Sunday evening, I led a humanist meeting on self-regulation of emotion with and without music.
Continue reading How Do you Understand and Regulate your Emotions—With and without Music?
Boyd on the Evolution of Music and Other Forms of Art
Why is uplifting music uplifting Music? How is it uplifting? Why/how is “sad music” sad? We normally simply take it for granted that music can affect our moods and emotions, as people took for granted that apples fell before Newton asked “Why do things fall?” I’m not a musician, but I am a cognitive science guy, so this is a question I am addressing in a chapter of Discontinuities: Love, Art, Mind, which is 80% complete but already for sale on Leanpub in this form.
To answer the above questions we need to have answers to the more general questions: why do humans create and consume art in its various forms. The Discontinuities book will review several answers and argue for a specific explanation.
For now, I refer to the answer given by Brian Boyd in his book, On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction which I’ve illustrated below:
That is our primate ancestors (before homo sapiens) developed the ability and propensity to play. This led homo sapiens to develop the ability and inclination to produce and consume stories and music, which evolved in parallel or in series in order to (a) attract and manipulate attention, and (b) bond in groups. Play, story telling, story consumption, and music playing and consumption also evolved because they helped humans sharpen their beliefs and cognitive capacities.
Linkding Bookmarking Integration and More in Hookmark 6.8
Linkding is a free, self-hosted bookmarking service, a worthy alternative to Pinboard (and to Pocket, Instapaper, and GoodLinks.) Linkding is particularly relevant because Pinboard has been stagnant for many years.
Continue reading Linkding Bookmarking Integration and More in Hookmark 6.8
Professor Claude Lamontagne, my friend and mentor, passed away
Professor Claude Lamontagne, my friend and mentor, passed away in January. He is mentioned several times on this website and was a contributing author to the Discontinuities: Love, Art, Mind book.
Continue reading Professor Claude Lamontagne, my friend and mentor, passed away
Over on mySleepButton.com: My Upcoming Cambridge University Press Book Chapter, Google Play and The New York Times+
Today I blogged about the following over on the mySleepButton.com blog:
Unbelievable! Where Has The Time Gone? And What Should I Do Here?
It’s unbelievable! I haven’t blogged here in almost a year. The reasons are twofold
Continue reading Unbelievable! Where Has The Time Gone? And What Should I Do Here?
Human’22 Hypertext Workshop Keynote Address on Hypertext Applications of Integrative Design-Oriented ‘Cognitive Science
I finally got around to publishing a long form of my Human’22 keynote address on”Hypertext applications of Integrative Design-Oriented ‘Cognitive Science”. Here it is:
Continue reading Human’22 Hypertext Workshop Keynote Address on Hypertext Applications of Integrative Design-Oriented ‘Cognitive Science
Can Software Accelerate Consciousness?
Can software accelerate consciousness? I think it can. But first we need to define consciousness, not merely in folk psychology terms, but with a powerful theory of mind. Then we need to explain how software might make your consciousness work faster than it otherwise would, using the terms of this theory. That’s what I’ve tried to do in a paper recently, and in this blog post on Medium: How Hookmark Extends Its Users’ Consciousness: Based on Merlin Donald’s Multiple Component Convergence [MCC] Theory of Consciousness. The MCC theory is described in detail in Professor Donald’s book, A Mind So Rare: The Evolution of Human Consciousness.
Is there more to say about transformative experiences than L.A. Paul’s decision-theoretic perspective captures?
Is there more to say about transformative experiences than L.A. Paul’s decision-theoretic perspective captures? Here’s a post of mine on Medium on the subject: Beyond L.A. Paul’s theory of transformative experiences. And the CogZest webpage on the upcoming (Sept. 24) Beacon Humanist meeting on the subject: Transformative Experiences.
On The Status Game by Will Storr
I recently presented at a humanist meeting on The Status Game by Will Storr. Before the meeting, I shared some notes with the group. Now, I’m sharing them with you: What’s Right and What’s Missing in The Status Game by Will Storr?