Category Archives: Deep Mind
DeepMind exec Andrew Eland leaves to launch startup – Sifted
Were looking at ways software can help address equity/health outcomes/climate adaptation through the lens of cities and the urban environment.
He added: Obviously software is a just a tiny part of that space. We have not officially raised anything right now, still working on strategy.
If Eland does decide to raise capital then it might not be too hard to convince investors to back the company. Last month, Sifted reported that venture capital funds are lining up to back ex-DeepMinders.
I think its a great training ground for people who are interested in founding their own business, said Chris Smith, a partner at Playfair Capital. I dont think weve backed any [ex-DeepMinders] yet but were certainly starting to see founders coming through.
DeepMind was acquired by Google in 2014 for around 400m but today it sits as part of Google parent company Alphabet.
In February 2016 The Guardian reported that no one had ever left DeepMind, but fast forward to 2019 and its a different story.
DeepMind now has around 1,000 staff and this year there were a number of high-profile departures, with the most notable being DeepMind cofounder Mustafa Suleyman, who went on leave for several months before announcing last week that he plans to join Google in 2020.
Overall, churn remains low at DeepMind and relatively few people have left (which may have something to do with the six-figure salaries there), but ex-DeepMinders do exist now.
Other notable DeepMind exits this year include Jack Kelly, who left in Januaryto run a non-profit product development lab called Open Climate Fix, which aims to develop technologies to combat climate change.
Open Climate Fix is entirely focused on using open-science to mitigate climate change, Kelly told Sifted. The aim of our first project is to reduce emissions from the electricity system by building the best near-term solar electricity forecasting system. Were using machine learning, satellite imagery and numerical weather predictions.
Research scientist Edward Grefenstette also left in January to join Facebooks Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR) division as a research scientist. Grefenstette was one of the most senior researchers at DeepMind.
People who worked there a few years ago felt they were having massive impact, says Smith. Now its sort of a little bit like walking through treacle and it makes life a little bit more difficult.
DeepMind did not provide a comment.
Continued here:
DeepMind exec Andrew Eland leaves to launch startup - Sifted
The Top 10 Diners In Deep East Texas, According To Yelp – ksfa860.com
When I say the worddiner, most people get the image of a restaurant complete with booths, jukeboxes, waiters/waitresses jetting around on roller skates, etc. As far as that image goes, we don't have many of those in our area.
However, one of the actual definitions of diner, from Dictionary.com is "a small, informal, and usually inexpensive restaurant." Now, when you use that definition, it adds a bunch of options from Deep East Texas. So, with that in mind, I decided to check out Yelp, to see who ranked at the top of the list for best diners. This is what I found:
So there you have it, the top 10 diners in Deep East Texas, at least according to Yelp reviews. I'm still waiting for that Waffle House to show up, so that maybe it'll make the list, too.
Until then, I think that the Yelp list is a pretty solid one. What about you? Do you agree with it, or would you make some changes? Let us know in the comment section below!
More:
The Top 10 Diners In Deep East Texas, According To Yelp - ksfa860.com
3 breathing exercises to reduce stress, anxiety and a racing mind – Irish Examiner
Its often said the most powerful tools for taking care of our wellbeing are the ones that already exist within us and breathing is prime example.
Breathing techniques feature in countless therapeutic forms and practices, from yoga, mindfulness and meditation, to self-help exercises for managing anxiety, insomnia and overwhelm. How we breathe can have profound physiological effects, triggering changes in our heart rate and brain chemistry and in turn our conscious state.
And its been catching on in the mainstream, particularly over this past year. According to Google, 2019 saw a 219% rise in searches for breathing apps a trend thats predicted to keep growing.
Even better news? Breathing exercises are something all of us can do for free, by ourselves, whenever and wherever we feel like it. There are lots of different techniques and approaches out there and they might not all be for you if something isnt working or doesnt appeal, try something else.
Here, three breathing experts talk through some simple ways to give it a go
1. To help tackle high-stress situations
When we are under pressure or in the midst of a high-stress situation, the breath naturally becomes fast and shallow, and more centred in the chest. This happens as a result of the bodys fight or flight response, which is crucial in times of imminent danger, but not helpful in other everyday situations, says Dominique Antiglio, a sophrologist at BeSophro clinics and author of The Life-Changing Power Of Sophrology (be-sophro.com).
