scholarly journals The Technology of Awakening: Experiments in Zen Phenomenology

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 192
Author(s):  
Brentyn J. Ramm
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Zen Buddhism ◽  
First Person ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Subject And Object ◽  
The Given

In this paper, I investigate the phenomenology of awakening in Chinese Zen Buddhism. In this tradition, to awaken is to ‘see your true nature’. In particular, the two aspects of awakening are: (1) seeing that the nature of one’s self or mind is empty or void and (2) an erasing of the usual (though merely apparent) boundary between subject and object. In the early Zen tradition, there are many references to awakening as chopping off your head, not having eyes, nose and tongue, and seeing your ‘Original Face’. These references bear a remarkable resemblance to an approach to awakening developed by Douglas Harding. I will guide the reader through a series of Harding’s first-person experiments which investigate the gap where you cannot see your own head. I will endeavour to show that these methods, although radically different from traditional meditation techniques, result in an experience with striking similarities to Zen accounts of awakening, in particular, as experiencing oneself as empty or void and yet totally united with the given world. The repeatability and apparent reliability of these first-person methods opens up a class of awakening experience to empirical investigation and has the potential to provide new insights into nondual traditions.

scholarly journals Differentiating Real-World Autobiographical Experiences without Recourse to Behaviour

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 521
Author(s):  
Jonathan Erez ◽  
Marie-Eve Gagnon ◽  
Adrian M. Owen
Keyword(s):  
Medial Temporal Lobe ◽  
Brain Injuries ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Extrastriate Cortex ◽  
First Person ◽  
Autobiographical Memories ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Person Perspective ◽  
Machine Learning Model ◽  
First Person Perspective

Investigating human consciousness based on brain activity alone is a key challenge in cognitive neuroscience. One of its central facets, the ability to form autobiographical memories, has been investigated through several fMRI studies that have revealed a pattern of activity across a network of frontal, parietal, and medial temporal lobe regions when participants view personal photographs, as opposed to when they view photographs from someone else’s life. Here, our goal was to attempt to decode when participants were re-experiencing an entire event, captured on video from a first-person perspective, relative to a very similar event experienced by someone else. Participants were asked to sit passively in a wheelchair while a researcher pushed them around a local mall. A small wearable camera was mounted on each participant, in order to capture autobiographical videos of the visit from a first-person perspective. One week later, participants were scanned while they passively viewed different categories of videos; some were autobiographical, while others were not. A machine-learning model was able to successfully classify the video categories above chance, both within and across participants, suggesting that there is a shared mechanism differentiating autobiographical experiences from non-autobiographical ones. Moreover, the classifier brain maps revealed that the fronto-parietal network, mid-temporal regions and extrastriate cortex were critical for differentiating between autobiographical and non-autobiographical memories. We argue that this novel paradigm captures the true nature of autobiographical memories, and is well suited to patients (e.g., with brain injuries) who may be unable to respond reliably to traditional experimental stimuli.

Qualia, Robots and Complementarity of Subject and Object

1998 ◽  
pp. 54-62
Author(s):  
Piotr Boltuc
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
First Person ◽  
German Philosophy ◽  
Secondary Qualities ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Complementary Approach ◽  
Subject And Object ◽  
First Time ◽  
Person Experience ◽  
First Person Experience

Jackson claims that a person who sees colors for the first time by this very fact acquires a certain knowledge which she or he could not have learned in a black and white world. This argument can be generalized to other secondary qualities. I argue that this claim is indefensible without implicit recourse to the first-person experience; also Nagel’s "what it is like" argument is polemically weak. Hence, we have no argument able to dismiss physicalism by consideration of first-person qualia (contra Jackson); however, it does not force us to endorse qualia-reductionism. In the second part of my paper I defend non-reductionism in a different way. Following Nagel and Harman, I try to avoid criticisms usually presented against Nagel, seeing subjectivity and objectivity as two complementary structures of the subjective and objective element of our language. I refer to classical German philosophy, phenomenology and Marxist dialectics which have developed a complementary approach crucial in the reductionist/anti-reductionist controversy in the philosophy of mind.

scholarly journals Subject, Object, and Knowledge as First-Person

2021 ◽  
Vol 98 (4) ◽  
pp. 516-529
Author(s):  
Maria Rosa Antognazza
Keyword(s):  
Second Order ◽  
First Person ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
First Order ◽  
Subject And Object ◽  
Self Knowledge ◽  
Individual Human

