Sorry for my Long Absence

Although it’s been a while since my last blog post, it doesn’t mean that I haven’t been writing. For one, I’ve finally discovered Web 2.0 and joined the Facebook / Twitter crowd (as you can see by the tweets on the left).  Facebook / Twitter provides quicker feedback and can be done from a phone when on the bus or waiting in line.  Blog posts require an interesting idea or noteworthy event.  There are many interesting articles now that address web 2.0 culture.  One of my favorites is a series by Moses Ma who is a friend of many of my friends, but I have not yet met in person.  The first of his series begins here:  http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-tao-innovation/200903/understanding-the-psychology-twitter. 

I’ve also become a blogger for the Huffington Post.  Meeting Arianna Huffington again was another perk for being at TED.  As it turns out, she has an interest in consciousness and invited me to contribute to her site.  Blogging there feels more like a community with co-bloggers to read and riff off of, an encouraging and supportive editor, etc.  It’s been fun so far!  For my Huffington Post entries, look here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-gino-yu.  Russell Bishop who is training me to write at another level.  Nury Vittachi, a friend and colleague at the University, has also taught me a lot about the commercial aspects of becoming a writer.  If you're in it for the money, the real money isn't in blogging, but its still in newspaper columns and syndication.

I am co-hosting a workshop on Meaningful Media with Stephen Schafer and John Stewart on June 10th (http://www.asiaconsciousness.org/meaningfulmedia.html).  We’ve also started a blog on the topic (http://meaningfulmedia.blogspot.com).  Mail me if you are interested in attending as it is invitation only and space is limited.  The Meaningful Media workshop is part of a larger Asia Consciousness Festival that is really taking shape, though time consuming.  We have over 30 events across a two-week period.  For the Toward a Science of Consciousness Conference, we have over 250 plenary, concurrent, and poster presentations.  Many interesting people will be in town and it will be very stimulating (http://www.asiaconsciousness.org).  We are hosting another Phusikoi event on May 2nd (http://www.phusikoi.org).  The About Consciousness team have also organized many film screenings as part of the build-up (http://www.aboutconsciousness.net/web/event.php).

I’ve also been teaching game development at the University that has also been taking time.  This semester has been a lot of fun with many industry visitors including Brian Jobling, Josh Rose, Louis-Guy Dumais, Trevor Chan, and Mark Leung.  The students really appreciate the industry perspective, though none may want to get into games anymore after hearing all the horror stories.  In addition to game development, I'm proud to be supervising several projects our MSc students are developing.

By far, the biggest news is that my wife and I are expecting our fourth child sometime in the next month or so.  She was conceived when my wife and I were in New York last year for the Creative Leadership Summit.  If you’ve got any good name suggestions (English or Chinese), please send them to me!  

TED!

I had a great time at TED, and follow on meetings in Los Angeles with many of the people I met. It was my second TED, and both Lorraine Justice and Jose Rueda were with me (we were the only ones from Hong Kong). I ended up sharing a room with Michael Highland who spent time in Hong Kong working at our lab. The TED talks have been covered by many of the blogs on the Internet and in the press and will gradually make their way onto the TED website over the next few months. I spent a large part of the conference sitting in the front, left side (facing the stage). In fact, I was stung on the cheek by one of the mosquitos that Bill Gates unleashed in his talk. My awesome seats were courtesy of Steve Goodling who I met at TED U. Steve was part of the team that brought TED to the City of Long Beach.

For me this year, TED was more about what was happening around the sessions rather than the content of the sessions themselves. I ended up at some amazing breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, and meeting new friends at the parties and after-parties. There was also the after-after party at Patti and Danny Hillis’ place as well as the after-conference, BIL, that was held at the nearby Cal State Long Beach. One of the major after-highlights were the impromptu concerts conducted by Eric Lewis in the lobby of the Westin. I had the pleasure of witnessing his last encore lying underneath the grand piano as he played. Sound was amazing and it was an unforgettable experience (check him out on Youtube as his album isn't out yet). The piece he played is on his website http://www.ericlewisgroove.com/ titled "(Here) In Your Arms."

On the second night of TED, I was invited to a dinner by Tony Tjan and Jason Pontin (Tony also blogs about it here - http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/tjan/2009/02/ted-diary-cars-20-and-a-tianan.html). One of the topics of discussion before meals were served was Tiananmen. This year marked the 20th anniversary of the “massacre” and Li Lu, who was at Tiananmen during the event got up and gave a talk. I ended up speaking after him and ended up singing excerpts from the musical I wrote in ’93 on the topic. It was quite intimidating as Tony Award Winner Glenn Close was also at the dinner (not to mention Alan Hassenfeld, Craig Mundie, or Steve Jurvetson). The songs and singing were well received and I got a few e-mail complements afterwards. I was also invited to a lunch on the following day with Tony Tjan and a few of his friends.