To relax the nervous system, use a technique called abdominal breathing to shift the breathing from your chest down to your tummy, where you can breathe more deeply, slowly and calmly. This in turn helps to relax your muscles and slow down any racing thoughts, so you can think more clearly. The next time you experience an intense or anxiety-inducing experience, engage this form of deep breathing and notice how much calmer and controlled you feel after only a few minutes.
To do it, she suggests finding a seat if possible, although it can also be done standing up or lying down if needs. Place one hand on your chest, the other on your tummy, and close your eyes. Breathe in and out naturally a few times to establish your rhythm and as you do so, notice the movement of your hands, Antiglio adds. Then, when youre ready, imagine you have a balloon where your tummy is, and as you inhale, the balloon starts to inflate, then as you exhale, the balloon deflates.
Count the length of your in-breath and breathe out to twice the length so in for three counts and out for six. Repeat this process mindfully for two to three minutes and you will notice your breath naturally starts to shift from the chest to the tummy. You can also continue to do this for as long as you need in order to feel calm and re-centred again.
2. If youre curious about mindful meditation
For yoga teacher and breathwork leader Sapphire Leena Brown, who runs group breathwork workshops across the UK and beyond (@sapphire.leena), breathing techniques are at the centre of her personal approach to wellness and working with clients.
For those curious about harnessing the breath in mindfulness meditation, she suggests giving this exercise by international lecturer, researcher and author Dr Joe Dispenza a go.
Begin by sitting down, with your back straight, and start to focus on your breath. As you inhale, breathe in long and slow. During the in breath, pull in your perineum (the muscles beneath your tailbone and pelvic floor), then your lower abdomen and finally your upper abdomen, she explains. Do all this while imagining that you are pulling up the kundalini energy from your sacrum like sucking it through a straw. When your lungs are full to the max, you pull in the perineum and the belly muscles even more. Squeeze and hold the breath here for as long as you can. Exhale and start all over again.
She suggests starting with doing this for just three minutes then slowly building up as you become more familiar and relaxed with the technique.
3. If youre prone to anxiety
Joel Jelen, founder of Reset Breathing which runs workplace wellbeing workshops (resetbreathing.com), notes that hyperventilation, or over-breathing, is a big factor in anxiety. But this is something we can all benefit from keeping in mind, and Jelen says its not just the pace of your breathing that matters but also using your nose.
The foundation of good health is to breathe slowly, through the nose only, silent never take deep breaths, sigh or yawn with your mouth open, he says. In fact, breathe as often through your mouth as you eat through your nose! Mouth breathing when not exercising causes anxiety and puts us in a state of fight or flight.
A great way to reduce anxiety is to regularly employ a Buteyko (pronounces boo-tay-ko) breathing technique involving many small breath holds, Jelen suggests. Exhale through the nose, pinch your nose with fingers and thumb, breath hold for three to five seconds, resume breathing for 10 seconds, repeat for up to six repetitions. This can kill off panic attacks within 30 seconds. The key is to learn and commit to breathing techniques that enable you to breathe much slower and optimally for example, during your sleep that will set you up perfectly for the day.
More here:
3 breathing exercises to reduce stress, anxiety and a racing mind - Irish Examiner
The Case for Limitlessness Has Its Limits: Review of Limitless Mind by Joe Boaler – Education Next – EducationNext
Limitless Mind: Learn, Lead, and Live without Barriersby Jo BoalerHarperCollins, 2019, $26.99; 256 pages.
As reviewed by Daniel Ansari
Perhaps its true that you cant judge a book by its coverbut the bright splashes of color on the cover of Limitless Mind certainly suggest that this book will be full of positive messages. And it is. Jo Boaler, a professor of mathematics education at Stanford, devotes a chapter to each of six learning keys. Each key is a variation on the overall theme of the book, which sets out to make the case that intelligence is not a fixed entity, and that most everyone has the potential to learn most anything. In parts, this volume reads like a self-help book for developing positive self-beliefs and unleashing ones previously unknown intellectual powers. It contains touching anecdotes and examples of how to apply the keys to achieving a limitless mind, with particular attention to math. However, while the books content is a mile wide, its substance is little more than an inch deep.
