I’ve compiled one of the most extensive collections of science-informed sleep tips you’ll find online. These aren’t just folk psychological recommendations, but grounded in research, and the list continues to evolve.
Continue reading Updated List of Recommendations for Better Sleep
Software to Help You Do Deep Work
One of the main things I do is research and develop cognitive tools for productivity and sleep (sleep is necessary for productivity and wellness!). They include the cognitive shuffle, mySleepButton, Hookmark and Cognitive Productivity books. Deep work is a form of cognitive productivity discussed extensively by Cal Newport.
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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.
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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
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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:
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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.