We (Lorraine, Jose, and myself) hosted a dinner of our own, “Game Developers at TED” which drew 25 or so people. It was also a great event that included Louis Castle, David Perry, Noah Falstein, Larry Holland, Keith Boesky, Henk Rogers, Ben Sawyer, Marc Prensky, Stewart Bonn, and Raj Kapoor, among many others. John Abele, Dean Kaman, and Marc Hodosh also joined. There are so many great ideas at TED, and video games are the new media to get ideas out to the younger generation. Game developers at TED have a role to play, especially when it comes to behavior modification. This was also the message I communicated to Al Gore during his “working breakfast.” Addressing this opportunity and potential is why we are also rebranding our laboratory, MERECL, to PLAYLAB to focus specifically on “Meaningful Games.” I hope that we start a TED tradition with this meal and look forward to hosting another dinner at next year’s TED.

The best part of TED, of course, is meeting new people and forming new friendships. There are so many inspiring people in attendance and not just only on the stage. Everyone is open and approachable. Interactions standing in line, during one of the many parties, or walking from one venue to another become fascinating learning experiences. This year’s TED made it easier as well with each person’s “talk to me about these three things” listed on their badge. I had a good laugh with Robert Thurman who I sat next to for a breakfast. We both had “joy” listed as a conversation topic. I also met him the day before in the lobby of the Westin where Goldie Hawn and Donna Karan were also talking about their efforts to bring mindfulness training to schools. I became friends with Patrick Newell who founded the International School in Tokyo after meeting him at the gala party. I also had a great conversation with Michael Martin who is involved in “meaningful media” using music to “change the world.” Chris Traub, based in Taiwan, sent me a mail before TED and we were able to find each other and meet up for a conversation on meditation and spirituality (though we have yet to finish). I hope to visit with many of the people I met during the coming year. I have more people to visit next time I’m in New York!

After TED, I spent an afternoon at the BIL conference. It felt very different from the polish of TED, but there were a lot of interesting memes being passed around. In one of the presentations, the presenter released butterflies into the audience. I was amazed that Bill Gates could inspire such performance art. I had a surreal moment at the BIL event when I asked a stranger to borrow their iPhone (to call my ride), dialed my friend’s number, and had his name show up on the iPhone. It really is a small world.

After BIL, I was able to catch up with friends and family in LA. I also had the opportunity to visit some of the people I met at TED including the guys at Participant Productions, William Morris, Paula Wagner, and Brian Boesky. I got a sense of the media industry and the role of agents in putting deals together (or not). I also met with some friends I made on previous trips, potential clients, and Carl Bressler, a person that three other friends told me I had to meet. Carl, in turn, knows lots of people in LA and just hanging with him for a few days felt like an extension of TED. My sister drove up from San Diego with my nephew and brother-in-law.

Overall, it was a great trip. I am still following up on all of the potential collaborations and projects that resulted from the chance encounters. Its a great time to be alive and working in the field of media and consciousness! If you are in Hong Kong on the 21st, we are hosting another Phusikoi event (http://www.phusikoi.org).

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to TED I Go

Am a the airport heading to TED. This year marks its 25th anniversary and its move from Monterrey to Long Beach (it switched places with The-EG event). I've been corresponding with a lot of people in anticipation of the event, with several informal meetings planned. I've been invited to one dinner and will also be hosting one (for game developers). I'm part of a group from Hong Kong this year that also includes Jose Rueda, who I work with at MERECL / Playlab, and Lorraine Justice, our department head at the University. Will also be attending parts of the Bil Conference (http://www.bilconference.com) this year. Bil and TED, a most excellent adventure! My friend Bill Lin (was the best man at my wedding) will also be at Bil with his girlfriend who I am looking forward to meeting.

I will be in Los Angeles for a few days, and possibly heading to Las Vegas for DICE. Please shoot me a mail if you are in LA and would like to meet!

Upon my return to Hong Kong, we are planning our second Phusikoi event on Feb. 21st at the PolyU (http://www.phusikoi.org for details). The event is shaping up nicely and our organizational team is growing! Among many others, Ho Hon Wong will be talking about the Religion and Spirituality Center at the HKIEd and the conference that they are organizing, the Asia-Pacific Confernce on Children's Spirituality (an event I'll be speaking at). Feb. is looking to be a fun month!

Toward a Science of Consciousness Coming to Hong Kong

This June, the School of Design is hosting a Conference, Toward a Science of Consciousness. As I bring this up in conversation, I often get a response of "aren't you in the School of Design? What does that have to do with consciousness?" My answer is "Everything!" Design is about creating experiences. Consciousness is the substrate from which experience is created. TSC brings together many different disciplines including philosophy, psychology, neurosciences, cognitive sciences, and spirituality to understand many simple things that we as designers take fore granted. What is the experience of the color red? Why do some sounds and colors seem to sound / look good together, while others don't? How do images and sounds trigger emotions? Where do my design ideas really come from?