The central themes of the book are aligned with Boalers previous volume, Mathematical Mindsets, but here she recasts her message to address audiences beyond K12 math educators. As in the earlier book, Boaler grounds her main thesis in Carol Dwecks highly popular mindset theory, which holds that many children and adults have fixed mindsets: they believe they have limited competencies and will hit a distinct ceiling in what they can learn and do. Individuals with a growth mindset, by contrast, believe that if they apply themselves and work hard, they can overcome challenges and continue to acquire new knowledge and skills. There is, of course, much to like about the notion that students can change their mindsets, alter the way they view their own learning, come to realize that with work and practice they can build their skills, and ultimately understand that learning involves struggle.
Unfortunately, Boalers review of the empirical literature on efforts to change mindsets uses outdated studies and overstates the effects of the interventions. Some of the early studies on this subject did indeed suggest that mindset interventions among students had large transfer effects on their academic learning, but subsequent work with larger, more representative samples of students has shown that these effects are, at best, modestand possibly, nonexistent. A recent study with more than 12,000 U.S. 9th graders showed that, following less than an hour of computerized mindset intervention, lower-achieving students raised their grade point averages by 0.1 points in subjects such as math, science, and Englishrepresenting a small but significant transfer effect. In contrast, a randomized controlled trial conducted by the United Kingdoms Education Endowment Foundation found almost no evidence for a positive effect of a mindset intervention targeted at both students and their teachers. In sum, the evidence from these large-scale trials is mixed, and the positive effects reported are smaller than those conveyed in some of the earlier work on mindset intervention that Boaler cites in her book. The newest research does not support the books strong claims about mindset.
Ironically, despite reviews and blog posts pointing out Boalers clear errors of interpretation and inference in her previous writings, she adopts a fixed mindset when it comes to scientific evidence, continuing her past tendency to play fast and loose with these findings and to ignore those that run counter to her narrative.
In Chapter 2, for example, the author discusses research on neuronal plasticitythe ability of the brain to change in its structure and activity as a function of learning and skills acquisition. She uses evidence that the brain changes when we learn and that it can recover (at least partially) from injury as support for her assertion that all humans can do anything they put their minds to and that there are no differences between them in terms of their learning potential. In so doing, Boaler paints brain plasticity as invariably positive. However, brain plasticity is a biological mechanism by which organisms adapt to their environments. It is neither positive nor negative, and it offers no direct implications for the way scientists think about learning and education. Certainly, if brains were not capable of changing there would be no point in having schools and other places of learning, but beyond this basic fact, the tangible implications of brain plasticity are limited. Our brains are changing all the time, but it does not follow that our learning capabilities are limitless.
Similarly, Boaler takes evidence that brain regions are connected to one another to suggest that people benefit from a multidimensional approach to teaching and learning. In teaching math, for instance, such an approach would focus not just on solving problems and applying formulas but also on building such skills as asking good questions, interpreting a problem in various ways, using logic and reasoning, and explaining concepts to others. The author states that anyone can learn the content of any subject with a multidimensional approach. Not only is this a very strong claim about the equipotentiality of learners, but its link to research on brain connectivity is nothing but tenuous.
Boaler also presents a ringing endorsement of the educational approaches of Barbara Arrowsmith, who has developed a commercial program to help students with learning disabilities. The program is based on an idiosyncratic interpretation of brain plasticity inspired by Arrowsmiths own experience with brain injury. In her enthusiastic discussion of Arrowsmiths approach, Boaler does not mention that the program has not been supported by rigorous empirical evidence, such as a randomized controlled trial, and has been widely criticized by leading developmental psychologists.
Throughout the book, Boaler adopts such an extreme nurture bias that I almost expected her to endorse the tabula rasa view of child development: that children are born as blank slates without biological constraints on how they learn and develop. In overemphasizing nurture, Boaler ignores mountains of research showing that nature does influence differences between people: our genetic makeups do make us different from each other. Boaler briefly acknowledges that at birth everyone is born with their own unique brain, and there are differences between peoples brains, but she undercuts that by going on to say, but the differences people are born with are eclipsed by the many ways people can change their brains. This argument, and the even more startling assertion that less than 0.001 percent of individuals are influenced by the capabilities they were born with, are offered without any substantiating evidence.
