Mary Martin

Hyperstition is a positive feedback circuit including culture as a component. It can be defined as the experimental (techno-)science of self-fulfilling prophecies. Superstitions are merely false beliefs, but hyperstitions — by their very existence as ideas — function causally to bring about their own reality.

Intensive meditation, even after only one day, can also affect gene regulation in your brain through similar mechanisms. Attending a monthlong meditation retreat reduces the expression of genes that affect inflammation, and experienced meditators can reduce inflammatory genes after just one day of intensive mediation.

our preoccupation with facts – the information that links us to each other – perhaps causes us to disregard other ways of understanding meaning in our relationships, such as touch, intuition and facial expressions.

The Empathy Trap: Lessons from Contemplative Medicine | Jud Brewer

“When we can see how being with suffering doesn't deplete us, and, in fact, energizes us... then also we can know what our limits are, instead of trying to be the hero.”

Today’s values have allowed us to totally miss the point that the climate crisis is a moral failing. American values are strongly materialistic, anthropocentric, individualistic, and contempocentric. Consumerism and materialism seek to meet human needs, even non-material ones, through ever-increasing purchase of goods and services. Consumption is... See more

When the mind searches for the future, it sees the past.

Content filtering doesn’t catch implicit deception. Safety guardrails don’t prevent fabricated intimacy if the AI isn’t saying anything explicitly harmful. Warning labels don’t help if users don’t understand that emotional manipulation is happening. The control mechanisms are fundamentally different depending on whether we’re addressing harm or... See more