At the heart of the Science of Consciousness is what is known as the mind-body problem. What is the relationship between the mind, my subjective experience, and my physical body. With today's medicine, we understand how most of systems of the body work such as the heart, digestion, respiratory, etc. and we know that there is a relationship between the brain and thinking. But is the mind created by the brain? How? What are the biological mechanisms? The mind and body seem very much related. When I experience an emotion it influences my facial expression and body language. Certain material substances (e.g., drugs) can alter my perception of reality. How? We can build incredible tools and technologies, decode the human genome, peer into the quantum world and the farthest reaches of the galaxy, but we still don't know how it is that we can experience reality. I can't tell you how it is that both you and I know that the PolyU logo is red, or what red really even is (It gets stranger than that! http://cns-alumni.bu.edu/~slehar/cartoonepist/cartoonepist.html).

Now, how does all this relate to design you may continue to ask. Well, what is good design? Function? Form? Texture? Aesthetic? Related to culture? Symbols (semiotics)? Adherence to certain rules (golden ratio)? Is it all subjective (coke or pepsi) or can there be universal rules like, say, gravity or physical properties of hydrogen? How are subjective experiences (mind) created from physical properties (body)?

Can there be a science of design?

Did you know that the image of a logo can affect one's perceived taste of a beverage? (http://www.60secondmarketer.com/60SecondArticles/Branding/cokevs.pepsitast.html)

Did you know that there are theories which explain how we experience good visual art (http://mixingmemory.blogspot.com/2005/01/cognitive-science-of-art-ramachandrans.html), neuroasethetics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroesthetics).

Did you know that imagination and perception use the same neural circuits? (http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/129/rewiring-the-creative-mind.html) - A basis for mindful design?

Did you know that there are parts of your brain that don't know the difference between you doing something and you watching someone do something (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3204/01.html) - explains how movies and video games are so engaging!

These are just some of the recent findings related to the efforts to develop an understanding, toward a science of consciousness. If you are alive and conscious, you have just as much say as anyone to explain your experience. If you have any ideas, theories, I encourage you to submit an abstract to our Conference (http://www.asiaconsciousness.org/TSC).


We will have many of the world's leading Consciousness Researchers here for the event. Among the participants include:

David Chalmers - the philosopher who coined the term "The hard problem of consciousness" and the challenge of bridging first-person and 3rd-person experience.

Stuart Hameroff - A leading proponent of quantum consciousness. He has also been featured in many films including "What the Bleep."

Hakwan Lau - Hong Kong local graduate, cognitive neuroscientist now at Columbia University working on neural correlates

Ken Mogi - Sony researcher focusing on a neural basis of qualia.

Susan Greenfield - Author and Cambridge researcher who created the BBC Brain Story Series.

Ovid Tzeng - Leading authority on cognitive neuroscientific studies of Chinese Language.

Victor Lamme - Leading authority in vision and visual perception.

Jonathan Schooler - Leading researcher in consciousness, memory, and the relationship between language and thought, problem-solving, and decision making.

Marilyn Schlitz - CEO of the Noetic Institute and researcher on psi, psychophysiology, cross cultural healing, creativity, and consciousness.

Ben Goertzel - Leader in the the machine consciousness movement.

Allan Combs - Integral consciousness researcher and editor of the Journal of Conscious Evolution.

If you feel that TSC may be too heavy for you, we are planning a whole "Asia Consciousness Festival" from June 5th to June 18th (http://www.asiaconsciousness.org). The Festival will include workshops, movie screenings, art exhibits, etc. around the theme of consciousness. We are open to contributions. Please participate!

Happy Holidays!

Its been a busy month with the conclusion of another semester and the holidays quickly upon us. Earlier in the month, I spoke at the Culturemondo round-table in Taipei (http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=812263&lang=eng_news). I had a wonderful time in Taipei and visited the Consciousness Research Group at Yang Ming University. I also visited the Psychology Department at the National Taiwan University and met Jenyi Chao who happened to be moving to Hong Kong next month.

I met many new friends at Culturemondo and caught up with old friends that I hadn’t seen in a while. Joy Tang, who founded OneVillage (http://www.onevillagefoundation.org/ovf/), and one of her partners in Ghana, Kafui Prebbie (http://www.kafui.com/), were highlights. It is always fun hanging out with Joy as she knows many interesting people in Taipei. I spent a few days with Kafui in Hong Kong, where he also gave a talk to our students.

Collaborating with one of our students (Matt Bailey) and a local artist (Maggie Blue), we also hosted the first of a bi-monthly event to promote consciousness (with a press write-up http://www.timeout.com.hk/around-town/features/17269/the-awakening.html). It was a daylong event that included talks, yoga, drumming, film screenings, kirtan, and dancing. The next event will be on Feb. 21st. If you are interested, there is a Facebook group.
There is still time to submit an abstract for Toward a Science of Consciousness that will be held in Hong Kong in June (http://www.asiaconsciousness.org/TSC). It is shaping up to be a memorable event. We will be announcing the plenary speakers shortly.

