Best Of
Re: Unsocial Media
In fact, many companies search for a guaranteed model of generating income. This ranges from social engineering like Facebook to the taste of hamburgers by McDonalds to the gambling mechanisms of Las Vegas casinos to the opioid medications created by Purdue Pharmaceuticals. Anything which addicts or habituates people can be used to extract money and effort from them.
All of it works to fuel the fires of samsara, your desires in particular, but the media also works on your aversions and delusions. While Buddhism works to bring these fires under control, modern Western society works to fan the flames in order to get you to consume more. The influence of these companies does not bring you closer to peace and nirvana.
I think it is a pity that Buddhist countries in Asia are now also moving towards capitalist models, because the ultimate expression of these capitalist ventures is the exploitation of unconsciousness and unbridled desire.
To help shield myself from these things I am really careful with bringing certain influences into my life.
- Anything that addicts I am careful with. Medicines, fast food, social media, games.
- Anything that costs money or that involves gambling. Playing poker, casinos, stock markets.
- Anything that I take into my mind I am wary of. Television, news, books, newspapers.
- The places that I work I have become careful with. Bosses that pressurise you, incentives.
The things I enjoy are satsang (“meeting in truth”), music, podcasts, forums. There are still places where wholesome influences can be found, and these I try to contribute to with time and attention.
Jeroen
Re: Unsocial Media
I thought this was an interesting perspective. They talked about how our evolutionary wirings make us vulnerable to what they're calling a "scarcity loop". They talk about it in terms of gambling (the professor teaches in Las Vegas), dieting, social media as well as other areas of life this impacts us. Regarding social media they talk about how these companies are intentionally high-jacking these systems to keep us engaged in their products.
person
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
"There are two ways to be fooled.
One is to believe what isn't true
The other is to refuse to believe what is true."
~Soren Kierkegaard~
Shoshin1
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
“Life is a garden, not a road. We enter and exit through the same gate. Wandering, where we go matters less than what we notice.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle
Jeffrey
Re: All Things Apple (was MacBook Air, but things evolve...)
In case you hadn’t noticed, the US Department of Justice has filed an antitrust suit against Apple, accusing them of being a monopolist in the US market. There are a number of different aspects to this, from the way iMessage functions to promote lock-in, to the way different Apple products interact and make it impossible for competing products to gain feature parity.
The lawsuit will likely run for a number of years, plus appeals for more years. But the results could be serious for Apple, up to and including the break up of the company.
The Verge and Daring Fireball carry more detailed reporting.
Jeroen
Re: A Buddhist teacher admits ... BUDDHISM HAS FAILED!
@Kotishka said:
Maybe Jundo wants to extend the Dharma, noble quest.
I think that, either conceptually, by creating a dharma for the 21st century, or by reach, by creating a dharma that goes places that others haven’t gone. Maybe a bit of both.
Jeroen
Re: Artificial General Intelligence in 7 months?
@marcitko said:
Some musings from recent history...Chess and poker and Go are games with a limited number of rules and clear objectives. For some time now, computers have been far better at these games than even the best humans. We say that these games have been "solved" (that the optimum strategy has been found) but this is actually not true - since computers keep improving and finding even better strategies.
What has happened with humans playing these games...
... the best players try to learn from and emulate the computer strategy. Generally, the closer you are to the computer strategy, the better you are. However, noone can fully do so because the computer strategy is too complicated.
... (I am not sure, but I strongly suspect) the average human skill-level in these games has increased. This is primarily because now the correct principles have been "proven" and so they can be learnt and taught in ever simpler and more efficient ways.
... some of the "mistique" has been lost for players at the top (because the computer is better).
... there is increasing concern about cheating (ie. using computers while playing other humans).
... people still want to see people play these games and play themselves. Pretty much noone watches computer vs computer games and human vs human games are as popular as ever.
... if your goal is to really delve deeply into the strategy aspect and learn, it is now easier than ever and you can go far further.I too am concerned about AI, and am not sure what my comment adds to the discussion, but I guess computers solving games was a precursor to today's AI, so how that played out could be partially indicative of how AI will play out.
This all reminded me of a recent development that gives me a "Go Humans!" feel. Someone developed a simple strategy that anyone could easily beat the Go AI. Don't ask me to explain it, but basically its a strategy that any basic Go player would recognize and easily prevent if played against them, but the AI had no clue what was happening.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7v5xb/a-human-amateur-beat-a-top-go-playing-ai-using-a-simple-trick
What that kind of shows is that AI currently has no sense of what it is doing or what it is looking at, it is just a super sophisticated calculator that looks like it knows what its doing from the outside. Another way to say it is maybe AI is an example of hyper intelligence with zero wisdom or common sense.
person
Re: Artificial General Intelligence in 7 months?
Some musings from recent history...
Chess and poker and Go are games with a limited number of rules and clear objectives. For some time now, computers have been far better at these games than even the best humans. We say that these games have been "solved" (that the optimum strategy has been found) but this is actually not true - since computers keep improving and finding even better strategies.
What has happened with humans playing these games...
... the best players try to learn from and emulate the computer strategy. Generally, the closer you are to the computer strategy, the better you are. However, noone can fully do so because the computer strategy is too complicated.
... (I am not sure, but I strongly suspect) the average human skill-level in these games has increased. This is primarily because now the correct principles have been "proven" and so they can be learnt and taught in ever simpler and more efficient ways.
... some of the "mistique" has been lost for players at the top (because the computer is better).
... there is increasing concern about cheating (ie. using computers while playing other humans).
... people still want to see people play these games and play themselves. Pretty much noone watches computer vs computer games and human vs human games are as popular as ever.
... if your goal is to really delve deeply into the strategy aspect and learn, it is now easier than ever and you can go far further.
I too am concerned about AI, and am not sure what my comment adds to the discussion, but I guess computers solving games was a precursor to today's AI, so how that played out could be partially indicative of how AI will play out.
marcitko
Re: A Buddhist teacher admits ... BUDDHISM HAS FAILED!
Tecno-buddhists? Let's rave. @lobster
Maybe Jundo wants to extend the Dharma, noble quest.
Anything wrong in expressing enthuthiasm for the spreading of Buddhist practice?
Maybe I should just leave the door open and write...
Zazen...live !
Kotishka