Abstract This article tries to show that focusing on why and how subject and object are distinct is of key importance for understanding the nature of knowledge itself. It argues that: 1) cognition starts with an aliud which is present to a felt self in a way fundamentally different from one’s own modes of being; 2) individual human knowledge in its paradigmatic form is essentially first-personal, that is, its object-directedness requires a built-in, implicit awareness of a ‘self’ that provides the unifying perspective from which the aliud is apprehended; 3) this is a first-order awareness which is crucially distinct from the second-order awareness which requires a reflexive cognitive act – a distinction which the author proposes to cash out in terms of ‘first-person knowledge’ versus ‘self-knowledge.

A sense of agency

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 329-368
Author(s):  
Joshua Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Written Language ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Sense Of Agency ◽  
First Person ◽  
Semantic Roles ◽  
Grammatical Relations ◽  
Dynamic Relationship ◽  
Subject And Object ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
English Subject

Abstract Roper Kriol exhibits variation in the shape of the first-person singular pronoun in subject position. This paper provides an account of the numerous syntactic, semantic and pragmatic factors that appear to influence the selection of either ai or mi based predominantly on a study of a corpus of the written language. It is claimed that the synchronic distribution of ai and mi is an innovation primarily motivated by speaker reanalysis of the semantic entailments frequently associated with English subject and object arguments – effectively evidence of the partial grammaticalisation of agentivity in these varieties. This work has implications for our understanding of ‘agentivity’ as a cross-linguistic, cognitive category and for the dynamic relationship between semantic roles and the morphosyntactic encoding of grammatical relations.

scholarly journals HOMO DIGITALIS AND SELF-AWARENESS: TRANSFORMATION, CHALLENGES AND REQUEST A PERSONOLOGICAL UNIQUE SELF

2021 ◽  
pp. 302-311
Author(s):  
Grigorii L. Tulchinskii ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural World ◽  
First Person ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Digital Ecosystem ◽  
Correct Reaction ◽  
The Given ◽  
Radical Transformation ◽  
Research Show

The article aims to comprehend the situation and the humanitarian consequences of the ongoing radical transformation of the entire way of life caused by digitalization. The focus is on the challenge facing human subjectivity. The results of modern neurophysiological research show that self-awareness (as the highest level and essence of subjectivity) is formed as a result of socialization which is accompanied by communication in a narratological format. This makes it possible to clarify the content of such concepts as consciousness, self-awareness, freedom, as well as to identify the role of responsibility in the formation of the corresponding phenomena. Analysis shows that mastering the first-person narration of experience plays a key role in shaping responsibility/freedom. The narrative approach turns out to be important both in the analysis of the phenomenology of consciousness and in the analysis of the historical evolution of mankind. It is this circumstance that is crucial in understanding the prospects for homo digitalis. The modern «mega-machine» civilization synthesizes the living and non-living, the biological and mechanical into a single digital ecosystem. This ecosystem displaces not only the natural world but also its perception, the very experience of going through some experience «in the first person». The volumes of information and the speed of its transmission and processing leave no room for reflection. A person is required to provide not comprehension and reasoning but a «correct» reaction, the activation of options that launch the given algorithms. It is actually about a transition to signal communication and «new animality». Homo digitalis becomes not an independent part of this system but its option: a tool and a product. The article provides generalization of the horizon of such prospects: both the loss of subjectivity in digital codes and its being in demand. The analysis performed allows us to outline the content of humanitarian expertise not only of the consequences of digital technologies but also of their development and implementation.

scholarly journals FedPerf: A Practitioners’ Guide to Performance of Federated Learning Algorithms

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tushar Semwal ◽  
Ajinkya L Mulay ◽  
Ayush Manish Agrawal
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Learning Algorithms ◽  
Joint Model ◽  
User Privacy ◽  
Local Data ◽  
System Parameters ◽  
Distributed Approach ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Given

