josh0

Karma: 23

josh0 5 Oct 2010 12:11 UTC
0 points
in reply to: Relsqui’s comment on: Understanding vipassana meditation
I believe it’s actually right down the street from the Thai Temple. Much less official looking. I haven’t actually been though (always intended to go, and then ended up moving away before I did).

josh0 4 Oct 2010 21:47 UTC
4 points
in reply to: Relsqui’s comment on: Understanding vipassana meditation
Not entirely relevant to this conversation, but:

there at least used to be regular vipassana meditation sessions led by monks from Abhayagiri and hosted at the Berkeley Zen Center (I think that’s what it’s called) on MLK near the Ashby BART station. Abhayagiri is a monastery in the Thai Forest tradition led, I believe, by a former student of the late Ajahn Chah; in my experience that’s usually a pretty good indicator of a very result-oriented approach to meditation that eschews the supernatural talk in favor of the pursuit of practical goals (though in their case the ‘practical goal’ is enlightenment, so take that as you will).

josh0 4 Oct 2010 15:47 UTC
5 points
in reply to: [deleted]’s comment on: Understanding vipassana meditation
As an on-again off-again vipassana practitioner (I managed to maintain a regular practice while I was living in Boston, but that was largely due to the fact that the CIMC [1] was on my walk to/from work), I would love to get involved in a rationalist meditation group. In my experience it is much easier for me to maintain a regular practice with a group, but simultaneously difficult to become a real member of that group as most tend to approach meditation as a religious ritual rather than a worthwhile practice in its own right with practical value. Having a group of people to not only meditate with, but actually have productive conversation about the experience of meditating with would be phenomenal.

1 http://cimc.info/

josh0 21 Aug 2010 3:53 UTC
8 points
in reply to: [deleted]’s comment on: Existential Risk and Public Relations
It may be true that many are worried about ‘the end of the world’, however consider how many of them think that it was predicted by the Mayan calandar to occur on Dec. 21 2012, and how many actively want it to happen because they believe it will herald the coming of God’s Kingdom on Earth, Olam Haba, or whatever.

We could rebrand ‘existential risk’ as ‘end time’ and gain vast numbers of followers. But I doubt that would actually be desirable.

I do think that Ethical Artificial Intelligence would strike a better chord with most than Friendly, though. ‘Friendly’ does sound a bit unserious.

josh0 29 Mar 2010 13:37 UTC
6 points
on: The Shabbos goy
In regards to your postscript, it’s certainly possible that the use of Shabos goyim by Orthodox Jews is logically consistent, but it doesn’t stop there! One of, to me, the most fascinating examples of this sort of patching is Shabbat technology. The example that always strikes me is the Shabbat elevator, which is quite common in Israel. Basically, it’s a normal elevator, except that during the appointed period of time it operates in a much different manner: constantly cycling through the floors and stopping on every single one. This way ‘observant’ Jews are able to get to the high floors without having to push a button. (There are actually a number of Modern Orthodox families in my 16 story apartment building in Maryland, but I think they use the stairs on Shabbat, especially as our elevators are more likely to break down than anything else...)

I suppose one could argue that the elevator has become a Shabbat robot and that robots, like goyim, are exempt from Halakha, but these technologies are designed and built for the sole purpose of, from the religious perspective, cheating God. It baffles me how anyone can actually see this as a valid use of technology while still claiming to observe Shabbat. Bill Maher actually visited a company that designs and builds a large variety of Shabbat machines in Israel in Religulous where they demonstrated some more such technologies such as a compressed air-powered Shabbat wheelchair.