Download or read book Genes Vs Cultures Vs Consciousness written by Andres Campero and published by . This book was released on 2019-06-19 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This interdisciplinary scientific short book explores the mind at a conceptual level. It touches on its evolutionary development, its algorithmic nature and its scientific history by bridging ideas across Neuroscience, Computer Science, Biotechnology, Evolutionary History, Cognitive Science, Political Philosophy, and Artificial Intelligence. Never before had there been nearly as many scientists, resources or productive research focused on these topics, and humanity has achieved some understanding and some clarification. With the speed of progress it is timely to communicate an overreaching perspective, this book puts an emphasis on conveying the essential questions and what we know about their answers in a simple, clear and exciting way. Humans, along with the first RNA molecules, the first life forms, the first brains, the first conscious animals, the first societies and the first artificial agents constitute an amazing and crucial development in a path of increasingly complex computational intelligence. And yet, we occupy a minuscule time period in the history of Earth, a history that has been written by Genes, by Cultures and by Consciousnesses. If we abandon our anthropomorphic bias it becomes obvious that Humans are not so special after all. We are an important but short and transitory step among many others in a bigger story. The story of our computational minds, which is ours but not only ours. What is the relationship between computation, cognition and everything else? What is life and how did it originate? What is the role of culture in human minds? What do we know about the algorithmic nature of the mind, can we engineer it? What is the computational explanation of consciousness? What are some possible future steps in the evolution of minds? The underlying thread is the computational nature of the Mind which results from the mixture of Genes, Cultures and Consciousness. While these three interact in complex ways, they are ultimately computational systems on their own which appeared at different stages of history and which follow their own selective processes operating at different time scales. As technology progresses, the distinction between the three components materializes and will be a key determinant of the future. Among the many topics covered are the origin of life, the concept of computation and its relation to Turing Machines, cultural evolution and the notion of a Selfish Meme, free will and determinism, moral relativity, the hard problem of consciousness, the different theories of concepts from the perspective of cognitive science, the current status of AI and Machine Learning including the symbolic vs sub-symbolic dichotomy, the contrast between logical reasoning and neural networks, and the recent history of Deep Learning, Geoffrey Hinton, DeepMind and its algorithm AlphaGo. It also develops on the history of science and looks into the possible future building on the work of authors like Daniel Dennett, Yuval Harari, Richard Dawkins, Francis Crick, George Church, David Chalmers, Susan Carey, Stanislas Dehaene, Robert Boyd, Joseph Henrich, Daniel Kahneman, Moran Cerf, Josh Tenenbaum, David Deutsch, Steven Pinker, Ray Kurzweil, John von Neumann, Herbert Simon and many more. Andres Campero is a researcher and PhD student at the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department and at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).** **Note from the author I think this book is genuinely insightful and fun, and that its story is extremely important. My objective with self-publishing is not to make money, in case that is an issue I am happy to return you the earnings, just contact me at andrescampero.mit.edu. Your purchase would still be helpful for Amazon's search engine: )
Download or read book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind written by Julian Jaynes and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2000-08-15 with total page 580 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: National Book Award Finalist: “This man’s ideas may be the most influential, not to say controversial, of the second half of the twentieth century.”—Columbus Dispatch At the heart of this classic, seminal book is Julian Jaynes's still-controversial thesis that human consciousness did not begin far back in animal evolution but instead is a learned process that came about only three thousand years ago and is still developing. The implications of this revolutionary scientific paradigm extend into virtually every aspect of our psychology, our history and culture, our religion—and indeed our future. “Don’t be put off by the academic title of Julian Jaynes’s The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Its prose is always lucid and often lyrical…he unfolds his case with the utmost intellectual rigor.”—The New York Times “When Julian Jaynes . . . speculates that until late in the twentieth millennium BC men had no consciousness but were automatically obeying the voices of the gods, we are astounded but compelled to follow this remarkable thesis.”—John Updike, The New Yorker “He is as startling as Freud was in The Interpretation of Dreams, and Jaynes is equally as adept at forcing a new view of known human behavior.”—American Journal of Psychiatry
Download or read book Mind Shift written by John Parrington and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-04-22 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Parrington argues that social interaction and culture have deeply shaped the exceptional nature of human consciousness. The mental capacities of the human mind far outstrip those of other animals. Our imaginations and creativity have produced art, music, and literature; built bridges and cathedrals; enabled us to probe distant galaxies, and to ponder the meaning of our existence. When our minds become disordered, they can also take us to the depths of despair. What makes the human brain unique, and able to generate such a rich mental life? In this book, John Parrington draws on the latest research on the human brain to show how it differs strikingly from those of other animals in its structure and function at a molecular and cellular level. And he argues that this 'shift', enlarging the brain, giving it greater flexibility and enabling higher functions such as imagination, was driven by tool use, but especially by the development of one remarkable tool - language. The complex social interaction brought by language opened up the possibility of shared conceptual worlds, enriched with rhythmic sounds, and images that could be drawn on cave walls. This transformation enabled modern humans to leap rapidly beyond all other species, and generated an exceptional human consciousness, a sense of self that arises as a product of our brain biology and the social interactions we experience. Our minds, even those of identical twins, are unique because they are the result of this extraordinarily plastic brain, exquisitely shaped and tuned by the social and cultural environment in which we grew up and to which we continue to respond through life. Linking early work by the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky to the findings of modern neuroscience, Parrington explores how language, culture, and society mediate brain function, and what this view of the human mind may bring to our understanding and treatment of mental illness.
