web. From that came a whole plethora of innovations: streaming video, online shopping, news and banking, social media, the cloud, and more; not to mention the now ubiquitous website. However, it was generally just data, spread over a global network, one as complex as the human brain with exceedingly efficient search, but still just information of one kind or another.

Forty Years Ago

Now a whole new dimension is being added: AI (artificial intelligence). It has been there behind the scenes for several years, but is now becoming available to the everyday user.A language processing AI called GPT-3, which can process this global data and summarize it in good English (and several other languages) is now catching the headlines in the form of ChatGPT—an app that anyone can access, ask questions, and get remarkably good answers. You can, for example, ask it write an essay about some specialist scientific subject, and be blown away by the results.

A Whole New Dimension

Write a poem about spiritual concept in the style of Shakespeare (say). Or find an error in your computer code. The possibilities seem almost endless. ChatGPT was only made public in November, but it has already taken the Internet by storm—within five days of its release it had a million users!As well as a multitude of possibilities, it raises a number of issues: How will teachers be able to detect if a student’s essay is their own work or that of ChatGPT? Can we trust its answers (it sometimes makes mistakes)? GPT-3 was trained on the global data of 2021, so cannot give up-to-date responses.

ChatGPT

Currently, it is very expensive to operate; will that limit its development? Will it be integrated into search engines? Could it be hacked? Will it reinforce our socio-political biases?Some of these issues may be resolved over time. Some may not. But here I want to explore some of the longer-term implications.The next obvious step is adding audio so that we can speak to it and get spoken responses. The technologies of speech recognition and synthesis are well developed, and in common use with virtual assistants such Siri and Alexa.

The Next Obvious Step 

But whereas they currently just search the Internet for answers, now, with AI behind them, they’ll be able to process the data, and give more intelligent responses.It will also bring an end to those, sometimes frustrating, human-operated call centers. No longer will we have to wait on hold, but will get immediate, intelligent answers—and in an accent we can understand.ChatGPT wasn’t programmed with the answers it gives, but taught to find its own answers and present them in human language. And it is learning all the time, from what we ask and how we respond.

More Intelligent Responses

Impressive as it may be today, it will be much more so in the future. In addition, other apps will soon become available improving on ChatGPT.As it becomes increasingly conversational, we may begin to feel there is a “person” there, not a human person of course, but our minds will project on to the AI the sense of there being someone there, and available to us at any time. Maybe we’ll feel we are each accessing the same virtual person. Where will that lead, I wonder? Other forms of AI can also be accessed online.

A "Person" There

There are several images generators that will create excellent pictures based on simple descriptions. A number of video generators—although not yet high quality—and music generators. All of which will rapidly improve with time.Beyond these foreseeable developments, online AI will bring many innovations that are probably as far beyond our imagination as the Internet of today was when the first personal computers appeared. And remember that the pace of development today is very much faster than it was forty years ago.

A Faster Pace

In ten years’ time, AI will be much more powerful, perhaps surpassing the human brain in its capabilities. We will then be in a very different world indeed.Welcome to the Intelligence Age!-------At this unprecedented moment in history, when escalating crises threaten all life on earth, internationally renowned physicist and futurist Peter Russell weaves together the physical and social sciences, modern technology, and ancient mysticism to demonstrate that the possibility of global illumination is now as real -- and as imminent -- as the threat of mass annihilation.

The Book - Peter Russell

In this updated edition of The Global Brain, Russell details an extraordinary new vision of humanity's potential as a fully conscious superorganism in an awakening universe. Presenting evidence that the earth itself is a living being and every person upon it a cell in the planetary nervous system, Russell describes how breakthroughs in telecommunications and computer networks are rapidly linking the human species into an embryonic global brain.

The Global Brain

At the same time, the human potential movement is growing faster than any other segment of society and influencing every aspect of the culture -- including business, politics, and medicine. Russell shows how the convergence of these powerful trends is creating the required conditions for an evolutionary shift in consciousness from egocentrism to geo-centrism.

