Mary Martin

Power is making one description seem more real or natural than others.

This is particularly important because there are already indications that many people who often interact with chatbots attribute consciousness to these systems. At the same time, the consensus among experts is that current AI systems are not conscious.

There are some gifts, by the way, that you do not have to pay for. Gifts that come at no cost. Gifts that do not require wrapping paper. Gifts that do not contribute to climate change. Gifts that can help bring peace and harmony to the world.

Here are 3:

1. The Gift of a Smile.


2. The Gift of Listening.


3. The Gift of Gratitude.

Per this framework, main ingredient to meaningful & flourishing lives: Expand "the phenotypic bound on the amount of surprise people can tolerate in their lives," or: inhabit the goldilocks zone of uncertainty. Fun paper by @PredictiveLife & @JulianKiverste1. Few other riffs:... See more

Learned helplessness, the failure to escape shock induced by uncontrollable aversive events, was discovered half a century ago. Seligman and Maier (1967) theorized that animals learned that outcomes were independent of their responses—that nothing they did mattered – and that this learning undermined trying to escape. The mechanism of learned... See more

what would education look like if the goal is human and planetary flourishing?

Coming to terms with climate change and its effects while living in constant uncertainty about the world’s future is challenging for any human being.

The Futures Triangle can also be used for inner

work. The pull of the future is where one

wishes to be, the desired personal life one

imagines for oneself. The weight of the past can

be blocks - inner or outer - preventing one from

achieving the vision. The pushes of the present

can be enablers or externals pushes one needs

to navigate.

"A lot of how we feel," she explains, "is all about the systems we interact with, whether they're other people or technology. We're interacting increasingly with technology over time, and I think things like how much time we spend staring at screens, our phones and social media is impacting our mental health. So maybe, by having machines that have... See more