Download or read book The Selfish Gene written by Richard Dawkins and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1989 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Science need not be dull and bogged down by jargon, as Richard Dawkins proves in this entertaining look at evolution. The themes he takes up are the concepts of altruistic and selfish behaviour; the genetical definition of selfish interest; the evolution of aggressive behaviour; kinshiptheory; sex ratio theory; reciprocal altruism; deceit; and the natural selection of sex differences. 'Should be read, can be read by almost anyone. It describes with great skill a new face of the theory of evolution.' W.D. Hamilton, Science
Download or read book The Gene s Eye View of Evolution written by J. Arvid Ågren and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-07-21 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "To many evolutionary biologists, the central challenge of their discipline is to explain adaptation, the appearance of design in the living world. With the theory of evolution by natural selection, Charles Darwin elegantly showed how a purely mechanistic process can achieve this striking feature of nature. Since then, the way many biologists have thought about evolution and natural selection is as a theory about individual organisms. Over a century later, a subtle but radical shift in perspective emerged with the gene's-eye view of evolution in which natural selection was conceptualized as a struggle between genes for replication and transmission to the next generation. This viewpoint culminated with the publication of The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (Oxford University Press, 1976) and is now commonly referred to as selfish gene thinking. The gene's-eye view has subsequently played a central role in evolutionary biology, although it continues to attract controversy. The central aim of this accessible book is to show how the gene's-eye view differs from the traditional organismal account of evolution, trace its historical origins, clarify typical misunderstandings and, by using examples from contemporary experimental work, show why so many evolutionary biologists still consider it an indispensable heuristic. The book concludes by discussing how selfish gene thinking fits into ongoing debates in evolutionary biology, and what they tell us about the future of the gene's-eye view of evolution."--
Download or read book Art and Adaptability written by Gregory F. Tague and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2017-11-13 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Art and Adaptability argues for a co-evolution of theory of mind and material/art culture. The book covers relevant areas from great ape intelligence, hominin evolution, Stone Age tools, Paleolithic culture and art forms, to neurobiology. We use material and art objects, whether painting or sculpture, to modify our own and other people’s thoughts so as to affect behavior. We don’t just make judgments about mental states; we create objects about which we make judgments in which mental states are inherent. Moreover, we make judgments about these objects to facilitate how we explore the minds and feelings of others. The argument is that it’s not so much art because of theory of mind but art as theory of mind.
Download or read book Spirit Work and the Science of Collaboration written by Michael Fullan and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2021-10-06 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michael Fullan and Mark Edwards capture a powerful way forward Today’s challenges have led to a loss of hope at all levels of education leadership. Spirit Work and the Science of Collaboration advocates for the development of two qualities that will bring back hope: "spirit work" and the “science of collaboration”. Built on eight school district cases of success spirit work inspires leaders and community members to join to create a positive powerful culture. The authors delve into new developments in neuroscience to show how spirit and collaboration represent revolutionary potential for education. Readers will find: A lifeline amid overwhelming and exhausting conditions Hope for themselves and the future of education Ideas for building cohesion throughout school communities
Download or read book Consciousness V Catastrophe written by Gillian Ross and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2016-06-25 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." Albert Einstein. The current crises besetting humanity call for a revolution in consciousness and a mystical renaissance that will bring about a whole new story of what it means to be human. To this end, Consciousness v Catastrophe introduces the reader to the new philosophy of Evolutionary Spirituality. It is a philosophy that is engaging visionary scientists, philosophers and spiritual thinkers across the planet. They are forging a new understanding of evolution that honours science, reframes culture and radically updates spirituality. Evolutionary Spirituality celebrates the realization that the creative energy, that has driven the evolution of the universe for billions of years, is now becoming conscious of itself through us. It sees consciousness, not matter, as centre stage in the mystery that is evolution and reconnects us to the sacred dimension of existence. Above all, it helps to liberate us from the contracting concerns of ego, inspiring us to awaken our mystical and creative potential, and serve the bigger picture with humility, gratitude and a profound sense of our unique purpose. The first half of the book looks at the Big Picture of evolution- physical and cultural - and brings the reader into the revolutionary implications of seeing human consciousness as the emerging driving force of evolution replacing natural selection. The second half explores the new story of Evolutionary Spirituality, including its compatibility with contemporary scientific knowledge and the possibilities for consciousness that can be gleaned from the spiritual wisdom of mystics from all times and traditions. With the help of profound quotations and website references, the book aims to inspire the reader to explore the teachings of many of the most prominent evolutionaries who, in their writings and in online conversations and courses, are promoting the consciousness revolution across the planet.
