Recent content by Don DeGracia

Hi Steve There is a difference between moralistic self-righteousness and making an evaluation. A child, a cat or dog, someone with disease, etc. are the "lesser rank". If you don't like the term, that is fine, we can replace it with "people to whom we should respond with compassion". And I...

Hi again, David! LOL! All of my writing is publicly and freely available so, no, there are no political hangups with what I say in public. There are many different ways to approach your comments. First a couple specific things: > NS needs gradual change to be feasible. Darwinian evolution...

Hi David Those are very interesting points. I'll tackle them in reverse order. The question is: what aspects of the other complexity of neurons would you simulate? There are some factors that may enhance neural nets, such as simulating the higher order structures that synapses form, such as...

Dear Michael I have offended you and I apologize for that. If you took me to belittle Kastrup's work and its importance to you, that was not my intention. I was expressing my weariness at the, as I say in Yogic View, facades of academic respectability that has been my experience in the...

Hi Michael Thanks for the very interesting letter! A couple replies: >>you framed it in almost materialistic terms I perhaps wasn't as clear as I could be on this point. There is the interpretation about the link between physical structure and mind/consciousness/behavior that most people think...

It's my pleasure, Dan. I have tons of fun engaging with people intellectually.

Hi David That is a really smart question and hard to address in a quick answer. I do a whole 2 hr lecture about the nuances of the nervous system along the lines you raise. Two key points: 1. Real neurons are insanely more complex than any software coding method we've developed, and 2. Neurons...

Hi Michael That was really interesting and really moving. Yes, it sounds like you are "getting it". I can take it one step further even. You're consciousness IS the Absolute. You have to distinguish between the contents of consciousness and consciousness per se. Consciousness per se is the...

Hi David Yes, your impression of neural nets is correct. They mimic certain associative abilities that our brain and memory systems also share. These very much fall under the heading of "non-conscious processing". This is the kind of stuff I was referring to in the previous post. For sure...

So true!

Hi again Dan! The manifest world is vibrations of consciousness. I try to point out in the book that materialism and idealism are actually the exact same viewpoint. We are conscious of "stuff" that includes the world we perceive, the emotions we feel, the thoughts we think, the desires and...

Consciousness has no beginning. Time is a product of our minds. But consciousness transcends our minds. Time is the illusion. Eternity has no beginning or end. I perhaps sound like an idiot saying these things. I suggest you read van der Leeuw's book. I am only trying to convey ideas I learned...

Hi David I agree with the sentiment you express. There was been one technical development in AI called "deep networks". These are multilayered neural nets and are used for all kinds of things nowadays, like data mining, photo classification, and even underlie how the Jeopardy-playing computer...

Hi Michael Thanks for getting all the books! I hope you keep your sanity after reading all of them! LOL! (seriously, just joking!!). I addressed the issue of group vs. individual above so won't repeat here. But I will add that yes, reincarnation continues until we recognize what is going on...

Hi Michael The whole issue I quoted above is captured in the yogic teachings about the kleshas. That is, the kleshas explain where apparent individuality comes from. I try to explore it in the book by stressing that in this life, our nature is 100% relative. Which is to say, we are not...