We’re rebranding our lab, MERECL, to Playlab (will need to write another song) after moving to Kowloon Tong (http://www.playlab.hk/Home.html) with an emphasis on Meaningful Games. We are starting up several exciting new game related projects. If you are a game programmer or artist looking for a great group to work with, please contact us!

The holidays are an opportunity to spend time with family and catching up with friends and on reading. Some of the recent books include Tribes by Seth Godin (one of the TED books that was sent this month), and Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (a book that nicely complements Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond). I’m really proud of my kids who performed wonderfully in their holiday shows, and speech competitions. We had a fun time at home this holiday season watching films, shopping, playing, and spending quality time together.

Keeping Up and Catching Up

I've recently jumped into social networking on the Internet. A lot of my friends and many of the students in the program that I teach in keep up to date with through social networking services. I have an i-phone which makes taking and uploading pictures a snap, and the one-sentence "twitters" are a lot easier to author than blog posts. Its a great way of keeping track of people who are always on the move these days.

The size of social network membership bases have made them great for hunting down people from your past. I've been having a great time re-acquainting myself with friends from college, travels, etc. that I've lost contact with over the years. Its still a bit tough finding the right person for common names (like John Wong), but luckily, I've had many friends who had unusual names (something to think about when naming your children). For those that I haven't heard from in a while, its been great catching up and seeing how their lives have progressed (kids, careers, perspectives).

Mythology, Meaning, Motivation, and Action

As someone with a keen interest in the relationship between the mental and physical world, especially the role of media and how media influences one's perspective on reality, the recent financial crisis and presidential elections in the United States have been very interesting to watch. Today's news are a form of mythology, and it is interesting how rapidly these myths are transmitted around the world and affect people's perception and attitudes. There was another story in the news that 8 out of 10 people say that their perception of the economy is a significant cause of stress. On the flip-side, the election of Barak Obama brought many African Americans to tears (of joy), with the older generation still able to recall the days of segregation less than fifty years ago.

I come from the perspective that language and media, just as science and religion, are methods for communicating conscious experience through the realm of the mind. If you examine what is around where you are sitting, standing, or lying right now, there are physical objects that you experience around you that take up space and time. Things are as they are. How you feel about what you see, whether they are agreeable to you, whether you like or dislike what you are experiencing at the time, etc. are in the realm of the mind. Just as the physical world seems to be made of structures and acted upon by forces (gravity, electro-magnetism, etc.), the mind is also made of structures (ideas connected by emotional attachments).

Emotions keep you physically safe. If a hungry lion walked into the room, most people would experience fear, triggering a "fight, flight, or freeze" response that will keep you as physically safe as possible given the circumstances. Emotional attachments to ideas (or "feelings") are not so clear, especially when negative or destructive emotions are involved. These become especially dangerous when they motivate action.

Media and especially the news stories do not evoke good feelings. A story, for example, of how an eight year old kid shot and killed two adults half-way around the world may not have any bearing on your physical well-being, but when you bring in empathy and consider the future of the family and those that were killed, what does it do to how you feel? From the perspective of your physical immediate surroundings, what sort of impact does such a story have? Serves as a good example for a blog entry? Gossip material? What happens when this story spreads (and I am guilty of this just by bringing it up)? How different is this vs. the role of mythology?

Anyone that has gone on an extended vacation or retreat knows that it is possible to survive and not make a conscious (in some cases obsessive) effort to find out about the latest news. There is a great line in "Dark Side of the Moon" by Pink Floyd that reads:

The lunatic is in the hall

The lunatics are in my hall

The paper holds their folded faces to the floor

And every day the paperboy brings more

I am not saying that you should completely avoid the news. What I am hoping to do is to make you more aware of how the news influences you emotionally (hence biochemically) and affects your perception and subsequent actions. There is also the flip-side of advertising and desire (how does porn work?).

For most people, if you just stop right now and look at or meditate on what is around you, most people will find that they are fine. There is really nothing to fear, physically. So where does the fear that you may experience come from? And how does this arise? This is why practices such as meditation, mindfulness, and presence are so beneficial.

One of These Things is Not Like the Other

At the TED Conference last year, I shared many meals and met many interesting people. One of the dinners I attended was organized by Susan Bratton who I met through Adam Gilad (I was interviewed for his podcast last year - http://personallifemedia.com/podcasts/220-fearless-lover#ep9). Susan founded and operates the site with her husband. At the dinner, I ended up sitting across from Jamis MacNiven who runs a breakfast place in Silicon Valley named Bucks. Jamis is a rather interesting guy who, besides making a killer pancake, travels the world learning new things (remember what the doormouse says - feed your head). When I spoke with him at TED, he was about to go hang out in Italy for a few weeks to study architecture. His son shot a movie about wrestling in Mongolia and also won the Amazing Race. Needless to say, you can learn a lot from TED just by talking to the people there and listening in on conversations.