Download or read book Gods Genes and Consciousness written by Paul Von Ward and published by Hampton Roads Publishing. This book was released on 2004 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New edition published as "We're Not Alone" Whether you call them gods, angels, ETs, aliens, or spirit entities, sufficient proof now exists to make the case that history has been influenced by beings more advanced than humans. The evidence suggests they shaped our religions, genes, technology, and cultures. In fact, the impetus for modern civilization appears due to their intervention. Analysis of all types of reported nonhuman consciousness reveals a generic category the author calls Advanced Beings, or ABs. A review of sacred texts, myths and legends, and contemporary reports shows all such entities fit into a natural universe. It includes allegedly divine beings, heavenly hosts, guardians, ascended masters, and intelligences from other planets or other dimensions. Whether from the Pleiades or Yahweh's Heaven, historical, archeological, and scientific evidence now shows we've had their help along the way. While scientists, religious leaders, and governments continue to ignore or deny it, our very identity as a species and its psychological health hang in the balance. How to deal with the effects of such contacts lies at the center of a covert struggle for control of human consciousness. Startlingly, Von Ward explains why institutions do not want to address this question. And he shows how generations have been conditioned to ignore or suppress a significant part of their experience, despite the fact that thousands daily still claim contact with a God or another AB. How did humans reach the point where leaders claim to speak for God in such conflicting ways? Paul Von Ward, also author of Our Solarian Legacy, says resolving the religious and ideological divisions that energize modern terrorism requires people, East and West, to re-examine the origins of notions like "divine revelation," "chosen people," and "a supernatural religion."
Download or read book The Devil Is in the Details written by Michael Fullan and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2020-02-19 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Develop equity, excellence, and well-being across the whole system! The world is troubled! We need to combine a moral imperative and a system transformation to survive for the better. Education is crucial to our future but needs to play a more direct role in shaping our future. The Devil is in the Details shows how we can re-think the education system and its three levels of leadership—local, middle, and top—so that each level can contribute to dramatic turnaround for education and society. The focus is on examining details to ensure effective actions are taken, rather than assuming large pronouncements and policies will drive change. Readers will find: • Details and analysis about successful systems in California, Ontario, and Australia • Ideas for how leaders at all levels can take steps to begin • Vignettes, actions and strategies that illustrate how to address equity, excellence and well-being With the goal of transforming the culture of learning to develop greater equity, excellence, and student wellbeing, this book will help you liberate the system and maintain focus.
Download or read book Genes Memes Culture and Mental Illness written by Hoyle Leigh and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-06-14 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What produces mental illness: genes, environment, both,neither? The answer can be found in memes—replicable units of information linking genes and environment in the memory and in culture—whose effects on individual brain development can be benign or toxic. This book reconceptualizes mental disorders as products of stressful gene-meme interactions and introduces a biopsychosocial template for meme-based diagnosis and treatment. A range of therapeutic modalities, both broad-spectrum (meditation) and specific(cognitive-behavioral), for countering negative memes and their replication are considered, as are possibilities for memetic prevention strategies. In this book, the author outlines the roles of genes and memes in the evolution of the human brain; elucidates the creation, storage, and evolution of memes within individual brains; examines culture as a carrier and supplier of memes to the individual; provides examples of gene-meme interactions that can result in anxiety, depression, and other disorders; proposes a multiaxial gene-meme model for diagnosing mental illness; identifies areas of meme-based prevention for at-risk children; and defines specific syndromes in terms of memetic symptoms, genetic/ memetic development, and meme-based treatment.