The messages of Limitless Mind might leave some readers feeling positive and upliftedbut ignoring the truth that people vary in their abilities and learning potential could leave others frustrated that, even after adopting a growth mindset and a multidimensional approach, they still dont succeed in their learning as fully as others. It is unscientific to ignore the well-established fact that both nature and nurture have complex effects on learning and development and indeed are related to one another. Claims to the contrary set up dangerous and unrealistic expectations. Instead of buying in to the irresponsible message that we all have exactly the same potential, educators might do well to embrace the diversity of human skills and ability and seek to design educational environments that allow individuals to express who they are. Rather than proclaiming the limitlessness of all minds, teachers and parents might choose to place no limits on their appreciation of, and compassion for, the numerous, fascinating differences among people.
Daniel Ansari is a professor in the Department of Psychology and the Faculty of Education at Western University, Canada.
Continued here:
In sight but out of mind – The Hindu
In her 2009-11 film Synapse, artist Reena Kallat displayed the Preamble of the Indian Constitution in an eye chart that people could only read fragmentally. Then, Verso-Recto-Verso, a 2017-19 installation depicted different countries constitutions on tie-and-dye scrolls in Roman alphabets that morphed into Braille. The text, illegible to the sighted and the blind, lamented the nations inability to comprehend common values. Now in her new ongoing show, Blind Spots, Kallat incorporates a contraption under which viewers hear voices of people from opposing sides of conflict, reciting the English alphabet on either ear. The artist recorded 14 voices from regions like Sudan, India Bangladesh, Cuba and the USA. The content is the same, she acknowledges, but its execution with varying accents generates difference, producing a collusion of sounds. The disparities are supplemented by a projection featuring texts in the form of Snellen eye charts that highlight shared ideas from preambles between the countries. The texts written in English also transform into Braille, a universal language that doesnt belong to any geography, Kallat explains. The multi-sensorial discord that viewers experience reveals how common tenets between conflict-areas are masked politically but it is up to individuals to contest such opacities.
Although some of her family members were displaced from Lahore during the Partition, Kallat was born and raised in secular Mumbai. Fundamentalism only reared its head during the 1992-3 riots and Kallat subsequently began exploring Partition to understand its consequences, triggering an engagement with global territorial conflicts. Artists such as Mona Hatoum, Amar Kanwar, Nalini Malani, and Nasreen Mohamedi, had a deep impression on her during Kallats early practice.
Today, Kallat is acclaimed for her work that exposes the belligerence associated with disputed territories worldwide. She has become a significant voice in contemporary art, reminding viewers to remain vigilant towards what is deliberately made obscure, to understand the arbitrariness of political divides, and to undermine apparatuses that manipulate perception.
Kallats works defy the seeming perpetuity of borders or man-made incisions that define nation-states. In the ongoing exhibition, her 2017 diptych Cleft is displayed for the first time in Mumbai alongside her recent suite of drawings, Leaking Lines and a series of digital-prints entitled Shifting Ecotones-2 that also address cartography. Kallats hybrid-species Cleft, merges flora and fauna of hostile neighbour-states. The work depicts a globe that is severed by superimposed barbed-wires. The wires simultaneously signify conduits or carriers of information that bring the world closer, as well as barriers that tear regions apart, encapsulating the contradiction of our times, says the artist. In Leaking Lines, Kallat intentionally renders partitioned border-lines such as the Radcliffe Line, Curzon Line, and McMahon Line among others to draw attention to the line as a formal artistic device. In these drawings, the borders appear as abstract forms presented alongside charcoal renderings of the territories they represent. Viewed in panoramic form, one notices an undulating continuation of the lines, divorced from the physical realities they signify. Kallat emphasises the magnitude of how violent the implications of these border-lines have been in relation to their immateriality. Their arbitrariness is further exposed in Kallats Shifting Ecotones-2 that depicts picturesque renderings of rivers that partitioned regions share. These include the Indus, Danube, and Teesta Rivers among others, featured with texts that describe the impact conflict has had on their courses.
Represented in the form of grids, Kallat deliberately leaves parts of her images empty to portray literal blind spots, and obscures the texts with wires to challenge their legibility. The practise of political map-making is destabilised by the predominance given to physical geography and the ecosystems that transcend borders. The natural elements recall deeper time to remind viewers of the often disregarded historical specificity of seemingly eternal political constructs.
