Category Archives: poverty

altruism, artificial intelligence, attention, automation, bioengineering, biology, brain, brain functions, brain structures, brain-computer interface, civil society, climate change, cognition, collaborative commons, complex adaptive systems, complexity, consciousness, creativity, cultural evolution, deep learning, Douglas Rushkoff, ecology, economics, embodied cognition, evolution, evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology, fact-based reasoning, framing, genetic engineering, genetics, interaction design, knowledge modeling, language, learning, learning, limbic system, machine learning, Mathematics, Max Tegmark, meditation, memetics, neural programming, pattern recognition, poverty, social organization, storytelling, Stuart Kauffman, superintelligence

Winter 2020 discussion prompts

2 Comments
  • What is humanity’s situation with respect to surviving long-term with a good quality of life? (Frame the core opportunities and obstacles.)
  • What attributes of our evolved, experientially programmed brains contribute to this situation? (What are the potential leverage points for positive change within our body-brain-mind system?)
  • What courses of research and action (including currently available systems, tools, and practices and current and possible lines of R&D) have the potential to improve our (and the planetary life system’s) near- and long-term prospects?

Following is a list of (only some!) of the resources some of us have consumed and discussed online, in emails, or face-to-face in 2019. Sample a few to jog your thoughts and provoke deeper dives. Please add your own additional references in the comments below this post. For each, give a short (one line is fine) description, if possible.

algorithmic bias, algorithmic errors, artificial intelligence, authoritarianism, automation, behavior, civil society, cognitive bias, complexity, data analysis, deep learning, economics, existential risks, in-group bias, learning, machine learning, poverty, predictive analytics, risk analysis, social organization

Applying artificial intelligence for social good

Leave a comment

This McKinsey article is an excellent overview of this more extensive article (3 MB PDF) enumerating the ways in which varieties of deep learning can improve existence. Worth a look.

The articles cover the following:

  • Mapping AI use cases to domains of social good
  • AI capabilities that can be used for social good
  • Overcoming bottlenecks, especially around data and talent
  • Risks to be managed
  • Scaling up the use of AI for social good

behavior, biology, brain, brain functions, brain structures, cognition, complexity, consciousness, creativity, economics, embodied cognition, emotional memory, emotions, empathy, epigenetics, evolution, flow, gender, genetics, gut microbiome, limbic system, meditation, memory, neurons, neuroplasticity, pharmacology, poverty, psychedelics, psychology, subliminal stimuli

Future discussion topic recommendations

2 Comments

Several of us met on Labor Day with the goal of identifying topics for at least five future monthly meetings. (Thanks, Dave N, for hosting!) Being the overachievers we are, we pushed beyond the goal. Following are the resulting topics, which will each have its own article on this site where we can begin organizing references for the discussion:

  • sex-related influences on emotional memory
    • gross and subtle brain differences (e.g., “walls of the third ventricle – sexual nuclei”)
    • “Are there gender-based brain differences that influence differences in perceptions and experience?”
    • epigenetic factors (may need an overview of epigenetics)
  • embodied cognition
    • computational grounded cognition (possibly the overview and lead-in topic)
    • neuro-reductionist theory vs. enacted theory of mind
    • “Could embodied cognition influence brain differences?” (Whoever suggested this, please clarify.)
  • brain-gut connection (relates to embodied cognition, but can stand on its own as a topic)
  • behavioral priming and subliminal stimuli (effects on later behavior)
  • incremental theory – “The Dark Side of Malleability”
  • creative flow as a unique cognitive process
  • Eastern philosophies and psychology – a psychology of self-cultivation
  • neuroscience of empathy – effects on the brain, including on neuroplasticity (discussed October 2017)
  • comparative effects of various meditative practices on the brain
  • comparative effects of various psychedelics on the brain
  • effects of childhood poverty on the brain
  • neurocognitive bases of racism

If I missed anything, please edit the list (I used HTML in the ‘Text’ view to get sub-bullets). If you’re worried about the formatting, you can email your edits to cogniphile@albuquirky.net and Mark will post your changes.