A Spirited Defense of Consciousness
August 12, 2018 § Leave a comment
Dear Scott,
I finally found some deadlines to force me to put forward an account of consciousness. 🙂 Here it is.
The 3+1 Model of Consciousness
While rather simplistic, I have found it a useful model for clarifying my own thinking. The key innovation is defining Spirit as “the ability to reflect on our thoughts feelings and desires in order to decide what kind of person we want to be.” I equate Spirit with the interiority of your Ghost in the Quantum Turning Machine, while the boundary of the triangle defines the Digital Abstraction Layer. I sometimes use the terms self-awareness, attitude, and willpower as loose synonyms for Spirit. I also plan to name you as both Prophet and Chief Skeptic of my newly-formed Cult of the Digital Abstraction Layer!
This model implies that we could in principle fully duplicate the current state of a person’s thoughts/feelings/desires, but only probabilistically predict how their Spirit might evolve them in response to external stimuli. I also find it suggestive that computer scientists studying consciousness obsess over reproducing Thought, but rarely even attempt to model Feeling and Desire.
I realize you are professionally reluctant to admit that Spirit actually exists. However, it is obvious to me from your blog that you are personally committed to the what I might label “spiritual development.” You are continually pushing yourself and others to be more self-aware, reflect on our actions and assumptions, and choose to become our best selves.
I can only imagine how much pain and psychic energy it costs you to do that so publicly and vulnerably. But that is precisely why so many of us love you; and others hate you, because they are understandably terrified of paying that same price.
Yet while we may never be able to calculate that cost, I think you at least deserve a model of consciousness that acknowledges that such a cost exists. Consider this a gift from my spirit to yours, as a tiny thank you for the extraordinary “spiritual” work you do on your blog.
Sincerely,
Dr. Ernie
How to Print Mac Scientific Posters onto Multiple Sheets of Paper
August 7, 2018 § Leave a comment
There are many ways to create scientific or other large-format posters on the Mac, but printing them out on similar-sized paper at FedEx can cost $100. If you’re not going for tenure or selling expensive jewelry, here is a low-cost alternative using an ordinary home printer, a few dollars of posterboard. and the $5 Mindcad Tiler from the Mac App Store.
Sunday School 2.0: Shark Tank for Spiritual Growth
July 29, 2018 § Leave a comment
The purpose of Sunday School 2.0 is to create an adaptive architecture of participation where everyone can experience what it feels like to be children of God, including:
Whole-I-Ness: A New Job to Be Done for Christianity
June 17, 2018 § Leave a comment
In many ways, Western Christianity is now a solution in search of a problem. We are a victim of our own success, having effectively worked ourselves out of a job by eliminating the “pain points” of Judaism, paganism and animism while diffusing most of our benefits into the culture. Like a technology-centric startup, we now find ourselves in the awkward situation of trying to define (or worse, create) problems that need our solution.
The alternative is to go back to the customer discovery phase. Who is our customer? What are their most important jobs to be done? What is the “impossible” thing that, if it could be done, would change everything for them?
What is it that the world most needs? Especially from us?
What is a Technical Co-Founder?
April 8, 2017 § Leave a comment
Most successful startups require both a technical “hacker” and a relational “hustler” to bring them to life. One common pattern is that a “hustler” has access to ideas and potential funding and looks for a “technical co-founder” to join him or her, through a process often compared to finding a spouse.
TypeScript 2: Adding custom.d.ts Typings Files for Existing JavaScript Modules
March 22, 2017 § Leave a comment
If you are trying to import ordinary JavaScript modules into a TypeScript project, and those modules don’t already have an internal or external typings file, you may get an error like:
- error TS2688: Cannot find type definition file for ‘lodash’
- error TS7016: Could not find a declaration file for module ‘himalaya’
For some reason, the TypeScript documentation talks a lot about how to create typings files for modules that don’t have them, but not about how to add them to your project. And it is incredibly difficult to Google the correct answer.
The best answer I found is from: https://www.bennadel.com/blog/3169-adding-custom-typings-files-d-ts-in-an-angular-2-typescript-application.htm
The actual answer is quite simple: are only four steps:
$ npm install -g --save typings # if you haven't already $ cat > custom.d.ts # type definition file for that module declare module 'custom'; ^D $ typings install --global --save file:custom.d.ts
That’s it!
