I’ve been thinking and writing a bit on the theme of a coming Fourth Arena, where the First Arena is the world of inanimate matter, the Second is the world of life, and the Third is the world of culture. What’s the Fourth about? I don’t know.
But I’m thinking it has something to do with mind. I figure mind arose in the universe in the Second Arena. Just where in the Second Arena (hereafter A2), I don’t know. I doubt that it makes sense to ascribe minds to bacteria. To insects maybe? Not likely. Vertebrates, sure, somewhere among the vertebrates. I’m not sure where, but it doesn’t matter now.
But with A3, mind can elaborate itself through culture. What’s next beyond culture? Not sure, and not sure where this is beginning.
What I’m thinking about is mind-regulation and, in particular, mind-regulation in conjunction with “intelligent” computers. If we’re going to be working more closely with a variety of computers, what’s that imply about mind-regulation? Here I’m not thinking about Musk-style physical linkage between brains and computers, though – who knows? – we may well have that for non-therapeutic purposes, for mind-augmentation or whatever.
What if I set out to deliberately alter my mood through interacting with ChatGPT?
At the moment I’m thinking more along the lines of my various interactions with ChatGPT. For the most part they just same-old same-old; nothing happening. Every once in a while, however something special happens, and I’m delighted, laughing to beat the band. I’m thinking, in particular, about moments during the sessions in which I created the story of the OpenWHALE, whaling ship of between two worlds, of the Jolly Green Giant chronicles. I didn’t create those things for the purpose of provoking laughter in myself, or in anyone else. But what if I did? What if I set out to deliberately alter my mood thought interacting with ChatGPT?
That’s the kind of thing I have in mind. We do all kinds of things to alter our mood. We take drugs of various sorts. Meditation. Bio-feedback. We go to movies, listen to music, read books, and so forth. We may do those things for entertainment, but they also change our mood – and isn’t entertainment itself mood-changin?
I’m thinking of other things as well. Writing sometimes comes easily to me, other times it comes hard. Sometimes I avoid it, put it off, for reasons I don’t understand – I’m doing that right now with my report on last year’s work with ChatGPT. Would interaction with a computer assistant help me over the hump? Could we create computer assistants that come to know our moods and adjust themselves accordingly? Is that what virtual reality is for?
I don’t know. I’m thinking about it.
What about computers and the flow states they enable?
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