Human Potential

First published in 1983 as The Global Brain and translated into ten languages, Russell's seminal work won acclaim all over the world. Regarded by many as years ahead of its time, its original predictions about the impact of computer networks and changing social values were quickly fulfilled.Peter Russell M.A., D.C.S., is a British author of ten books and producer of three films on consciousness, spiritual awakening and their role in the future development of humanity. He has designed and taught personal development programs for businesses, and has remained a popular public speaker.

Published in 1983 

In 1965 he was awarded an Open Exhibition to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, to study Mathematics. In 1969, he gained a First Class Honours in Theoretical Physics and Experimental Psychology. He then went to Rishikesh, India, where he trained as a teacher of Transcendental Meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. In 1971, he gained a post-graduate degree in Computer Science. From 1971 to 1974, he studied for a Ph.D. on the psychophysiology of meditation at Bristol University.

Transcendental Meditation

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Science Fiction

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Technology & The Future

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Learning & Education

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Computer Science

An Intelligent Global Brain

Your brain does not process information, retrieve knowledge or store memories. In short: your brain is not a computer. <a href="https://aeon.co/users/robert-epstein">Robert Epstein</a> is a senior research psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology in California. He is the author of 15 books, and the former editor-in-chief of Psychology Today.

Brain is not a Computer

No matter how hard they try, brain scientists and cognitive psychologists will never find a copy of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony in the brain – or copies of words, pictures, grammatical rules or any other kinds of environmental stimuli.The human brain isn’t really empty, of course. But it does not contain most of the things people think it does – not even simple things such as ‘memories’.

No Memories

Our shoddy thinking about the brain has deep historical roots, but the invention of computers in the 1940s got us especially confused.For more than half a century now, psychologists, linguists, neuroscientists and other experts on human behaviour have been asserting that the human brain works like a computer.To see how vacuous this idea is, consider the brains of babies. Thanks to evolution, human neonates, like the newborns of all other mammalian species, enter the world prepared to interact with it effectively.

Historical Roots

A baby’s vision is blurry, but it pays special attention to faces, and is quickly able to identify its mother’s. It prefers the sound of voices to non-speech sounds, and can distinguish one basic speech sound from another. We are, without doubt, built to make social connections. A healthy newborn is also equipped with more than a dozen reflexes – ready-made reactions to certain stimuli that are important for its survival.It turns its head in the direction of something that brushes its cheek and then sucks whatever enters its mouth.

 Social Connections

It holds its breath when submerged in water. It grasps things placed in its hands so strongly it can nearly support its own weight.Perhaps most important, newborns come equipped with powerful learning mechanisms that allow them to change rapidly so they can interact increasingly effectively with their world, even if that world is unlike the one their distant ancestors faced.Senses, reflexes and learning mechanisms – this is what we start with, and it is quite a lot, when you think about it. If we lacked any of these capabilities at birth, we would probably have trouble surviving.

Learning Mechanisms

But here is what we are not born with: information, data, rules, software, knowledge, lexicons, representations, algorithms, programs, models, memories, images, processors, subroutines, encoders, decoders, symbols, or buffers – design elements that allow digital computers to behave somewhat intelligently. Not only are we not born with such things, we also don’t develop them – ever. We don’t store words or the rules that tell us how to manipulate them.

Not Born With ...

We don’t create representations of visual stimuli, store them in a short-term memory buffer, and then transfer the representation into a long-term memory device. We don’t retrieve information or images or words from memory registers. Computers do all of these things, but organisms do not.Computers, quite literally, process information – numbers, letters, words, formulas, images. The information first has to be encoded into a format computers can use, which means patterns of ones and zeroes (‘bits’) organised into small chunks (‘bytes’).

Bits & Bytes

On my computer, each byte contains 8 bits, and a certain pattern of those bits stands for the letter d, another for the letter o, and another for the letter g. Side by side, those three bytes form the word dog. One single image – say, the photograph of my cat Henry on my desktop – is represented by a very specific pattern of a million of these bytes (‘one megabyte’), surrounded by some special characters that tell the computer to expect an image, not a word.Computers, quite literally, move these patterns from place to place in different physical storage areas etched into electronic components.