Kallat has worked frequently with or made references to bureaucratic tools such as stamps, coins, and official records. In her sonic installations, Chorus I and II on display, the artist replicates surveillance devices (acoustic mirrors) that were used during the Second World War to trace enemy aircraft. In this work, she replaces the sound of machines with the chirp of birds that represent conflicted nations such as the peacock (India) and the chukar (Pakistan). The work throws light on the fact that although the birds are emblematic of particular nations, the regions they inhabit are determined by terrain, not politics, and no country can claim ownership to them. Additionally by transforming and disrupting the function of a device used during war, Kallat explodes the need for territorial disputes altogether, commenting on the triviality of their premises.
At a time when seemingly banal structures enforce strong ideologies that propagate antagonism across the world, Kallats works draw attention to universal truths to subvert the underpinnings of conflicts. In these polarised times where the gaps in our understanding of the truth is increasingly widening, I hope we can still find some space to reflect upon our own shortcomings in understanding other perspectives and move beyond the many borders, visible and invisible, to recognise our interdependence, says Kallat.
Blind Spots is on at Chemould Prescott Road till December, 28.
Link:
Blockchain in Healthcare Market to 2027 By Top Leading Players: iSolve LLC, Healthcoin, Deepmind Health, IBM Corporation, Microsoft Corporation,…
The Insight Partners published an Exclusive report on Blockchain in Healthcare Market delivering key insights and providing a competitive advantage to clients through a detailed report. The report contains 150 pages which highly exhibits on current market analysis scenario, upcoming as well as future opportunities, revenue growth, pricing and profitability.
Advance technologies including blockchain and deep learning can help in saving costs, increase data flow, improve regulatory compliance, and enhance patient experience and outcomes. In 2017, FDA and IBM Watson partnered to secure patient data exchange by leveraging blockchain technology.
Request a sample of this premium report at: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/sample/TIPRE00002964/
Key Players
1. iSolve LLC2. Gem3. Deepmind Health4. IBM Corporation5. Microsoft Corporation6. Factom Inc7. PokitDok Inc8. SimplyVital Health Inc.9. Proof.Work10. Guardtime
Global Blockchain in Healthcare Market which has been compiled after an in-depth analysis of the market trends prevailing across five geographies (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle-East and Africa, and South America). Various segments of the market such as type/components/ application/industry verticals/ end-users are analyzed with robust research methodology which includes three step process starting with extensive secondary research to gather data from company profiles, global/regional associations, trade journals, technical white papers, paid databases etc. followed by primary research (interviews) with industry experts/KOLs to gain their insights and views on current scenarios and future scope of the market as well as validating the secondary information, further internal statistical model is used to estimate the market size and forecasts till 2027.
Currently, several healthcare systems are facing challenges attributed to limited access to care, exorbitant costs, imprecise reimbursement models, and the unreliable quality of patient safety & care. This has resulted in the innovative formation of the new accurate healthcare ecosystem.
Blockchain in Healthcare Market Global Analysis to 2027 is an expert compiled study which provides a holistic view of the market covering current trends and future scope with respect to product/service, the report also covers competitive analysis to understand the presence of key vendors in the companies by analyzing their product/services, key financial facts, details SWOT analysis and key development in last three years. Further chapter such as industry landscape and competitive landscape provides the reader with recent company level insights covering mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, collaborations, new product developments/strategies taking place across the ecosystem. The chapters also evaluate the key vendors by mapping all the relevant products and services to exhibit the ranking/position of top 5 key vendors.
Ask for a discount on this report @ https://www.theinsightpartners.com/discount/TIPRE00002964/
Table of Content:Chapter 1. MethodologyChapter 2. Executive SummaryChapter 3. Blockchain in Healthcare Industry InsightsChapter 4. Blockchain in Healthcare Market, By TechnologyChapter 5. Blockchain in Healthcare Market, By End-userChapter 6. Blockchain in Healthcare Market, By RegionChapter 7. Company Profiles
Link:
Lindsey Graham: ‘I Have Made Up My Mind’ to Exonerate Trump and ‘Don’t Need Any Witnesses’ WATCH – Towleroad
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Face The Nation that he doesnt need to hear from any witnesses before taking a vote on Trumps impeachment.