Download or read book Culture Mind and Brain written by Laurence J. Kirmayer and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-24 with total page 694 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent neuroscience research makes it clear that human biology is cultural biology - we develop and live our lives in socially constructed worlds that vary widely in their structure values, and institutions. This integrative volume brings together interdisciplinary perspectives from the human, social, and biological sciences to explore culture, mind, and brain interactions and their impact on personal and societal issues. Contributors provide a fresh look at emerging concepts, models, and applications of the co-constitution of culture, mind, and brain. Chapters survey the latest theoretical and methodological insights alongside the challenges in this area, and describe how these new ideas are being applied in the sciences, humanities, arts, mental health, and everyday life. Readers will gain new appreciation of the ways in which our unique biology and cultural diversity shape behavior and experience, and our ongoing adaptation to a constantly changing world.
Download or read book Genes Vs Memes written by Walter A. Koch and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Does Altruism Exist written by David Sloan Wilson and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2015-01-01 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Argues that altruism is an inherent factor of group functionality and discusses how studying group function can promote positive changes to the human condition.
Download or read book Human Natures written by Paul R. Ehrlich and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2001-12-31 with total page 545 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do we behave the way we do? Biologist Paul Ehrlich suggests that although people share a common genetic code, these genes "do not shout commands at us...at the very most, they whisper suggestions." He argues that human nature is not so much result of genetic coding; rather, it is heavily influenced by cultural conditioning and environmental factors. With personal anecdotes, a well-written narrative, and clear examples, Human Natures is a major work of synthesis and scholarship as well as a valuable primer on genetics and evolution that makes complex scientific concepts accessible to lay readers.
Download or read book The Principal 2 0 written by Michael Fullan and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2023-03-14 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Break out of the traditional, narrow role of principal and transform your school for the better In 2014 Michael Fullan set his sights on the daily needs of school leaders in his bestselling book The Principal. This updated edition shows how the principal’s role continues to change—alongside our changing world—and how we can embrace the transformation in short order. As crucial in-school influencers of student learning, principals have an opportunity and an obligation to maximize student achievement. But how? In The Principal 2.0, Fullan explains why the answer lies neither in micro-managing instruction nor in autonomous entrepreneurialism. He shows a new way forward that allows principals to expand their roles without overstepping and contribute to the development of the whole school. Even in difficult times of crisis, there’s room for principals to take action. In The Principal 2.0, Fullan explains how to loosen focus on accountability and instead concentrate on capacity-building; focus less on technology and more on pedagogy; abandon fragmented strategies; and forgo individualistic solutions in favor of collaborative effort. Discover the three key roles that administrators must play in order to have the biggest impact Foster the professional capital of teachers and get more accomplished for all students Find "action items" to help implement this proven program effectively Adopt strategies that have been successfully field-tested in schools across the United States and Canada Discover why The Principal is a bestseller in educational leadership, and strike out into the future with this new edition, updated for the changing role of today’s principals.
Download or read book Consciousness written by Harry Knox and published by Magus Books. This book was released on with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the arena of psychology, no branch is more bizarrely named than "NLP" - neuro-linguistic programming. It doesn't trip off the tongue and the meaning is, how shall we say, opaque. One definition of NLP is that it's "the study of excellence". Another is that it's an approach to communication and personal development. Another is that it's about "how people organize their thinking and language and how this affects behavior". NLP doesn't seem to have a clear-cut definition and is often branded a pseudoscience. It still hasn't achieved mainstream recognition in psychology. A significant difficulty lies in the term itself. What on earth does neuro-linguistic programming mean? It seems like something extremely technical, difficult and scientific rather than a practical means of helping people to lead better and more effective lives, as its proponents claim. Amazingly, the term "neuro-linguistic programming" is ideal for something that seems drastically different from NLP but is the exact reason why NLP works. Neuro-linguistic programming is in fact the perfect way to describe the most baffling phenomenon of all: consciousness. It should become the standard way of referring to consciousness. It involves all the key ingredients: 1) the nervous system (neuro), 2) language (linguistics), and 3) programming (how we program our neural network with language to allow us to use consciousness – a new, acquired, cultural operating system – to override programmed instincts, the old, biological operating system). Humans aren't born conscious. They become conscious as they learn language. Human thought is not conducted "biologically", it is conducted via language, something we were not born with and hence cannot by definition be part of our biology. Consciousness is a humanly acquired new operating system – a cultural, not biological, operating system. It has nothing at all to do with Darwinism, with selfish genes, with random genetic mutations, with the laws of atoms. Consciousness gives us an initial level of programming, and there's then nothing to stop us improving our consciousness, expanding our consciousness, refining our consciousness, altering our consciousness, all in the name of ultimately optimizing our consciousness so that we can lead the best lives of which we are capable. It wasn't Darwinism that brought about a phase change in human evolution. It was language! Come inside and find out all about it.