Three Bytes Form the Word Dog

Sometimes they also copy the patterns, and sometimes they transform them in various ways – say, when we are correcting errors in a manuscript or when we are touching up a photograph. The rules computers follow for moving, copying and operating on these arrays of data are also stored inside the computer. Together, a set of rules is called a ‘program’ or an ‘algorithm’. A group of algorithms that work together to help us do something (like buy stocks or find a date online) is called an ‘application’ – what most people now call an ‘app’.

App is an Application

Forgive me for this introduction to computing, but I need to be clear: computers really do operate on symbolic representations of the world. They really store and retrieve. They really process. They really have physical memories. They really are guided in everything they do, without exception, by algorithms.Humans, on the other hand, do not – never did, never will. Given this reality, why do so many scientists talk about our mental life as if we were computers?

Our Mental Life

In his book In Our Own Image (2015), the artificial intelligence expert George Zarkadakis describes six different metaphors people have employed over the past 2,000 years to try to explain human intelligence.In the earliest one, eventually preserved in the Bible, humans were formed from clay or dirt, which an intelligent god then infused with its spirit. That spirit ‘explained’ our intelligence – grammatically, at least.

Six Different Metaphors

The invention of hydraulic engineering in the 3rd century BCE led to the popularity of a hydraulic model of human intelligence, the idea that the flow of different fluids in the body – the ‘humours’ – accounted for both our physical and mental functioning. The hydraulic metaphor persisted for more than 1,600 years, handicapping medical practice all the while.By the 1500s, automata powered by springs and gears had been devised, eventually inspiring leading thinkers such as René Descartes to assert that humans are complex machines.

Humans Are Complex Machines

In the 1600s, the British philosopher Thomas Hobbes suggested that thinking arose from small mechanical motions in the brain. By the 1700s, discoveries about electricity and chemistry led to new theories of human intelligence – again, largely metaphorical in nature. In the mid-1800s, inspired by recent advances in communications, the German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz compared the brain to a telegraph.

The Brain Like a Telegraph

The mathematician John von Neumann stated flatly that the function of the human nervous system is ‘prima facie digital’, drawing parallel after parallel between the components of the computing machines of the day and the components of the human brain.Each metaphor reflected the most advanced thinking of the era that spawned it. Predictably, just a few years after the dawn of computer technology in the 1940s, the brain was said to operate like a computer, with the role of physical hardware played by the brain itself and our thoughts serving as software.

Prima Facie Digital

The landmark event that launched what is now broadly called ‘cognitive science’ was the publication of Language and Communication (1951) by the psychologist George Miller. Miller proposed that the mental world could be studied rigorously using concepts from information theory, computation and linguistics.This kind of thinking was taken to its ultimate expression in the short book The Computer and the Brain (1958), in which the mathematician John von Neumann stated flatly that the function of the human nervous system is ‘prima facie digital’.

Cognitive Science

Although he acknowledged that little was actually known about the role the brain played in human reasoning and memory, he drew parallel after parallel between the components of the computing machines of the day and the components of the human brain.

The Role of the Brain

Your brain does not process information, retrieve knowledge or store memories. In short: your brain is not a computer

problemsolving

Problem Solving

Your brain does not process information and it is not a computer | Aeon Essays

This is my business card on MEDIUM. It is currently unknown whether other versions of ourselves exist in parallel universes. The concept of parallel universes, known as the "multiverse" theory, is a possible explanation for some unexplained phenomena in physics and cosmology.It is important to note that the existence of parallel universes is a subject of scientific speculation and has not been proven.According to some interpretations of modern physics, the multiverse theory suggests that there may be many other universes besides our own, each with its own set of physical laws and properties.

"Nobody has ever been me. Maybe I'm the first one."