A friend of mine recently sent a shot that had me in it from Jamis' blog about his TED experience (http://bucksstories.blogspot.com/2008/04/ted-2008_18.html). It was of a group of us talking between sessions about the future of media. I was surprised to see the shot on his blog and it brought back some memories of the discussion. It is quite fascinating how media shapes our world-view today and how technology is changing the ways in which we both consume media and how the production of media is financed. From recent discussions I've had with others, television revenues are down and bit torrent is on the rise. Hard drives continue to increase in size and home media networks are also exploding, especially with consoles and receivers that are wi-fi'd. Media is ephemeral, though the stories and themes are transcendent. As the pace of media and communications (connecting minds) continues to accelerate, it will be exciting to see its impact on collective consciousness.

These are certainly exciting times we live in. Events like TED and The EG are great places to get a preview and to meet some of the people behind the changes.

Baraka on Blue Ray

I recently upgraded my amp and media player (got a PS3). With the conclusion of the format was, I finally caved in and got a Bluray player. The film that I've been longing for is now available in Hong Kong on Bluray and looks fantastic. The picture and sound are absolutely amazing! They also produced a new documentary that covers the production of the film and another on the restoration process. The film was scanned at 8K resolution (and down-sampled to HD) and looks stunning. Many of the technical effects (changes in focus, etc.) and subtle details (background faces, etc.) are now clearly discernible. The music and sound design are also recorded in DTS-HD and serve to reinforce the imagry. This film is really what media is about (facilitating introspection, examining the "bigger picture" of life).

I have personally purchased and given away nearly a hundred copies of this film (for a while, I would buy copies that I came across that were at a low-price, knowing that I would give it away later). In my teaching career since my days at USC, I've also made many a student watch this film and reflect on it. In the first few years, students were also required to write an essay. I also make it a habit to watch the film all the way through a couple times a year. I've got the book by Mark Magidson as well as his concert film with Dead Can Dance (who also wrote a few of the songs on Baraka). There are shots from Baraka in the second Matrix film (when Neo is talking to the Architect).

How fanatical am I? When I visited Santa Fe for a conference, I tried to look up Ron Fricke who directed the film. I found out that he moved to Berkeley and met the people that now live in the house that he lived in while in Santa Fe. My friend Peter Russell (http://www.peterrussell.com) was also an advisor to the film. There is a whole site around the fans of Baraka (http://www.spiritofbaraka.com/) and who are also looking forward to his new film, Samsara (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsara_(2007_film)).

I plan to watch / hear / experience this film more over the next few weeks. For those of you that haven't seen it, be sure to pick it up on Bluray!

Happy Travels

Back from another trip to the United States. I visited the Institute of Noetic Sciences (http://www.ions.org) near San Francisco, attended the Creative Leadership Summit (http://www.creativeleadershipsummit.org) in New York, participated in the International Conference on Entertainment Computing (http://www.etc.cmu.edu/icec2008/) in Pittsburgh, and visited friends and family in Los Angeles. It was a great trip overall and I made a lot of new friends and reconnected with many that I have not seen in a long time.

The highlight of the trip was attending the Creative Leadership Summit for the second time. I participated in two of the panels and in one panel, "came out of the closet" as a "dualist." For the last few years, I've been investigating the mind, the relationship between mind and body, and how experience is communicated (language, empathy, etc.). While many, especially in the consciousness community, try to push the physical "implementation" of mind into the brain (neuron structures), or down into the level of quantum effects, I am more interested in how the mind develops a world-view and how mental activities translate into physical action (perspective, emotions, and intentions). I am especially interested in how media experiences influence the mind and emotions. For this, it is easier to examine the mental world and its relationship to the physical world. The physical world and the body, in a sense, grounds the mental. Emotional expressions, body language, eye movements (NLP), and how we breath are intimately connected to the mental world. Eastern knowledge of the body and health also play a role. These processes are based upon physical phenomenon that are independent of culture and beliefs (for example, an angry American Christian breaths and carries similar body language and facial expressions to an angry Muslim from Iran).

I've been busy lately planning for the Toward a Science of Consciousness Conference we are hosting here in Hong Kong next June (http://www.asiaconsciousness.org/TSC). In addition to the conference, we are developing a whole festival around Consciousness which will be a lot of fun. If you are working in the area of consciousness, media psychology, or entertainment computing, please submit an abstract!

A Moment In Time

It’s been a while since my last post. The summer flew by fairly quickly. My wife, kids, and I had a great trip to Banff and the Banff New Media Institute (http://www.banffcentre.ca/bnmi/). For those that have not been there, Banff is a small town situated in the middle of a national park in the midst of the Canadian Rockies. Surrounded by nature, the Banff Center is a cultural hub that includes musical performance, theater, writers and artists in residence, and scientists (Banff International Research Station). Surrounded by nature and with so much creative people to connect with, one cannot help but become inspired. The Banff New Media Institute (BNMI) provides excellent facilities for new media including a CAVE, TV studio, computer labs, etc. They also have a wireless research laboratory as well. What a fun place! Relaxing, yet so full of activity! The Banff Center provides a conflux of diverse activity, an ideal environment for synchronicity to happen. During our stay there, I was able to meet many interesting people including renown pianist Anton Kuerti, author Jeff Warren (http://www.headtrip.ca), Richard Miller (http://www.nondual.com), and Bill Mckibben (http://www.350.org).

