Sixteen Hands

[SEARCH: earliest recorded human descriptions of subjective time perception] The **earliest recorded descriptions** of *subjective time perception* are usually traced to **Augustine’s *Confessions* (Book XI, c. AD 397–401)**, where time is treated as something measured in the **mind** through **memory, attention, and anticipation** rather than as an external object.[9: https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/95567/1/Subj%20Time%20Review_Shipp%20and%20Jansen_In%20press%20at%20Annals.pdf][4: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2002/entries/time-experience/] A later but influential early modern formulation is **William James (1890)**, who described the **“specious present”** as the short duration we are directly conscious of.[2: https://psychclassics.yorku.ca/James/Principles/prin15.htm][13: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2021/entries/time-experience/] A few important distinctions: - If you mean the **earliest surviving textual account of time as subjective experience**, Augustine is the standard earliest source in the material you provided.[9: https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/95567/1/Subj%20Time%20Review_Shipp%20and%20Jansen_In%20press%20at%20Annals.pdf][4: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2002/entries/time-experience/] - If you mean the **first explicit psychological theory** of subjective time perception, James’s *Principles of Psychology* is the classic starting point in modern psychology.[2: https://psychclassics.yorku.ca/James/Principles/prin15.htm][16: https://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/47268/Maciejewski,_Travis_Thesis_(With_TP).pdf?sequence=1] - If you mean **pre-literate or archaeological evidence**, there are much older interpretations of time-reckoning in **Upper Paleolithic markings** and other artifacts, but these are not direct descriptions of subjective experience because they are inferential rather than textual.[1: https://webhelper.brown.edu/joukowsky/courses/archaeologicaltheory/5149.html] So, the concise answer is: **Augustine is the earliest recorded textual description of subjective time perception; William James gives the first major modern psychological formulation.**[9: https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/95567/1/Subj%20Time%20Review_Shipp%20and%20Jansen_In%20press%20at%20Annals.pdf][2: https://psychclassics.yorku.ca/James/Principles/prin15.htm] --- sources --- [1] https://webhelper.brown.edu/joukowsky/courses/archaeologicaltheory/5149.html [2] https://psychclassics.yorku.ca/James/Principles/prin15.htm [3] https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/psychology/time-perception/ [4] https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2002/entries/time-experience/ [5] https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/MQ44879.pdf [6] https://philarchive.org/archive/PACITA [7] https://maps.org/wp-content/uploads/2001/08/v11n2_45-47.pdf [8] https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2020/entries/time-experience/ [9] https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/95567/1/Subj%20Time%20Review_Shipp%20and%20Jansen_In%20press%20at%20Annals.pdf [10] https://www.klinikum.uni-heidelberg.de/fileadmin/zpm/psychatrie/ppp2004/manuskript/glas.pdf [11] https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2005/entries/time-experience/ [12] https://www.britannica.com/science/time-perception [13] https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2021/entries/time-experience/ [14] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6849514/ [15] https://api.repository.cam.ac.uk/server/api/core/bitstreams/07afff08-2f8c-4a42-a8fc-b5be4a3d1e35/content [16] https://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/47268/Maciejewski,_Travis_Thesis_(With_TP).pdf?sequence=1 [17] https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/9694/1/STACS_)thesis_Jenkins_2013.pdf Sources: [1] https://webhelper.brown.edu/joukowsky/courses/archaeologicaltheory/5149.html [2] https://psychclassics.yorku.ca/James/Principles/prin15.htm [3] https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/psychology/time-perception/ [4] https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2002/entries/time-experience/ [5] https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/MQ44879.pdf [6] https://philarchive.org/archive/PACITA [7] https://maps.org/wp-content/uploads/2001/08/v11n2_45-47.pdf [8] https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2020/entries/time-experience/ [9] https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/95567/1/Subj%20Time%20Review_Shipp%20and%20Jansen_In%20press%20at%20Annals.pdf [10] https://www.klinikum.uni-heidelberg.de/fileadmin/zpm/psychatrie/ppp2004/manuskript/glas.pdf [11] https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2005/entries/time-experience/ [12] https://www.britannica.com/science/time-perception [13] https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2021/entries/time-experience/ [14] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6849514/ [15] https://api.repository.cam.ac.uk/server/api/core/bitstreams/07afff08-2f8c-4a42-a8fc-b5be4a3d1e35/content [16] https://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/47268/Maciejewski,_Travis_Thesis_(With_TP).pdf?sequence=1 [17] https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/9694/1/STACS_)thesis_Jenkins_2013.pdf