Some scientists believe that these parallel universes may have formed following the Big Bang, or may have always existed alongside our universe.There is no direct evidence of the existence of parallel universes and the concept remains a subject of debate and speculation in the scientific community.Some scientists believe it's possible that there could be other versions of ourselves in other universes, while others are more skeptical and believe that the concept of parallel universes is purely theoretical and may never be proven.

Other Versions of Ourselves

Another Me

Unless you grew up a bookworm, discovering the magic of reading, picking up a book doesn’t always come naturally.Finding the time and energy to read can be challenging for many of us, especially writers and creators. And yet, it’s impossible to deny the many benefits that reading books can bring, from expanding your creativity to improving your vocabulary. It’s no secret that some of the most celebrated people in the world are avid readers. Notable figures like Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, and Oprah Winfrey are all a testament to this relationship between reading books and actualizing success.

A Book Addiction

In an interview with Time, Gates mentions that “reading fuels a sense of curiosity about the world,” attributing reading to catapulting his career. It’s high time to embrace one’s growth potential in reading more books—not just in brief spurts—but as a lifelong practice.Beyond the case studies of highly-successful readers, ample science supports the benefit of developing consistent book-reading habits.From expanding your literacy and writing skills to staying stimulated and warding off cognitive decline, learning how to read more books offers a wide range of benefits.

A Sense of Curiosity

So, how do you cultivate the ability to read more books? Try these practices to develop healthy and mindful reading habits. Read what you find interesting (or what you’re writing about)One of the fundamental rules of reading more books is simply reading what you like or find interesting. Pretty easy, right? Well, sort of. The challenge is doing some homework and experimentation to know these types of books. Determining your preference between fiction and non-fiction books is an excellent place to start.

Reading What You Like

Those who are mentally active throughout the day may be intrigued by books that take us out of our sense of reality, like a gripping fantasy or otherworldly sci-fi. Conversely, your interest in reading books may be better sustained by actively learning and exploring the tangible world of non-fiction.Educational and inspirational books can offer greater meaning for certain readers, especially writers, authors, and creatives.

Fiction or Non Fiction

If you’re actively writing about specific topics like travel, reading books about the history of early pioneers and legendary world travelers may broaden your creative horizons and inspire you in unique ways. Research book ideas and create a reading list.Now that you have an idea of what you find interesting, it’s time to research the books in your chosen genre. In addition to discovering good reads, creating a reading list can help keep you organized without getting lost in the rabbit hole of “what’s next?” This is your to-be-read list (that’s TBR pile in book lingo).

Broaden Your Horizons

K.W. Colyard, a book features writer, shares some timeless tips to help build your reading list, starting with determining how much time you have and creating realistic reading goals.But, perhaps her most valuable takeaway tip is to mix it up. Instead of creating a linear reading list, alternate between genres, authors, and book lengths to prevent boredom or feeling bogged down. As part of mixing it up, Colyard recommends not ordering your list at all. Instead, read whatever you feel like at the time and cross each book off your reading list as you finish it.

Realistic Reading Goals

That way, you’re always reading exactly what you’re in the mood for. Need reading list inspiration? Check out Listopia on GoodReads.com to explore a range of reading lists by genre and popular picks. Set time aside to read. As with most new habits worth cultivating, setting aside time is essential. For busy people, it’s critical to make time to read. It could be 15 minutes first thing in the morning or before bed.Reading is proven to help with relaxation and stress reduction, so a pre-bedtime reading routine can even set the stage for a good night’s sleep.

Set Time Aside to Read.

Trade in some TV time or keep your digital devices out of sight. You can also chunk out your daily reading by setting goals based on how many pages you want to read in a single sitting.Whenever you choose to read, carving out a set amount of time is critical to making your book-reading habits routine.Bring a book with you wherever you go. In the current digital age, where everyone carries a smartphone, the default behavior during downtime is to look at your phone.

