5 Matching Annotations
- Sep 2023
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the Bodhisattva vow can be seen as a method for control that is in alignment with, and informed by, the understanding that singular and enduring control agents do not actually exist. To see that, it is useful to consider what it might be like to have the freedom to control what thought one had next.
- for: quote, quote - Michael Levin, quote - self as control agent, self - control agent, example, example - control agent - imperfection, spontaneous thought, spontaneous action, creativity - spontaneity
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quote: Michael Levin
- the Bodhisattva vow can be seen as a method for control that is in alignment with, and informed by, the understanding that singular and enduring control agents do not actually exist.
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comment
- adjacency between
- nondual awareness
- self-construct
- self is illusion
- singular, solid, enduring control agent
- adjacency statement
- nondual awareness is the deep insight that there is no solid, singular, enduring control agent.
- creativity is unpredictable and spontaneous and would not be possible if there were perfect control
- adjacency between
- example - control agent - imperfection: start - the unpredictability of the realtime emergence of our next exact thought or action is a good example of this
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example - control agent - imperfection: end
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triggered insight: not only are thoughts and actions random, but dreams as well
- I dreamt the night after this about something related to this paper (cannot remember what it is now!)
- Obviously, I had no clue the idea in this paper would end up exactly as it did in next night's dream!
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Self is an illusory modelling construct created by perceptual systems of Agents
- for: definition, definition - self, compassion, science - compassion, self-illusion, self-illusory, nilhism
- definition
- Self is an illusory modelling construct created by perceptual systems of Agents
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paraphrase
- Self is an illusory modelling construct created by perceptual systems of Agents
- Agents construct models of causal Selves for others, and for ourselves, using the same machinery.
- The same mechanisms that cause an agent to act toward stress reduction in itself
- (even though the beneficiary of those actions is in an important sense impermanent)
- can be expanded to extend to other Selves.
- In this way, while our focus is on understanding and formulating Self in a way that is applicable to a broad range of scientific contexts,
- we also see ourselves as here contributing to the treatment of perennial issues in contemporary Buddhist philosophy
- such as the feasibility of genuine care in a world without real individuals
- we also see ourselves as here contributing to the treatment of perennial issues in contemporary Buddhist philosophy
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comment
- the last statement has always been a paradox for me
- Buddhist teachers often warn of how mistaken, immature views of emptiness can lead to harmful action
- Indeed, if no selves exist, then over can easily mistaken nilhism as the logical behavioural conclusion
- yet, teaching texts make clear that there is something critical the student has missed it they come to that conclusion
- the transformation is missing its most important element of that false conclusion persists
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According to general Buddhist analysis, the individual that may be assumed to exist as a singular, enduring, and controlling self is mere appearance devoid of causal efficacy, and thus epiphenomenal [68]. In the case of a Bodhisattva, this understanding is carried forward so as to encompass a critique of the apparent foundations of cognition: object, agent, and action.
- for: emptiness, shunyata, non-existence of self, no-self, illusory self, deconstructing self
- comment
- this short description of the reasoning behind deconstructing the self is quite fresh and insightful, especially relating it to cognition.
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Another feature of this vision that aligns well with Buddhist ideas is the lack of a permanent, unique, unitary Self [68]. The picture given by the evolutionary cell-biological perspective is one where a cognitive agent is seen as a self-reinforcing process (the homeostatic loop), not a thing [69,70,71].
- for: illusory self, non-self, lack of self, organism - as process, human INTERbeCOMing, bio-buddhism, biology - buddhism
Tags
- self - illusory
- unintended consequences - AI
- adjacency - nondual awareness - full control
- adjacency
- spontaneous thought
- creativity - spontaneity
- quote - self as control agent
- triggered insight - singular and enduring control agent does not exist
- adjacency - illusory self - full control
- quote - Michael Levin
- illusory self
- non-self
- lack of self
- constructing self
- self - illusion
- science - compassion
- quote
- nilhism
- emptiness
- non-existence of self
- defintion - self
- shunyata
- organism - as process
- biology - buddhism
- bio-buddhism
- example - control agent - imperfection
- definition
- human INTERbeCOMing
- example
- triggered insight
- no-self
- spontaneous action
Annotators
URL
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docdrop.org docdrop.org
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your your self isn't 01:13:47 some permanent uh monadic structure that just kind of exists it's an active construction it's a process it's a you know it it's a constant information processing Auto police is that you know 01:13:59 of the mind doesn't stop during embryogenesis it kind of keeps going it has to and um and and it has these it has these interesting implications
- for: constructing selves, constructing self, reconstructing self
- comment
- this is a fascinating insight that gives us deeper nuance on what it means to construct our selves in every moment
- we obviously know we don't have access to our past and only have access to engrams of the past , so it isn't wrong to say that we are constantly reconstructing ourselves like a Planaria worm does to regenerate its body, all the time.
- engrams are abstract traces of the past
- this goes to the heart of constructing the self, in the Buddhist sense, as a kind of illusion
- Levin says he is somewhere in the middle between the two poles of illusion and solidity of self, the self is a pragmatic useful metaphor, like everything else we construct
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