There is no ethically legitimate shortcut to population-scale change that bypasses population-scale learning. Ideas that posit change propagating from a small enlightened subset to transform the many—whether framed as morphogenetic fields, 100th Monkey transference, spiritual awakenings, or “miracles”—share a common flaw: they erase agency. They imagine that human transformation can happen without participation, consent, or […]
Lessons in Pluribus Read More »
I had been sharing images of the latest U.S. reading scores since 2003. Usually in the form of stop signs, like these from 2003, 2017, and 2023. Watching these scores remain so close to flatline for 20 years led me to create a video called “A Brief Tour Through Decades of U.S. Reading Scores“.
After Decades of Literacy Improficiency… Read More »
End summary: This considers learning a self-renewing participation in meaning, not the acquisition of information. This aligns with Bohm, Varela, Piaget, but goes beyond each by adding: • a geometry (parabola) • a mechanism (co-implication density) • an apex (inflection) • a cycle (wingbeat) • a unifying scope (micro → macro) Advantages of this definition
The Beating Wings of Learning Read More »
Have you ever noticed someone veer off on a tangent? Have you ever noticed your how your own thoughts migrate off into tangents? I mean by “tangent migrations”, changes to the direction of the unfoldment of meaning in the stream of consciousness or a train of thought due to the emotional charge of a memory
HOW DID THAT COME TO MIND? Meta-tations and the Illusion of Free Agency Read More »
I received an invitation to participate in a group working at the intersection of faith and AI. Looking into them, I discovered this in their mission statement: …to bring the fundamental values of the world’s major religions into the debate… Which prompted me to ask… Based on the way the world’s major religions relate to
The Toxic Core of Organized Religions Read More »
Thought experiment: Imagine every word you have ever learned has been erased from your memory. How would you be different? Without words can you even imagine the difference? Not only would you be missing the words’ meanings, you’d be missing all the distinctions, knowledge, and mental abilities that you learned through words. How could you
Through The Word, YOU Read More »
I’ve been very fortunate to be included in an email group with around fifty leading thinkers in healthcare and health science. The groups main initiator is Dr. Rick Lippin, who I’ve have known through correspondence only for 20 years. He is amazing at stirring up good conversations. He appreciates my perspective and occasionally tags me
Learning Into Hormesis Read More »
In his “Looking in the Mirror” episode of “Lyrics of Livin” (hear him in full below), Matthew McConaughey, with his distinctly cool gravitas, says: “AI’s a big mirror we’re holding up to ourselves, but it’s still only a reflection” My first response was who is he talking about? The “we’re” seems like a future historian’s
Looking Through McConaughey’s Mirror Read More »
Still preclinical, but now backed by convergent 2018→2025 evidence, PBN Y1R is the central, non-opioid switch for enduring pain. Do you understand the thesis implicit in: “Scientists Found the Potential Off Button for Stopping Chronic Pain”: Nicholas Betley from the University of Pennsylvania has discovered that a previously overlooked group of neurons in the parabrachial
RE: “Scientists Found the Potential Off Button for Stopping Chronic Pain” Read More »
Our learning makes our animal emotionality human. Whatever is important is only important because it’s emotionally important. Whatever is emotionally important is only emotionally important because we learned it to be. Though emotion has is own biological logic, the context it’s operating within is always learned. What we feel as emotionally important is not an
Emotional Learning Read More »