Set Goals

However, bringing a book with you wherever you go can replace mindless digital consumption with something that tangibly advances your reading goals.Depending on the book, reading can prime your interpersonal skills while you’re out and about. A published study determined a connection between reading fiction and showing greater empathy and social acumen. So just maybe avoid psychopathic thrillers before your social outings.Reading a book is the perfect activity for work breaks, lunch breaks, or random moments of waiting. Try keeping a book handy at your desk, car, or backpack.

The Perfect Activity for Work Breaks

It’s an easy hack to have a book within reach instead of your phone. Of course, your phone is also a book—so feel free to open your favorite ebook app or audiobook if you don’t feel like lugging around that 500-page hardcover!Read multiple books at once. With the help of your reading list, it never hurts to read multiple books simultaneously. For most avid readers, reading numerous books at once is second nature.However, even blossoming readers can build momentum with their reading routine by having a couple of books going.

 Your Phone is Also a Book

While reading multiple books at once may sound overwhelming, here are a few tips to make it doable.Read different genres and balance pleasure reading with informative reading and emotional books with lighthearted books.Read certain books in the right environments. Mix up your atmosphere based on the vibe of the book. Try marketing how-tos at the dining room table during lunch break, and romance tucked in before bed.Read based on your mood and what you feel like reading. Read different mediums. Newspapers, magazines, blogs, and ebooks provide suitable book alternatives.

Multiple Reading

And while we’re on the topic of different mediums …Try audiobooks and assistive technologiesFor those who can’t get to a library or bookstore very often, e-readers like Kindles and iPads are practical tech that can store an entire library worth of books.Although digital, reading from an e-reader still provides the same benefits as reading from a book. You can also configure the text size on most e-readers, which is crucial for those with visual impairments.

Different Mediums

Although reading books can be better for comprehension and retention, audiobooks are another practical alternative that helps people consume more books by listening to them.So if sitting still to read isn’t possible or enjoyable, grab some headphones and expand your imagination, absorb new information, and find inspiration with an audiobook.Join a book club or social media community. Incorporating a social element into your reading interests is a great way to add a layer of accountability and motivation to read more.You can usually find book clubs at local libraries and bookstores.

Community Reading

But you can also keep it casual with smaller and less structured reading groups or by creating a book club amongst friends. Not into IRL (in real life) events? Try an online book club, log in to your favorite social media app, and find a community.The #BookTok and #Bookstagram communities are thriving. And when the entire world is opened up, you can find your perfect reading counterparts—no matter how niche your reading genre.In person or online, there’s something special about reading the same book with a group of people and getting together to discuss it.

IRL or not IRL Events

You can enjoy engaging conversations, meet new people, and discover new perspectives, which can inspire your writing or help you develop new ideas for a self-published book. Set realistic reading goals. If you’re currently starting at ground zero with your reading endeavors, set realistic goals and expectations.If it’s been years since you picked up a book, it’s probably not feasible to expect you’ll be plowing through a book every week.However, you can increase your volume by building consistent reading habits and finding books you love reading.

New Perspectives

Set realistic reading goals on both a micro and a macro level. For instance, setting micro goals like reading for 20 minutes a day is an achievable objective that doesn’t demand a lot of time out of your day.Similarly, you can have big-picture macro goals of reading one book per month or 20 books in a year.Don’t attach to any expectations or outcomes, but use goal-setting to help keep yourself accountable. Lastly, read more for longevity and mental health

Micro and Macro Levels

There’s something tactile and engaging about a good book. It’s sensory and stimulating on many levels, and reading itself activates the brain while helping advance one’s imagination, creativity, and logic.Beyond the short-term mental benefits, one compelling study found that reading just 30 minutes per day was shown to extend longevity and minimize cognitive decline.So instead of wasting precious minutes scrolling addictive reels and TikTok, replace your phone with a good book. You’ll develop lifelong reading habits along the journey, and as the science says, you could live longer.

Mental Benefits

For writers and creators, learning how to read more books can provide a wealth of benefits, from expanding your creativity to improving your vocabulary.