The kids loved the animals that we were able to see (elk, coyote, and even saw a bear), the dinosaur remains (Drumheller made a great day trip), and the glaciers (Columbian Ice Flow). Lake Louise was quite spectacular, though it was raining on the day we were there and wasn’t able to take the kids canoeing (though we later went on a raft ride down the Bow river). On our drive up to the Columbian Ice Flow, I took a wrong turn and we ended up driving through Yoho National Park, home of the Burgess Shale. For those of you unfamiliar with the Burgess Shale, they are fossils of creatures (Trilobites) that date back 500 MILLION years ago. It took me quite a while to wrap my head around the idea of 500 million years. Lets see… college was 20 years ago… The Declaration of Independence was 200 years ago… Jesus was 2000 years ago… early man was 20,000 years ago… Dinosaurs were maybe 65-230 million years ago (big jump there)… to the trilobites of 500 million years ago. Kind of boggles the mind to look across that vast span of time and the accelerated technology driven by the mind that has led us to where we are today.

And what better way to spend today than with family? School starts again next week. It has been a great summer spending time with our children. Our trip reminded me a lot of the camping trips that my parents took me on to Yosemite and Disneyworld when I was trowing up. After we returned home from Banff, the two older ones went to Japan as part of a trip with their Japanese School, leaving me with our youngest, Orson. We had a great time spending one day at Disneyland and another at Ocean Park. We also watched a lot of the Olympics together as well. These trips have been an absolute treasure, bonding with our kids. In the vastness of time, each day can be such a joy to savor with the ones you love.

More Great Online Content

I find myself watching more and more media online these days in my free time. It’s been a while since I saw a movie in the theaters and I rarely turn on the television. There are some really great sites online for those that want to expand their interests. It is also reassuring to see so much meaningful content as well. Some recent discoveries include http://www.fora.tv, http://thesciencenetwork.org/BeyondBelief2, and http://www.consciousmedianetwork.com/.

I was particularly excited about finding a site with video by Tony De Mello, especially since my wife is Catholic http://tonydemello.wordpress.com/. My personal view is that all religions are languages for communicating inner experience and its great to find a Catholic perspective that is less dogmatic to provide a common semantic reference for my wife and me.

Summer!

My wife and I finished our Master Cleanse after eight days. It definitely went by easier the second time around. I noticed getting dizzy after standing up quickly after lying in bed or sitting for a long period of time, but other than that things went pretty smoothly. Coming off the Cleanse wasn’t so easy as we had two banquets over the weekend rather than easing back into food (which I would not advise).

I spent yesterday watching the NBA finals with my son who had just finished his exams. He turns eight years old today, but enjoys basketball. I remember watching the earlier Celtics / Lakers competitions with my own dad some twenty or so years ago. This time around, the Celtics blew out the Lakers (my parents are in LA) and to my surprise, they showed a video called “Gino” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JPA_L7bRSo).

I’ve been planning a trip to Banff where I will be speaking in July. Although I’ve given talks before at conferences, this will be the first talk that I give where the tickets are available from Ticketmaster (http://www.ticketmaster.ca/event/1100409EE286ACA6). My wife and kids will also be joining and we will be doing some hiking there. I also plan on bringing the kids to see the glaciers (while they still exist) and dinosaur museum in Drumheller.

I’ve started teaching Recovering Creativity again during the weekend. Am trying some new things with the course (7 weeks, 4 hours per week vs. 14 weeks, 2 hours per week). I’ve got a great group this term!

Cleanse and Friend Passing

My wife and I are on day 5 of a Master Cleanse (I blogged about our first experience with it last year). Things are going fairly well with a minor bout of headaches and a sore neck (twisted tendons). I get dizzy if I stand up too fast. The Master Cleanse second time around is going fairly easily without hunger pangs on days 3 or 4. We decided to do the cleanse after all the food we ate traveling throughout Israel and Jordan. The food there was quite healthy and tasty, freshly grown from on the Kubutzes there. I miss the humus and beets already. We will most likely stop our cleanse after eight or nine days as my wife has dinners she is hosting on Friday and Saturday.

I received e-mail over the weekend announcing that my friend Erick Wujcik (http://www.47rpg.com) had passed away from Pancreatic Cancer, the same disease that took Richard Newton’s life (which I’ve blogged about). Erick was a good friend who came to Hong Kong and taught in our program for a year before moving to Shanghai to become Head Game Designer for Ubisoft’s studio in Shanghai. In addition to designing video games, he also created over 70 pen and paper role-playing games. We had many good conversations together and his friendship will be missed. Randy Pausch who I’ve met at Carnegie Mellon University when I visited the Entertainment Technology Center there is also suffering from Pancreatic Cancer. He recently gave another inspiring speech which is available online (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcYv5x6gZTA).

