I was told decades ago that artificial intelligence/machine learning/robotic efforts had a tough time trying to match or simulate human groups. The sort of conversations that a family might have together or a team before a game are quite complex. Just the aspect of who is doing the talking, who is listening to whom and who is being watched by whom - all those and more change rapidly and usually in accord with what might be called the group’s wishes, even though those wishes are not spelled out or agreed upon explicitly.
My friends and relatives in audio-visual and cinematography notice details when we watch movies together that elude me. They often comment on how many different camera angles (and therefore multiple cameras) are being employed to create the visual/auditory experience of the viewer.
One of my troubles with Buddhism as described by Asians is a general putdown of emotion. I may be silly or over-reacting to English ancestral stiffness but I am very confident that emotions bring the color, joy and excitement to life. The most far-reaching book I know on American life vs. Buddhist ideals is Buddhist Practice on Western Grounds by Harvey Aronson, PhD. He goes to some lengths to explain American ideals and practices in such areas as dating and marriage and how they may be viewed by Asian Buddhist teachers. Similarly, the psychiatrist Mark Epstein, in Open to Desire, explains a human tendency in some people to try to hold on to a stance of little emotion and negative expectations in life in an effort to protect themselves from disappointment and letdown.
I have been noticing lately that some groups function together much as a healthy single mind does. It seems to me that a well-functioning group that accepts all its members happily and respectfully speaks back and forth to its members in much the way that a single individual thinks. When one person expresses strong feelings, the others honor the expression. Those in agreement with the speaker say so and those against say what they think. One of my favorite people coaches and theorists is Byron Katie, who advises us to ask when we have a strong opinion, to ask of it, whether it is true. A group may well ask that of a member. Sometimes, a group member will ask that valuable question “Just what do you mean by ‘X’?”
No wonder university departments, neighborhood beer drinkers and local retirees like to get together and compare ideas, histories and worries. They are more fun than many shrinks, have better menus and cost less.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