Said Graham: I think whats best for the country is to get this thing over with. I [have] clearly made up my mind, Im not trying to hide the fact that I have disdain for the accusations in the process, so I dont need any witnesses. I am ready to vote on the underlying articles, I dont really need to hear a lot of witnesses.
Axios adds: Graham recently told Axiosthat he believes its best to deep-six a possible impeachment trial as quickly as possible, which potentially clashes with Trumps desire to have Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and other White House officials stage a public defense of his dealings with Ukraine.
Read more from the original source:
‘Echo Chamber’ as Author of the ‘Hive Mind’ – Ricochet.com
A continuing theme on Scott Adams blog is to challenge oneself to come up with more innocent explanations for events that otherwise lend themselves to conspiracy thinking. For example, Scott challenges us to consider whether the 17 mistakes all made in the same direction in the FISA application process to surveil the Trump campaign can have any explanation other than conspiracy? To be clear: Conspiracy involves a plan and coordinated action in pursuit of that plan. This is different from bias.
Scott Adams, as I understand his commentary, is floating the idea that federal agents did act in a biased, but not conspiratorial, fashion. (At least until the Durham investigation reveals any single large conspiracy or multiple small conspiracies taking advantage of other peoples bias.) We all have our biases, but they become dangerous problems when they become the basis for state action. So even if you rule out a conspiracy, it remains important to understand the source and development of certain forms of bias that can infect state action.
Scott even goes so far as to say that the source of the bias that led to the Russia Hoax was the feedback loop between the media and the government. Remember, a clap requires two hands. If you wave one without contact with the other, there is air movement but no sound. So it was that whatever scheme the Clinton/DNC came up with to smear and defeat Trump (or presumably any other Republican rival that emerged) would have no effect unless picked up and publicized in the media. Once the media actually responded to the provocation an echo chamber was established that amplified and intensified the desired feelings of fear and loathing.
This was the start of the hive mind the alignment of thinking and (when opportunity arose) action. Like cranking up the power on an electromagnet, people with strong bias were fused to the narrative and people with weaker biases were drawn closer to cooperation and consideration of actions previously thought unacceptable. This is the dynamic of mobs: from discontent to rumor; to shouting and to force.
Although the Russia hoax was a particularly pernicious and consequential event, it is by no means sui generis. We have seen this on a smaller scale and with lesser national impact: the Covington boys, the Duke Lacrosse case, etc. In each event, an echo chamber was created to crowd out dissent and alternative narratives that led to a hive mind and mob action. When government officials are inclined or induced to promote or cooperate in a given action or set of actions, the consequences to society are grave, to say nothing to the devastation of individuals for which no monetary compensation can provide repair.
Humans being humans, these events will continue to arise. But we can limit their consequence to the broader society by fidelity to our constitution and its due process protections for individuals. (No, contra Representative Quigley [D-TX], hearsay is never better than direct evidence, even if in a given case a particular specie of hearsay may be more credible than a given piece of direct evidence.) This becomes ever more important as our cultural institutions are under hive mind pressures. It may not be a conspiracy, but it is a mob mentality that our government cannot be permitted to embrace.
The Deep State is actually a form of hive mind. The solution to the hive mind problem is to attack the echo chamber that supports it. And this is what Trump is doing to great effect. But is he just creating an alternative echo chamber and a competing hive mind? Is it just Godzilla vs. King Kong? For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Events will give us the answer. Pray that we like it.
Go here to read the rest:
Winning the War Against Thinking – So you’ve emptied your brain. Now what? – Chabad.org
I like to sit and think. People think Im mad.
Try it. Sit down on a park bench and start thinking deeply. Within two minutes, someone will put their hand on your shoulder and ask if everything is okay. The guy sitting next to you has already called 911. Another well-meaning person comes running, Im a paramedic!
People are meant to sit and think. Thats what grey matter does. Its called contemplation and its something that our ancestors spent hours a day doingwhile gazing at the stars, tending the sheep, or on those many long walks from place to place pre-Henry Ford. They were thinking about stuff. Whatever they wanted to think about.
No, not worrying. Not fantasizing. Proactively pondering a certain thought for more than 10 seconds. Contemplating.