The Holy Land

I spent the last two weeks with my wife traveling through the “Holy Land” on a Christian tour. My sister-in-law and mother-in-law have recently become Christian and asked us to join. I had always wanted to see Jerusalem and, after I found out that we would also be visiting Jordan and Petra, jumped at the chance. Being in a busload of praying, “experience sharing,” and singing Christians for hours at a time was a new experience for me (brought me back to summer camp in my youth). I read the book Socrates, Buddha, Confucius, Jesus by Karl Jaspers on the trip which provided a great perspective on the lives of these four remarkable individuals and the legacy that they left behind.

Some highlights included Jerusalem and the old city (especially the Holy Sepulchre, Wailing Wall, and Dome on the Mount), swimming in the Dead Sea, the view at Makhtesh Ramon, walking through Petra and Jerash, a boat-ride in Galilee, and learning about the formation of Israel. Needless to say, we also saw a lot of churches. The food was good, but fairly repetitive (humus, chicken, salad, etc.).

We also saw the wall surrounding the Palestinian areas. Luckily, there was little violence while we were there. Another very special highlight was climbing Mount Sinai and watching the sunrise. Mount Sinai, of course, was where it is claimed that Moses saw the “burning bush” and received the Ten Commandments. This has special meaning for me because, earlier in my life, “God” had also handed me words to live by. The first time was when I was skiing in Austria (Solden) in 1991 when I was given the words “Art, Love, Tea” which still puzzles me to this day, but has had influence in my life (when “God” hands you words, its best to just take them). The second time was in 1993 in Nepal. I was on a bus driving down the top of Mount Nagarkot and this time I was handed (on an Apple Newton Tablet even!) four sentences that became a life philosophy for a period. They were:
1) All I bring is what I know
2) All I take is what I leave
3) All I leave is what I do (or achieve)
4) All I do, I do from love

The nice thing about this philosophy is that it works on the micro (e.g., meeting someone), and also the macro (e.g., life). Although I was not handed anything on my climb (camel ride) and descent (hiking) from Mount Sinai (though I did pick up a few rocks), it did bring back memories. The camel ride up was fun as I had my headphones and looped the soundtrack to Lawrence of Arabia. Although we did not visit, I did get the chance to see Aqaba from Eilat (big flag over Aqaba supposed to be the largest in the world). Didn’t get to dive the Red Sea either. All the more excuse for another visit in the future.

Pangea Day

If you haven't seen it yet, check out http://www.pangeaday.org. The highlight video is quite remarkable. I have been doing a lot of reflecting on the role of media and its ability to bring people together into community. Media creates a common reference for dialogue and discussion. Many of the films on the Pangea Day site are quite touching. Held as an international event, the films brought people around the world together and truly inspire. It was also great to see so many members of the TED community coming together to make it happen! Can we build communities as such on the Internet with a shared viewing experience?

Back from My Blog Hiatus

I’m back from my self-imposed hiatus. As I have been on a mini-sabbatical from teaching this semester, the past few months have been a whirlwind of travel and activity. I attended the TED conference (http://www.ted.com), the Towards a Science of Consciousness Conference in Tucson (http://www.consciousness.arizona.edu/tucson2008.htm) where I gave a talk and demo’d some new work. We are hosting the conference in Hong Kong next year (http://www.consciousness.arizona.edu/hongkong.htm). I was also invited to give a talk at the Annual Conference of the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness Conference held at the Yale Divinity School (http://www.sacaaa.org/). The trip to the East Coast was particularly special because my wife and kids came along and we spent a few days in New York together beforehand. During the travels, I met many new friends as well as reacquainting myself with many old ones as well.

TED was an amazing event where I got to meet many inspiring freethinkers including Karen Armstrong. It was her book, A Short History of Myth that I first encountered the term “Phusikoi.” I was privileged to have attended a breakfast and sat at the same table with her (religion is essential to humanity), Dan Dennett, and my friend Sue Blackmore (both Dan and Sue are from the atheist/skeptics camp). I was able to spend time with all of them which helped me build my case regarding inner experience that I presented at the Yale conference. There were some really inspiring talks this year at TED including one by Jill Bolte Taylor that has been making the rounds on the Internet (http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/229). My wife and I will be attending together next year.

Continuing my thoughts on entertainment for a thinking person, among the many new friends that I made during my travels was singer-songwriter Nellie McKay (http://www.nelliemckay.com/) who I met at TED where she performed. The combination of satire and musical talent was really refreshing. It’s really exciting to see messages delivered in a fresh new way and there is nothing like humor to get ideas across in a non-threatening way. I’ve also recently discovered the work of Bill Hicks (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q95kX_EP2Nk) and Doug Stanhope (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI_yaifPIEU&feature=related) that encourage people to question the status quo... with humor.