Federated Learning (FL) enables the edge devices to collaboratively train a joint model without sharing their local data. This decentralised and distributed approach improves user privacy, security, and trust. Different variants of FL algorithms have presented promising results on both IID and skewed Non-IID data. However, the performance of FL algorithms is found to be sensitive to the FL system parameters and hyperparameters of the used model. In practice, tuning the right set of parameter settings for an FL algorithm is an expensive task. In this preregister paper, we propose an empirical investigation on five prominent FL algorithms to discover the relation between the FL System Parameters (FLSPs) and their performance. The FLSPs adds extra complexity to FL algorithms over a traditional ML system. We hypothesise that choosing the best FL algorithm for the given FLSP is not a trivial problem. Further, we endeavour to formulate a single easy-to-use metric which can describe the performance of an FL algorithm, thereby making the comparison simpler.

scholarly journals Digital transformation: conceptual framework

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalja Verina ◽  
Jelena Titko
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Research Methodology ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Digital Transformation ◽  
Business Sector ◽  
Textual Information ◽  
The Given ◽  
Information Database ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – the main goal of the current research was to provide a deep understanding of the concept of digital transformation, specifying its key elements/components/categories. Research methodology – an analysis of the textual information was performed, applying various techniques in the framework of the content analysis. Information database included 30 definitions of the term “digital transformation” and the related terms proposed by academicians and organizations. Findings – the analysis of the text segments of the investigated concept yielded three categories of digital transformation in business; 1) technologies, 2) processes and management, 3) people. Based on the research results, the conceptual model of digital transformation was created. Research limitations – the research was limited by the number of the analyzed definitions, as well as by the variety of methods applied. Practical implications – the research instrument for a survey among business sector representatives can be developed using the findings of the given study, in particular, for structuring the questionnaire’s blocks. Originality/Value – the current research provides a platform for further empirical investigation of the level of a company’s digital transformation

Construction of 3D Substation Monitoring System Based on Unity3D

2013 ◽  
Vol 753-755 ◽  
pp. 2261-2264
Author(s):  
Pei Yang ◽  
Li Peng Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Monitoring System ◽  
3D Model ◽  
Monitoring Data ◽  
First Person ◽  
3D Animation ◽  
Real Time Monitoring ◽  
Special Effects ◽  
The Given ◽  
To Receive

With the development of the 3D technology, the construction of a 3D substation monitoring system becomes feasible. The Unity3D is a professional and comprehensive engine for providing advantages in fast deployment, architectural visualization, and 3D animation. It can support multiple platforms and make the development much easy with an expansive architecture involved. In the normal use, we build 3D model with tools such as the 3DMax, and import the models to Unity3D. By the means, we can finish making scenes and cartoons as well as integrating business data. We can also design multive functions such as the roaming in first person view, camera switching, real-time monitoring data displaying, real-time alarming, and so on. We write custom Shader to achieve some special effects. For example, we can write vertex and fragment shader to receive the data from the scripts and parse the data to get the information of temperature points. The distance between each UV point and the given temperature points is also computed and mapped to the values of temperature and color.

Carl Wilhelm Scheele, the discoverer of oxygen, and a very productive chemist

2014 ◽  
Vol 307 (11) ◽  
pp. L811-L816 ◽  
Author(s):  
John B. West
Keyword(s):  
First Person ◽  
Phlogiston Theory ◽  
Royal Swedish Academy ◽  
Important Place ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Low Profile ◽  
Académie Des Sciences ◽  
History Of ◽  
Joseph Priestley ◽  
Respiratory Gases

Carl Wilhelm Scheele (1742–1786) has an important place in the history of the discovery of respiratory gases because he was undoubtedly the first person to prepare oxygen and describe some of its properties. Despite this, his contributions have often been overshadowed by those of Joseph Priestley and Antoine Lavoisier, who also played critical roles in preparing the gas and understanding its nature. Sadly, Scheele was slow to publish his discovery and therefore Priestley is rightly recognized as the first person to report the preparation of oxygen. This being said, the thinking of both Scheele and Priestley was dominated by the phlogiston theory, and it was left to Lavoisier to elucidate the true nature of oxygen. In addition to his work on oxygen, Scheele was enormously productive in other areas of chemistry. Arguably he discovered seven new elements and many other compounds. However, he kept a low profile during his life as a pharmacist, and he did not have strong links with contemporary prestigious institutions such as the Royal Society in England or the French Académie des Sciences. He was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Science but only attended one meeting. Partly as a result, he remains a somewhat nebulous figure despite the critical contribution he made to the history of respiratory gases and his extensive researches in other areas of chemistry. His death at the age of 43 may have been hastened by his habit of tasting the chemicals that he worked on.

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