Today our senses are inundated by a torrent of data buried within rivers of noise on all channels from all directions and attacking all senses until the brain simply has no RAM left for actual thinking. Thats why many of us seek out a person who will teach us how to make room for our own thoughtsa meditation or mindfulness coach. And, yes, they teach us how to calm and empty our minds. Very nice.
But they stop there. ThatsMeditation used to mean filling your mind with your own thoughts. Now it means emptying your brain from any thoughts at all. the problem. Thats how contemplation gets hijacked. Meditation used to mean filling your mind with your own thoughts. Now it means emptying your brain from any thoughts at all.
Quietness. Serenity. Sounds so blissful. And it is. Until it becomes an end in itself. Then its a dead end.
Because thats not what your mind was made for, thats not what any of the original teachers intended, and thats not what you, as a human being in this overwhelming world, need right now.
All that serenity is just a prerequisite to something far more vital and important: Thinking for yourself.
Do you hear your thoughts? Its a question Ive asked many people. Responses vary: Some of the time. Doesnt everybody? or even It drives me nuts! How do I get it to stop?
But the most common answer is something like No, Im perfectly sane, thank you. Accompanied by one of those looks that says, What kind of a wacko is this? Hey is this the same nutcase I saw sitting on a bench in the park?
Or just a blank stare.
That could be half of humanity. Maybe much more. Intelligent, well-educated people. But they have no room in their lives for listening to the thoughts zipping across the neuro-connectors of their brain.
All Im trying to point out are two simple truths that everyOnce aware of your thoughts, you can grab the leash and take those thoughts to wherever you wish. book of wisdom takes for granted: 1) You, as an adult human being, are aware of your thoughts and 2) therefore you can grab the leash and take those thoughts to wherever you wish.
Todays American-styled mindfulness and meditation, with a good teacher, can help address #1. As for #2grabbing the leashthese offerings, as currently packaged, just leave you hanging.
Think healthy thoughts! we tell people. Whenever one of those ugly, toxic, pull-me-down thoughts floats up into your head, dont react in the slightest. Just choose another healthy, inspiring thought to think instead.
The common response? What are you talking about? You cant choose your thoughts. They just are!
The truth is, even if youre eager to switch thoughts in midstream and believe it to be possible, it doesnt come so easy. Someone needs to provide guidance, coaching, techniques, and strategies for contemplating those healthy thoughts.
There are plenty of strategies. Among them:
There are so many more. All take time and effort to develop. Choose some that work for you. Develop your own. After a few weeks, youll find you can slip in and out of thinking modality with ease. In a conducive, quiet environment, free of distractions (I knowfinding one of those nowadays is like striking goldjust avoid park benches), you should be able to keep mostly focused for up to an hour.
Okay, try ten minutes. But, hey, 60 seconds is also darn good.
You want inspiring thoughts. Joyful thoughts. Thoughts that will lift you up and carry you high through life. Funny thing, but rarely will you see people walking out of a philosophy class singing and dancing. So you need to look for thoughts that do thatthat nurture the soul and give it life.
Try some of the many deep, subtle and rich concepts of the inner Torah. Torah is about life, and the inner Torah is about your inner life, the universes inner life, and Gds inner life. When you ponder thoughts of life, you come alive and celebrate life.
Youll find plenty of inner Torah thoughts to ponder in our Building Blocks or ChabadThink. Chabad is actually an acronym for the three faculties of the mind as they are described in traditional and kabbalistic writings: Chochmah, Binah and Daat.
The Chabad approach considersFood is only nourishing when chewed well, swallowed and metabolized. The same with knowledge. knowledge of the inner Torah as food for the soul. Food is only nourishing when chewed well, swallowed and metabolized. The same with knowledgeespecially those rich and juicy chunks of knowledge that are vital nutrition for your soul: You have to chew them until you reach that daat-point.
Heres how: Think of ways by which this lofty idea applies to your personal life. Try to envision what it means in your world. And think it clearly, as though you had to explain this to a simple person.
Youll find yourself returning to the core idea itself, again and again, reaching yet further into its depth, seeking to isolate its essential point so that you can tie that to your reality. Thats the dance between chochmah and binah as they create daat. And daat is what will flow out into your heart and limbs in real life.