Entertainment for the Thinking Person

I’ve always been a promoter of education and how technology enables the dissemination of information and media (anything that affects the mind should be free). There is also a growing movement for open source, Creative Commons, and Copyleft (opposite of Copyright). A movie has recently been released available for download titled “Steal This Film” which also addresses the trend towards P2P and digital download (and makes a positive case for it) and worth a download http://www.stealthisfilm.com/. While it may be hard at times to sift through the meaningful stuff from the crud, there are more and more sites that are hosting consciousness-raising and thought provoking content. I have previously mentioned a few such as TED and the Creative Leadership Summit (which are also great networking events). Here are a few more:

http://www.guba.com/watch/3000053112 (important for better understanding the world situation today)
http://freedocumentaries.org (may be showing a bit of my Berkeley roots)
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses.php (definitely showing my Berkeley roots)
http://www.edge.org (thought provoking articles and discussions)

With sites like these, why waste time with TV? If you know any other great sites, feel free to send them to me!

Another Year and One Step Closer

I got a call before Christmas from a friend and former colleague, Erick Wujcik (http://www.47rpg.com/blog/, http://www.erickwujick.com), who informed me that he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. It was a year ago a former professor, Richard Newton, who was the Dean of the Engineering School passed away (from pancreatic cancer). I was able to see Erick twice last year (2007) before he got the news and also saw him this week when he visited Hong Kong. After reading Chasing Daylight and Not Fade Away (which I've blogged about earlier), it was an eye opening experience being a part of someone else's "coming to terms with the possibility of death." Erick has lived a full life and is in very good spirits. He has also influenced many people, myself included.

Perhaps it is a sign of middle age (I turn 44 this year). Up until now, I've been fairly fortunate in that my friends and family are still around. I've only lost a few people that I've known well. My grandfather, a handful of friends (Garrett Omata, Kenny Cheung, Linda Mabalot). I expect that it will become more of a regular occurrence as I grow older. With age, time seems to be going by a lot quicker as well. The days, weeks, and months seem to be flying by. I've been alive 15,900 or so days so another day is just 1/15,900 of my time alive vs. the first day which represented the whole of my existence outside the womb. Perhaps or experience of time is related to the harmonic series.

This New Years had me reflecting again about mortality. The New Years Eve party bordered on surreal with fireworks going off, my kids dancing on stage with a live band, and me wondering how I would feel if this were the last New Years Party that I would ever attend. Like birth, death is a process that we will all experience and must reconcile. Who are you. Why are you here. The comfort of loved ones. The miracle of life. Music. Love. Perspective. Presence.

Right here, right now, it is good to be alive.

Inspired by Ideas

Earlier this month, I was fortunate enough to attend a truly inspiring event, The Entertainment Gathering (http://www.the-eg.com). What made the event so amazing was not only the incredible speakers and live performances, but also the fellow-attendees, each of whom were working on projects driven by their passion to make the world a better place. The EG is hosted by Michael Hawley of the MIT Media Laboratory and also an accomplished pianist and founded by Richard Saul Wurman who also founded the TED Conference in Monterrey (which I will be attending in a few months). There is a blog of the event (http://blog.the-eg.com/).

Some of the chance meetings bordered on the surreal. For example, a chance meeting and discussion with Max Palevsky who as introduced to computers by John von Neumann and later went on to help fund Intel and his wife, Jodie Evans who is also accomplished in her own right and co-foundered Code Pink a peace and social activist movement. Being invited to Danny and Pattie Hillis’ “ranch” home in Encino (they have a parrot, mules, and lamas). Pattie does a lot of work on environmental and sustainability issues while Danny is a legend in computers, entertainment technology (former CTO of Disney), and attacking hard engineering problems (http://www.longnow.org) for the sheer fun of it. The photographers Peter Menzel and Faith d’Aluisio were another inspiring husband-wife pair.

One of my personal favorite moments was bumping into jazz legend Herbie Hancock in the bathroom and nearly dropping to my hands and knees in a “we’re not worthy” moment.

What also made the event particularly meaningful were the live performances (including a finale piece by Leon Fleisher) and visuals (not to mention the Getty where the event was held). Being hit with ideas, raw emotion, multimedia, and the interactive networking. Reflections by Comedy legend Jonathan Winters was deeply moving. Events such as The EG, TED (http://www.ted.com), The Creative Leadership Summit (http://www.creativeleadershipsummit.org), and Gadgetoff (http://www.gadgetoff.com/home.html) bring the mystery, wonder, joy, and camaraderie in life. Hong Kong could really use an event like this.

While in LA, I also visited MARC (http://www.marc.ucla.edu/) and got to spend time with Dan Siegel (http://drdansiegel.com/) as well as attending the anniversary party at AGAPE (http://www.agapelive.com/) and meeting Michael Beckwith. A lot of good going on in LA.