What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Sri Rahula

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An excellent introduction to Buddhism. Loads of information and insights into the Buddha's teachings. It is written in an easy to read style but the subject matter is layered, multidimensional and includes a network of concepts.

Dukkha, the 5 aggregates , Mind, Consciousness, Karma, Thirst, Free Will, Mindfulness, Nirvana....

"According to Buddhism, the Absolute Truth is that there is nothing absolute in the world, that everything is relative, conditioned and impermanent, and that there is no unchanging, everlasting, absolute substance like Self, Soul or Atman within or without."

Buddhist meditation" Insight into the nature of things, leading to the complete liberation of mind, to the realisation of the Ultimate Truth, Nirvana."

As in Buddhism there is no" I" or "Self" when we meditate we should forget about "my feelings", "my anger", etc. We should see those things as objective observers.

Life 3.0 Being human in the age of Artificial Intelligence by Max Tegmark

A super interesting read. Learned a lot.

I particularly enjoyed the 4 chapters in which Tegmark discusses possible scenarios of AI being developed in the near, far and very far future. I also appreciate his working definitions of Intelligence and Consciousness, background and how they play an important role in the development of future AI technology.

Intelligence: the ability to accomplish complex goals

AGI: Artificial General Intelligence, able to accomplish any goals, at least like humans.

Intelligence Explosion: birth of a Singularity

Consciousness: subjective experience.

What makes matter conscious? What physical properties distinguish conscious and unconscious systems?

Table of Contents

Prelude: The Tale of the Omega Team

1. Welcome to the Most Important Conversation of our time

2. Matter turns Intelligent

3. The Near Future: Breakthroughs, Bugs, Laws, Weapons and Jobs

4. Intelligence Explosion?

5. Aftermath: the Next 10,000 years

6. Our Cosmic Endowment: the Next Billion Years and Beyond

7. Goals

8. Consciousness

Epilogue: The Tale of the FLI Team

China by Laura Purcell

Gothic, dark, creepy. Reminded me of Du Maurier. Beautiful writing. A joy to read.

#gothicfiction #neovictorian