When you and your knowledge become one, your ideals play out naturally in real-time. Everything about life becomes much deeper and richer. Meditation of this sort takes your experience of Judaism, the Torah and its mitzvot to a whole new level.
Then there are some important tips to keep your mind focused:
Why is this important? Well, its your 2.5 lbs. of grey matter, so why shouldnt you learn how to control it yourself? But there are many reasons besides. Like:
But heres my #1 most urgent reason we better reclaim contemplation and do it now: The time is swiftly approaching when well look at a machine and say, Whats the difference between me and it?
Guess what? If we dont know how to reflect on our own thoughts and take them where we want them to go, there isnt really much difference.
Lets win the war against autonomous contemplation before its too late and weve already surrendered to the machines.
Where should we begin? In public school. All Lets teach quiet thinking in preschool.the way down to preschool. Give every child a minute or so each morning when the teacher instructs, Now is the time for each of you to think about whatever you choose to think. Whatever is most important in your life. It's your own moment with your mind and your heart.
Read more about that plan in our Moment of Silence section.
Think about it seriously. We could liberate an entire generation.
Link:
Winning the War Against Thinking - So you've emptied your brain. Now what? - Chabad.org
DeepMind proposes novel way to train safe reinforcement learning AI – VentureBeat
Reinforcement learning agents or AI thats progressively spurred toward goals via rewards (or punishments) form the foundation of self-driving cars, dexterous robots, and drug discovery systems. But because theyre predisposed to explore unfamiliar states, theyre susceptible to whats called the safe exploration problem, wherein they become fixated on unsafe states (like a mobile robot driving into a ditch, say).
Thats why researchers at Alphabets DeepMind investigated in a paper a method for reward modeling that operates in two phases and is applicable to environments in which agents dont know where unsafe states might be. The researchers say their approach not only successfully trains a reward model to detect unsafe states without visiting them, it can correct reward hacking (loopholes in the reward specification) before the agent is deployed even in new and unfamiliar environments.
Interestingly, their work comes shortly after the release of San Francisco-based research firm OpenAIs Safety Gym, a suite of tools for developing AI that respects safety constraints while training and that compares its safety to the extent it avoids mistakes while learning. Safety Gym similarly targets reinforcement learning agents with constrained reinforcement learning, a paradigm that requires AI systems to make trade-offs to achieve defined outcomes.
The DeepMind teams approach encourages agents to explore a range of states through hypothetical behaviors generated by two systems: a generative model of initial states and a forward dynamics model, both trained on data like random trajectories or safe expert demonstrations. A human supervisor labels the behaviors with rewards, and the agents interactively learn policies to maximize their rewards. Only after the agents have successfully learned to predict rewards and unsafe states are they deployed to perform desired tasks.
Above: DeepMinds safe reinforcement learning approach tested on OpenAI Gym, an environment for AI benchmarking and training.
Image Credit: DeepMind
As the researchers point out, the key idea is the active synthesis of hypothetical behaviors from scratch to make them as informative as possible, without interacting with the environment directly. The DeepMind team calls it reward query synthesis via trajectory optimization, or ReQueST, and explains that it generates four types of hypothetical behaviors in total. The first type maximizes the uncertainty of an ensemble of reward models, while the second and third maximize the predicted rewards (to elicit labels for behaviors with the highest information value) and minimize predicted rewards (to surface behaviors for which the reward model might be incorrectly predicting). As for the fourth category of behavior, it maximizes the novelty of trajectories so as to encourage exploration regardless of predicted rewards.
Finally, once the reward model reaches a satisfactory state, a planning-based agent is deployed one that leverages model-predictive control (MPC) to pick actions optimized for the learned rewards. Unlike model-free reinforcement learning algorithms that learn through trial and error, this MPC enables agents to avoid unsafe states by using the dynamics model to anticipate actions consequences.
To our knowledge, ReQueST is the first reward modeling algorithm that safely learns about unsafe states and scales to training neural network reward models in environments with high-dimensional, continuous states, wrote the coauthors of the study. So far, we have only demonstrated the effectiveness of ReQueST in simulated domains with relatively simple dynamics. One direction for future work is to test ReQueST in 3D domains with more realistic physics and other agents acting in the environment.
Read the original here:
DeepMind proposes novel way to train safe reinforcement learning AI - VentureBeat