There are already a few essays here about Buddhism and/or Zen . My life circumstances conspire to make me take these ideas seriously as a guide for life. So this post is "home" for a few thoughts about using Zen ideas to cope with life. Here is a link to the "Buddhism" category in Perplexity . I'm sorry, but you can't see the dialogue if you don't have a Perpexity.ai subscription. For me, it is packed with information, questions and answers. For quick reference, here is a summary of the 8-fold path of Buddhism. I have difficulty remembering it all: Wisdom (Prajna)Right View (Samma Ditthi) - Understanding the Four Noble Truths and the nature of reality as it is. Right Intention (Samma Sankappo) - Cultivating intentions of renunciation, good will, and harmlessness. Ethical Conduct (Sila)Right Speech (Samma Vaca) - Abstaining from false, harsh, slanderous, and idle speech. Right Action (Samma Kammanto) - Refraining from killing, stealing, and sexual...

FRENCH TRANSLATION (GEMINI) Facebook crée une communauté. J'utilise BING comme une sorte d'université de l'IA générative : BING U. Je préfère le rôle d'étudiant, donc mon travail est de trouver de bons professeurs. Voyez-moi comme le gars qui vous fait visiter le campus et qui sait s'y retrouver, mais c'est un étudiant lui-même. Microsoft BING est gratuit et très puissant. C'est un excellent moyen d'apprendre l'IA générative et un outil standard que tout le monde dans mon école imaginaire possède. La façon de trouver un professeur est de voir son travail dans un groupe Facebook. Ensuite, enregistrez l'image qui vous a tapé dans l'œil dans un document Word (ou un éditeur de documents de votre choix). Par exemple ... Johan Koops Ce que nous avons trouvé ici n'est pas seulement l'invite de l'image, mais un enseignant qui partage les invites de toutes ses images. Recherchez des artistes qui travaillent principalement avec BING. Ne vou...

 This is a partial list of groups I belong to that focus on Generative AI art: Facebook creates community. I use BING as a kind of Generative AI university: BING U.  I prefer the role of student, so my job is to find good teachers. Think of me as the guy who shows you around the campus and knows his way around, but he's a student himself. Microsoft BING is free and very powerful. It's an excellent way to learn Generative AI and a standard tool that everyone in my imaginary school has. The way to find a teacher is to see their work in a Facebook group. Then, save the picture that caught your eye in a Word document (or document editor of your choice). For example ... Joe McIntosh What we have found here is not only the prompt for the picture but a teacher who shares the prompts for all his pictures. Look for artists who work primarily with BING. Don't get distracted by other platforms or techniques. Learn to do one thing well before shopping for better tools. The best Facebo...

 It's been some time since I have made notes on my "Gen AI" adventure. Here is an update in no particular order: THEORY The current wave of AI is based on "Large Language Models" (LLMs). Roughly speaking, these are models of the human language and how words (tokens) relate to each other. The LLM reflects the vocabulary of the particular AI application. Many databases of pictures are "tagged" or described in words the AI "understands" because the words are in the LLM. To this, add the magic of graphics cards, and you will have the ability of AI to find pictures that "look like" any given picture. Given these pictures, you have the associated words or tokens, which can then be matched to the "prompt." Ultimately, you have a two-way conversation about pictures mediated by the AI's vocabulary (the LLM). The key idea is that the words AI uses to describe a picture are automatically part of its LLM, so they can be used to cr...

It is a common belief that neurons in our brains die off as we age and are never replaced. However, this  may not be true . The story is more complex, but it is undeniable that, as we get older,  our brains don't seem to work as well as they used to. It's just that the reason is not neurons dying off. I keep company with my 105-year-old mother-in-law. It is undeniable that her brain is failing her. In her case, the cause may be related to her failing heart, resulting in vascular dementia - brain failure caused by lack of blood supply. So, while many regard this as a "scientific" fact, the idea that our "neurons are dying out" is a metaphor for declining brain function. It's a helpful metaphor, but we can come up with a better one. We think of neurons somehow "connecting" the atomic version of "mind stuff," which somehow adds up to "us" - our experience of being in the world. That feeling - of being some continuing entity...

Picture by Tengr.ai based on the idea that we are a story we tell ourselves (summary by Google Gemini)   In "Why We Remember," neuroscientist and psychologist Charan Ranganath challenges our conventional understanding of memory. He reveals that memory isn't simply a passive recording of the past, but an active and transformative force that shapes our present and future. Ranganath combines accessible language with cutting-edge research to illuminate how our brains record experiences and how we utilize this information to understand our identity, make decisions, and envision the future. The book delves into the surprising ways memory influences our perception of the world, often unconsciously and sometimes detrimentally.   Key takeaways from "Why We Remember" include:Memory is not a static repository but a dynamic process that continuously evolves.   Our memories are not always accurate representations of the past, as they can be influenced by various factors.   M...