Ever since I was a child I have tried to explore mind in a subjective-objective manner, that is, in a way that feels right, helps me to really know what’s going on, not just having logical, rational consistency. So, I naturally became interested in meditation (or mental cultivation) quite early on whilst also studying formal methods in computer science. I have explored numerous avenues as a result, trying always to retain coherence of an overall picture. In some cases, I have not got very far.

Just a few glimpses on this page, with further reading in the respective sections.

Mind, Brain and Education

Advances in neuroscience, aided by ever-higher spec’ed imaging equipment, has led to ever-finer neural correlates being established between human behaviour and well-being and observable phenomena in the brain. In recent decades, a particular area of research has been emotional development, especially among children. It is an area that I first learnt about through the work of Antonio Damasio, Mary Helen Immordino-Yang and colleagues at the University of Southern California, who observed in the context of online engagement that nobler instincts take time.

I then learnt about the International Mind, Brain and Education Society (IMBES) and was encouraged to submit a poster proposal for their 2018 annual conference, my first consideration of the use of cognitive interventions — in the form of thinking routines — in the design of systems. But whilst the selection panel found it interesting, they considered that it didn’t meet the conference remit. Nevertheless, I decided to continue the research and shortly after posted a couple of articles on my blog

• Blog post, 27 August 2018: Pause for Thought: The Use of Interventions in Social Networking Sites
• Blog post, 4 September 2018: Pause for Thought: The Use of Interventions in Social Networking Sites (Part 2)

There is a lot of talk in academic circles about interdisciplinary research, but based on my experiences at Oxford University, whilst there continue to be some wonderful discoveries across boundaries, it is more normal for activities to be specialist and compartmentalised, at the expense of being holistic.

In the case of mind and education, the assumptions about mind are objective/materialist. From this the research inevitably becomes heavily dependent on machinery and thereby prevents a vital broadening of inter-disciplinary dialogue to encompass other methods in cognitive science. There are indeed many approaches to study the mind, and their proper appraisal should lead to a fuller, more holistic understanding its nature.

Mapping Mental Processes

The Buddhist approach to studying mind is epitomised in Abhidhamma, an exceedingly detailed and systematic analysis of the processes in which our minds are caught up. The technical term is citta and it may be broken down into many kinds of cetasikas (thought moments). I believe it is useful to study Abhidhamma to create mind maps and thereby learn more about how processes become variously wholesome and unwholesome. It helps to establish the right basis on which to introduce cognitive interventions, but the study is not for beginners — a general understanding of basic teachings is a prerequisite.

Mind and Artificial Intelligence

How do humans think? And what about machines? We may approach this from an orientation of cultivating more discerning awareness, as intimated above. There are many useful applications of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly in the field of education and personalised learning. However, unrestrained development is likely to be disastrous and where it is used there needs to be transparency in the methods and processes.

We may also gain clues by studying historical figures who displayed extraordinary creativity, particularly in the field of mathematics. One such figure was Srinivasa Ramanujan, a mathematical genius, who displayed extraordinary intuition. I have spent some time exploring his approach by reference to recollections from contemporaries. He features prominently in my book, Buddhism and Computing: How to Flourish in the Age of Algorithms.

The Problem

Why is there so much discontent with existing the social media provided by the ‘big tech’ companies? One trite answer is simply because social media fosters discontent!

How does it foster discontent? By promoting craving and addiction, which is why paradoxically people continue using these services despite their reservations about them. As confessed by Sean Parker, former President of Facebook:

“The thought process that went into building these applications, … was all about: ‘How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?'” “And that means that we need to sort of give you a little dopamine hit every once in a while, because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post or whatever. And that’s going to get you to contribute more content, and that’s going to get you … more likes and comments.” “It’s a social-validation feedback loop … exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with, because you’re exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology.

Mike Allen, ‘Sean Parker Unloads on Facebook: “God Only Knows What it’s Doing to Our Children’s Brains”’, Axios, 9
November 2017

A Solution

To redesign social media from the ground up rooted in the principles of Buddhist ethics and the cultivation of wholesome relationships. This should improve the quality of awareness, enhance human agency, encourage independence of thought, and not foster addiction. This is what the Sigala project is all about.

Why ‘Sigala’?

The name is derived from the name of a follower to whom the Buddha gave the most definitive teachings on how lay people should conduct themselves for human flourishing. Actually the layman’s name was Sigāla (long ‘a’), but the diacritics can easily get omitted. Also, with a short ‘a’, it can be pronounced in the same lively way as ‘Figaro’!

Current status

Research has been ongoing since 2007 and explored various themes. From 2018 onwards, in response to Parker’s admission, special attention has been given to mind and cognition. For descriptions of these investigations, please consult the dedicated Sigala research site: https://research.siga.la/.

The next step is to code a proof of concept, for which I have established Symfony PHP framework as a suitable candidate.