Open in app

Sign In

Write

Sign In

Jim Mason
Jim Mason

1.95K Followers

Home

About

Pinned

What is a Sunset?

Sunsets happen every day. They can invoke feelings of beauty and awe in all of us. But what, really, is a sunset? The sun knows nothing of sunsets. It just keeps shining. Even the earth knows little about sunsets. It just keeps spinning. Only things like us, that ride the…

Philosophy

1 min read

What is a Sunset?
What is a Sunset?
Philosophy

1 min read


Pinned

My Most Important Conclusion

It might help us all to acknowledge it We animals who call ourselves “humans” are not a lot more intelligent than many other living beings. We are just better able to communicate with each other and coordinate our activities more effectively, at our human time scale, than most other animals…

Humanity

1 min read

My Most Important Conclusion
My Most Important Conclusion
Humanity

1 min read


Pinned

Reflections

Some make us look foolish, and some make us look wise. We are imperfect mirrors for each other’s lives. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — Read every story from Jim Mason (and thousands of other writers on Medium): https://jmason37-80878.medium.com/membership

Reflections

1 min read

Reflections
Reflections
Reflections

1 min read


Published in

Age of Awareness

·May 23

Learning through Language versus Learning by Multi-Sensory Experience

It comes down to how brains are built and grow — Many people are worried about recent developments in artificial intelligence, and rightly so. From sophisticated facial recognition software to software that can generate cogent text and surprising works of art, computational devices that people have created seem about to out-perform our human abilities, possibly rendering us obsolete. In assessing that…

Artificial Intelligence

3 min read

Learning through Language versus Learning by Multi-Sensory Experience
Learning through Language versus Learning by Multi-Sensory Experience
Artificial Intelligence

3 min read


Apr 3

Phones Untied Have Become Dangerous

We have helped them become symbiotic and even parasitic to our minds and bodies Time was when telephones were unintelligent devices attached by cords to our walls. I joke that phones should be kept tied up like they used to be, because of the dangerous animals that they are. But…

Technology

2 min read

Phones Untied Have Become Dangerous
Phones Untied Have Become Dangerous
Technology

2 min read


Published in

Woodworkers of the World Unite!!!

·Apr 2

I Learned a New Four-Letter Word Yesterday

And I’m already becoming a bit fond of it. I think I have a good passive mental vocabulary of English words, but I was surprised to encounter a short one that I don’t remember seeing or hearing before. It’s “fond” — not the adjective but the noun — and it…

Words

1 min read

I Learned a New Four-Letter Word Yesterday
I Learned a New Four-Letter Word Yesterday
Words

1 min read


Mar 31

Individualization and Artificial Intelligence

Would you want an experienced self-driving car or the latest general version? The recent development of many artificial cognitive agents, such as robotic devices and large-language models for text generation, raises an interesting general question about the value of individualization. We humans, taking ourselves as a pinnacle of an “intelligent”…

Artificial Intelligence

2 min read

Individualization and Artificial Intelligence
Individualization and Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence

2 min read


Mar 22

Can Intelligent Life Grow Indefinitely?

Or are there inevitable limits to growth of complex decision-making structures, including and beyond biological ones? Stephen Arthur has written a very interesting article, “How I Know There Are No Aliens” (https://medium.com/@sxarthur_80712/how-i-know-there-are-no-aliens-d85e826c41f1), in which he begins “The Great Silence contradicts what should be. Intelligent alien species should be millions or…

Aliens

4 min read

Can Intelligent Life Grow Indefinitely?
Can Intelligent Life Grow Indefinitely?
Aliens

4 min read


Mar 18

Getting To Be Known

How desirable is that in this age of incipient artificial intelligence? There’s a well-known song from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical “The King and I” with the lyric “Getting to know you, Getting to know all about you. Getting to like you, Getting to hope you like me …” which expresses…

Relationships

3 min read

Getting To Be Known
Getting To Be Known
Relationships

3 min read


Mar 17

Why “Why?” is Our Most Fundamental Question

And what that tells us about ourselves and other thinking beings We humans have an unusual ability to ask ourselves and others the causes and reasons for things and events that we experience. “Why is the sky blue?” is a familiar example of a question that a child may ask…

Self-awareness

2 min read

Why “Why?” is Our Most Fundamental Question
Why “Why?” is Our Most Fundamental Question
Self-awareness

2 min read

Jim Mason

Jim Mason

1.95K Followers

I study language, cognition, and humans as social animals. You can support me by joining Medium at https://jmason37-80878.medium.com/membership

Following
  • Vincent Van Patten

    Vincent Van Patten

  • David Gamble

    David Gamble

  • Steven Welzer

    Steven Welzer

  • Tingyo Tan

    Tingyo Tan

  • Gary Janosz

    Gary Janosz

See all (860)

Help

Status

Writers

Blog

Careers

Privacy

Terms

About

Text to speech

Teams