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Motivation & Inspiration

Books & Books

TikTok likened to ‘highly addictive and destructive’ drug for its ‘corrosive impact’Republican congressman Mike Gallagher calls for a ban on the Chinese-owned app in the US, comparing it to the substance fentanyl.A senior US congressman has likened TikTok to the addictive drug fentanyl, calling for a ban on the Chinese-owned app in the United States.

Addictive and Destructive

In a Sunday interview with NBC, Mike Gallagher, a Republican and the incoming chairman of a new House of Representatives select committee on China, called TikTok “digital fentanyl” because “it’s highly addictive and destructive and we’re seeing troubling data about the corrosive impact of constant social media use”.He alleged that the app “effectively goes back to the Chinese Communist Party”, adding to ongoing accusations from US politicians about its data security.

"Digital Fentanyl”

TikTok, whose parent company is Chinese technology company ByteDance, was banned from US federal government devices last month under a massive new spending bill signed by Joe Biden, the US president. Both sides of the House have long expressed concerns about Beijing using the app to spy on Americans or manipulating its algorithm to promote Chinese government narratives.The company has denied all allegations but among its most vociferous critics is Christopher Wray, the FBI director, who said in December that the popular app could pose an unprecedented threat to US security.

 An App to Spy 

Republican congressman Mike Gallagher calls for a ban on the Chinese-owned app in the US, comparing it to the substance fentanyl

TikTok likened to ‘highly addictive and destructive’ drug for its ‘corrosive impact’

Year, n. A period of 365 disappointments. I've got the Folio edition of this book.  Born in Ohio in 1842, journalist, writer and vagabond, Ambrose Bierce disappears, perhaps in 1914, on the battlefields of the Mexican Civil War, leaving us that Devil's Dictionary that I propose to read at the dawn of the new year.

Happy New Year!

It is a text entirely interwoven with fulminant jokes, often provocative, ready to seize that weed that poisons the field of the soul, to use a famous image of Satan's adversary par excellence, Jesus. To speak the truth we think of a devil more ironic than perverse, even capable of serving the truth by stripping it of the trappings of hypocrisy that deform it.An example under the heading «Help»: «Create yourself an ingrate». Or for «Culture»: «Type of ignorance that characterizes the scholar». But let's stick to the quotation we placed, a bit mischievously, at the beginning of a new year.

Fulminant Jokes

Bierce is right to tone down the rhetoric of the illusions that are bestowed on us with ritual greetings or that are the seasoning of politics, advertising and even sometimes of a certain religiosity that is only consolatory, sentimental, curative. The famous Greek orator Demosthenes (4th century BC) warned: "Nothing is easier than deluding yourself. Because man believes what he desires to be true". So let's go down to the stony ground of life and proceed with a less dreamy gaze and with more realistic projects.

The Rhetoric of the Illusions

The eighteenth-century English poet Alexander Pope also had some truth when he coined this "ninth beatitude": "Blessed is he who expects nothing because he will never be disappointed".However, woe betide extinguishing every desire and expectation in the heart, extinguishing every dream: one would also lose the will to live and tear the seed of happiness from the soul.

Ninth Beatitude?

I've got the Folio edition, bookcased. Born in Ohio in 1842, journalist, writer and vagabond, Ambrose Bierce disappears, perhaps in 1914, on the battlefi...

philosophy

Philosophy

artsandculture

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Antonio Gallo's review of The Devil's Dictionary

I put this question to AI. This is his/her/its answer.As far as I am aware, all humans are biological beings made up of cells, tissues, and organs. We have brains that allow us to think, feel, and experience the world around us. While we have made significant technological advancements and have developed a wide range of tools and machines that can assist us in various tasks, humans are still fundamentally biological beings.

The Question and ...

On the other hand, artificial intelligence refers to the development of computer systems and algorithms that can perform tasks that would normally require human intelligence, such as understanding language, learning from data, and making decisions.Artificial intelligence is not a living being and does not have the same physical and biological characteristics as humans. It is a separate entity that is created and operated by humans.So, in short, humans are biological beings, while artificial intelligence is a type of technology developed by humans.

... the Answer

Are we still human or already artificial?

