From cleath@u.washington.edu Mon Feb 17 09:20:22 1997 Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1997 09:20:22 -0800 (PST) From: Colin Leath Reply-To: Colin Leath To: "being_group Subject: Wednesday Meeting Hi guys, Let's plan on meeting this Wednesday at 4:30 in the South Campus Center (3rd floor). I have to leave at 6:30 this time, so that's why I'm hoping you can come a bit earlier (or come at 5:30 and stay later than 6:30 with whoever else shows up). If we're not in that room at the southwest corner of the third floor, we'll be somewhere else on the third floor. I'm still trying to find an appropriate meeting space. South Campus Center is a bit out of the way, and people might have trouble finding it. We could meet in Leow Hall, or Parrington Hall, or some other classroom. I am also looking into meeting at University Heights Center (the old school-house where they have the farmer's market and the p-patch). I would like to meet in a place that is more accessible to all members of the community. ------------- other stuff: Even if you can't come, if you could email me or tell me about topics you think are worth discussing that would be great. I would like for being to appeal to a more diverse crowd, and it may be there are better things to do than explore the nature of consciousness. I want to figure out how to get more people to come. At least 7 people would be nice. It is a problem of advertising. We need to find the people who feel a need for this kind of free and open discussion, people who have a need to work on their questions with other people. I think that ideally most people would need (want) to do this. I think if more time were spent in this kind of activity, societal development in a positive direction would occur more quickly. The difficulty is to somehow encourage people to spend time being/discussing than doing some other thing. Well, I expect to 1) find a stable meeting space (probably Leow Hall, until we get more people and then move to University heights center). 2) run another publicity effort. And see what happens. By eventually moving to UHC I hope to make people who are not students feel more welcome. Maybe get some parents/kids/homeless/working people. I have found an advertising niche which seems a appropriate for our purposes: the CHID newsgroup. Here is a message reprinted from that group: From: "A. Albornoz" Newsgroups: uwash.chid Subject: Re: being Hi Colin I am interested in this organization. Meeting to discuss experiences and create them seems interesting, I hope enough people can create time to get together and make it worth it. With school work and life demands, it is difficult to get interested in adding one more thing to do. But if enough people muster enough energy and interest to talk about what is in their minds and share insights, this may get off the floor. The subject of "Being" could go in so many directions, intellectually and experientially. Aliza (Chid and Speech com major) On Sat, 8 Feb 1997, Colin Leath wrote: > Being is a new registered student organization whose purpose is to discuss > and create experience. > > If you're interested, email cleath@u, and I can send you the meeting times > when I get them (we meet once a week). > > Soon we should have a web page and even a journal. > -Colin > --------- Aliza posted another message mentioning that the CHID office sponsors discussion groups for more specific topics. I think I will look into these. ------- A question I have thought of: I am interested in the possibility of creating artificial intelligence. I know very little about the subject. I think it is possible. I am guessing that one way to do it would be to model progressively more complex organisms. I think one part of the problem is giving our aritificial organism a motivation to do something, and then, over time, increasing the complexity of its motivation and increasing its capabilities to find ways to satisfy that motivation. Another question is, how useful would an artificial self-motivated learning organism be? Maybe we should focus on other things. -- Notes from last meeting: After our discussion last week, it seems to me that consciousness is an awareness of self. In modern humans, the awareness of having a distinct and separate self is more developed because we are more able to realize our separateness, our distinct identity, than are other species. In addition to all of our senses and our ability to use them, it is our capacity and use of language more than anything else that accounts for our more developed consciousness. Consciousness develops perhaps in two ways: a more developed consciousness is more able to percieve distinctions, and a more developed consciousness is able to be more aware of its own separateness. Perhaps, then, loneliness is experienced in its purest form by humans (or higher beings). But perhaps also because of our greater capacity for feeling alone, no other organism can achieve the states of "love" or "oneness" that we can. I hope you have some reaction to this, even if it is that you know of a more worthwhile question. -- I also began to discuss more practical concerns of mine. Specifically that people achieve a more sustainable way of life, and, in this instance, I began to discuss the problems with the personal use of the automobile. Unfortunately this is a discussion that might not be terribly productive. I am interested in developing communities which are not centered around the use of the private automobile. I will work on how to do this more later, do you have any ideas. If you get a chance check out Northwest Environmental Watch: http://www.speakeasy.org/new/ see you around! Colin