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.

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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.

Do You Work on Multiple Knowledge-Intense Projects? Here’s Some Inspiration

Via Mastodon, I discovered the following article, which I found quite inspirational. If you too work on multiple knowledge-intense projects across several disciplines, I think you will agree.

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Updates to the Manifesto for an IDO Approach to Understanding Ourselves as Autonomous Agents

I’ve finally made substantial updates to the draft Manifesto for an Integrative Design-oriented Approach to Understanding Humans as Autonomous Agents, which I first published in 2019.

Aims of the manifesto

The manifesto describes a way to deeply understanding ourselves, each other and possible artificial general intelligence. While the manifesto is mainly aimed at ambitious researchers and developers, it is also important for anyone pursuing such understanding. It should lead, for instance, to books, articles and software for the general knowledge-oriented public.

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Staying on Track: Updates to mySelfQuantifier, Timing and Hook

In 2016, I published mySelfQuantifier — a time-tracking system that uses a spreadsheet, Timing app and TextExpander. I included videos about this system in Cognitive Productivity with macOS: 7 Principles for Getting Smarter with Knowledge. Since then, I’ve made some major improvements to it that I’d like to share here.

when you invoke Hook on a Timing project, you have full access to Hook's functions

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Keynote to Human’22 Workshop June 28

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I’m delighted to announce that I will be giving a keynote presentation to the 5th Workshop on Human Factors in Hypertext – #HUMAN22 on June 28, 2022. The title of my talk will be “Hypertext Applications of Integrative Design-Oriented Cognitive Science: A Framework for Cognitive Productivity“.

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