“Artificial you. Artificial intelligence and the future of your mind” is a book written by Susan Schneider, philosopher and cognitive scientist. The book explores the possible future of artificial intelligence (AI), what impact it could have on human knowledge and consciousness. Schneider discusses the possibility of creating artificial beings that could have minds and experiences similar to those of humans and the related ethical implications of such development.

Artificial You

She also considers the possibility of fusing human and machine intelligence by predicting the impact on our understanding of ourselves and our place in the world.Humans may not be the smartest beings on Earth for much longer. Indeed, the world chess champions are now all addicted to AI. Given the rapid pace of advances in AI, many predict that this new intelligence could leap to a higher level equal to human intelligence within the next few decades. Even surpass it. What does all this mean for the future of the human mind?

The Future of Human Mind

Susan Schneider says it is inevitable that artificial intelligence will take intelligence in new directions. Her study insists that it is up to us to carve out a sensible path into the future. This AI technology targets both the inner world of humans, reshaping the brain, and the outer world, potentially creating machine minds. You have to be very careful.Homo sapiens, as the "creator" of his mind, will find himself "playing" with tools that he does not know how to use: the self, the mind and the conscience.

Homo Sapiens

Schneider argues that an insufficient understanding of the nature of these entities could undermine both the use of artificial intelligence and that of brain-enhancing technology, resulting in the death or suffering of conscious beings.To proceed safely, we need to grasp and unravel the philosophical questions hidden under the algorithms and solve the problems they pose to us. Central to her exploration is a serious discussion of what artificial intelligence can really achieve: Can robots really be conscious?

Conscious Robots?

Can we merge with artificial intelligence, as tech leaders like Elon Musk and Ray Kurzweil suggest? Is the mind just a program? By examining these thorny questions, Schneider proposes ways we can test machine consciousness, questions whether consciousness is an inevitable byproduct of sophisticated intelligence, and considers the overall dangers of creating machine minds.Artificial intelligence (AI) technology will raise increasingly difficult ethical questions.

Just a Program?

The philosopher, cognitive scientist and technotopic confesses, Susan Schneider, in this challenging dialogue between philosophy and science, poses these fundamental questions to herself and to the readers of her book:“How would you feel about purchasing a 'hive mind', a brain chip, that allows you to experience the innermost thoughts of your loved ones? Can future AI capture consciousness with computation?"

Hive Mind

I asked the question about ChatGPT, which is a variant of the GPT (Generative Pre-training Transformer) language model, a machine learning model developed by OpenAI to generate human-like text. It is designed to be able to generate coherent paragraphs of text based on a given prompt or context. This is his/her/its answer which I will soon follow up with mine, which remains human.

"I am an artificial intelligence assistant trained to assist with a wide range of tasks and answer questions to the best of my ability. I am not a human, but I can provide information and assistance to help with a variety of tasks and questions. Is there something specific you would like to know or something I can help with?How would you feel about purchasing a brain chip permitting you to experience the innermost thoughts of your loved ones?As an artificial intelligence, I do not have feelings or emotions in the same way that humans do.

An Assistant

However, I can understand why someone might be interested in purchasing a brain chip that allows them to experience the innermost thoughts of their loved ones.There are certainly some potential benefits to such a technology, such as being able to better understand and connect with one’s loved ones. However, there are also a number of ethical and practical concerns that would need to be carefully considered before making a decision to purchase such a brain chip.

Ethical Concerns

One concern is the issue of privacy. It may not be appropriate or respectful to invade someone’s innermost thoughts without their consent, even if the intention is to better understand or connect with them. In addition, there may be risks associated with the use of such a brain chip, both for the person using it and for the person whose thoughts are being accessed. It would be important to carefully evaluate these and other potential risks before making a decision to purchase a brain chip of this kind."

Privacy

“Artificial you. L’intelligenza artificiale e il futuro della tua mente” è un libro scritto da Susan Schneider, filosofa e scienziata cognitiva. Il libro esplora il possibile futuro dell’intelligenza…