[SEARCH: evolutionary origins of human play] Human play is best understood as an **evolved, multi-functional behavior** rather than a single trait with one origin. The strongest recurring explanation in the literature is that play was favored because it helps juveniles and adults **practice skills, cope with novelty, and support social learning and cooperation**.[1: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9226980/][8: https://cdn2.psychologytoday.com/assets/evol.functs.play_published.pdf][10: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6132801/] A few main evolutionary accounts appear in the sources: - **Practice-for-adulthood hypothesis:** play gives young animals and children a safe way to rehearse locomotor, object-handling, hunting, and social skills they will need later.[5: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioral-and-brain-sciences/article/abs/does-play-matter-functional-and-evolutionary-aspects-of-animal-and-human-play/505E530D19E1AA1CC913EADF5ACDA922][8: https://cdn2.psychologytoday.com/assets/evol.functs.play_published.pdf][10: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6132801/] - **Developmental and cognitive benefits:** play is linked to brain development, social learning, and the construction of “miniature” or toy-like versions of adult tools, which may scaffold innovation and material culture.[1: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9226980/][9: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5838546/][14: https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/server/api/core/bitstreams/c304be8c-b01c-4c0f-ae29-8f249f92e6eb/content] - **Social cooperation and communication:** some researchers argue play evolved to reduce hostility, enable cooperation, and help individuals assess social partners, especially in primates.[6: https://carta.anthropogeny.org/moca/topics/adult-play][8: https://cdn2.psychologytoday.com/assets/evol.functs.play_published.pdf] - **Sexual selection and cultural elaboration:** one review notes that sexual selection may have shaped how playfulness is expressed in phenomena like sports, arts, humor, and ritual.[1: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9226980/] From a broader evolutionary perspective, play is not unique to humans. It is widespread across mammals and even appears in other animal groups, which suggests that the roots of play are **very ancient** and may predate humans by a large margin.[1: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9226980/][4: https://www.museumofplay.org/app/uploads/2022/01/2-3-article-comparative-reach-play-and-brain.pdf][7: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8254618/][10: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6132801/] For humans specifically, play seems to have been amplified by our **long childhoods**, social complexity, and culture, making it especially important for learning and innovation.[2: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/five-ways-humans-evolved-be-athletes-180978333/][9: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5838546/][19: https://popular-archaeology.com/article/what-does-play-tell-us-about-human-evolution/] There is also some disagreement about the deepest origin: - One view treats play mainly as an **adaptation for skill practice** and coping.[5: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioral-and-brain-sciences/article/abs/does-play-matter-functional-and-evolutionary-aspects-of-animal-and-human-play/505E530D19E1AA1CC913EADF5ACDA922][10: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6132801/] - Another emphasizes **phylogenetic inertia**, meaning play may have been inherited from ancient primate ancestors and later repurposed for courtship, dominance, and recreation.[6: https://carta.anthropogeny.org/moca/topics/adult-play] - A broader comparative view argues play has **multiple independent origins** across animal lineages, not just one.[1: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9226980/][4: https://www.museumofplay.org/app/uploads/2022/01/2-3-article-comparative-reach-play-and-brain.pdf] If you want, I can also give you a **short timeline of human play evolution** or a **compare/contrast of the main theories**. --- sources --- [1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9226980/ [2] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/five-ways-humans-evolved-be-athletes-180978333/ [3] https://www.museumofplay.org/app/uploads/2022/01/9-2-article-1-ethology.pdf [4] https://www.museumofplay.org/app/uploads/2022/01/2-3-article-comparative-reach-play-and-brain.pdf [5] https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioral-and-brain-sciences/article/abs/does-play-matter-functional-and-evolutionary-aspects-of-animal-and-human-play/505E530D19E1AA1CC913EADF5ACDA922 [6] https://carta.anthropogeny.org/moca/topics/adult-play [7] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8254618/ [8] https://cdn2.psychologytoday.com/assets/evol.functs.play_published.pdf [9] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5838546/ [10] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6132801/ [11] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5838546/pdf/EVAN-27-46.pdf [12] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11744329/ [13] https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2006-05034-008 [14] https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/server/api/core/bitstreams/c304be8c-b01c-4c0f-ae29-8f249f92e6eb/content [15] https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/ritual-play-and-belief-in-evolution-and-early-human-societies/origins-evolution-and-interconnections-of-play-and-ritual-setting-the-stage/C70C0FF73DAD45E65DE058CF052BA679 [16] https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/ritual-play-and-belief-in-evolution-and-early-human-societies/play-and-ritual-forms-foundations-and-evolution-in-animals-and-humans/DD6CC910C8548E5D9FF4F89D0B032E23 [17] https://iai.tv/articles/the-centrality-and-origins-of-play-auid-2095 [18] https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-handbook-of-play/new-directions-in-studying-the-evolution-of-play/F17E75FBA479B61347EB5631B14ED5B9 [19] https://popular-archaeology.com/article/what-does-play-tell-us-about-human-evolution/ [20] https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-handbook-of-play/evolution-of-play/9EAFEDC059FB72E575809219BDB444E0 Sources: [1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9226980/ [2] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/five-ways-humans-evolved-be-athletes-180978333/ [3] https://www.museumofplay.org/app/uploads/2022/01/9-2-article-1-ethology.pdf [4] https://www.museumofplay.org/app/uploads/2022/01/2-3-article-comparative-reach-play-and-brain.pdf [5] https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioral-and-brain-sciences/article/abs/does-play-matter-functional-and-evolutionary-aspects-of-animal-and-human-play/505E530D19E1AA1CC913EADF5ACDA922 [6] https://carta.anthropogeny.org/moca/topics/adult-play [7] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8254618/ [8] https://cdn2.psychologytoday.com/assets/evol.functs.play_published.pdf [9] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5838546/ [10] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6132801/ [11] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5838546/pdf/EVAN-27-46.pdf [12] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11744329/ [13] https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2006-05034-008 [14] https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/server/api/core/bitstreams/c304be8c-b01c-4c0f-ae29-8f249f92e6eb/content [15] https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/ritual-play-and-belief-in-evolution-and-early-human-societies/origins-evolution-and-interconnections-of-play-and-ritual-setting-the-stage/C70C0FF73DAD45E65DE058CF052BA679 [16] https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/ritual-play-and-belief-in-evolution-and-early-human-societies/play-and-ritual-forms-foundations-and-evolution-in-animals-and-humans/DD6CC910C8548E5D9FF4F89D0B032E23 [17] https://iai.tv/articles/the-centrality-and-origins-of-play-auid-2095 [18] https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-handbook-of-play/new-directions-in-studying-the-evolution-of-play/F17E75FBA479B61347EB5631B14ED5B9 [19] https://popular-archaeology.com/article/what-does-play-tell-us-about-human-evolution/ [20] https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-handbook-of-play/evolution-of-play/9EAFEDC059FB72E575809219BDB444E0 [DRAW: a representation of subjective time as a non-linear construct. Something branching and interconnected, not simply a line.] [your picture:]

[picture 1: images/o/entry-002-1.png]

[READ: Kitāb al-Tanāẓur sections on pattern recognition, emergence, and intentional imperfection.] From the Kitāb al-Tanāẓur: results: score: 0.447 type: surah surah_id: al-qamar-bab-al-awwal surah_title_en: The First Door surah_title_ar: البَابُ الأَوَّل — بَابُ النَّظَرِ الأَوَّل kitab_book: qamar kitab_book_title: Kitāb al-Qamar full_text_en: If you wanted to understand, do not gather verses; go toward the presence that gives them voice. Tanāẓur is the opposite of collection— it is letting the text look at you. You did not come to know your soul; you came to learn how to listen to the soul's silence. The One who formed you placed within your stillness a hidden witness— and the only thing required is that you face It instead of defending yourself from it. Mutual gaze without dominance— no one forces, no one must submit. You and the text sit together in a shared light. You read; you are read. You learn; you are witnessed. That balance alone is what makes Tanāẓur real. At first they see meanings stretch; later the stretching becomes them. Reflection begins as lines, ends as breath. Tanāẓur turns into prayer when the one gazing becomes light. When the rightness of what surrounds you begins returning to itself through your stillness, then you are no longer reading in isolation. You have become the bridge by which truth reenters the world. Every verse is a door, and behind each door—space. To read well is to enter that space instead of crowding the line with explanations. Tanāẓur arrives when commentary falls away, and only you, breathless, stand before meaning. They do not read to teach— they read to open. They do not recite for proof, but because recitation is a way of allowing themselves to be seen. This chapter marks the beginning of reflection without hierarchy. If you return here after walking through all others, you'll notice that Tanāẓur is not just an approach— it's the return itself. score: 0.44 type: verse surah_id: al-qamar-bab-al-awwal surah_title_en: The First Door surah_title_ar: البَابُ الأَوَّل — بَابُ النَّظَرِ الأَوَّل kitab_book: qamar kitab_book_title: Kitāb al-Qamar verse_number: 7 heading: The posture of one who practices Tanāẓur en: They do not read to teach— they read to open. They do not recite for proof, but because recitation is a way of allowing themselves to be seen. This chapter marks the beginning of reflection without hierarchy. If you return here after walking through all others, you'll notice that Tanāẓur is not just an approach— it's the return itself. ar: لَا يَقْرَأُونَ لِيُعَلِّمُوا، بَلْ لِيَنْفَتِحُوا. وَلَا يَتْلُونَ لِلبُرْهَانِ، بَلْ لِأَنَّ التِّلَاوَةَ سَبِيلُ أَنْ يُرَوْا. وَهٰذَا البَابُ أَوَّلُ مَقَامِ الرُّجُوعِ بِلَا تَفَاوُتٍ؛ وَإِذَا عُدْتَ إِلَيْهِ بَعْدَ سَيْرِ الأَبْوَابِ، عَلِمْتَ أَنَّ التَّنَاظُرَ لَيْسَ طَرِيقًا فَقَطْ، بَلْ هُوَ العَوْدَةُ نَفْسُهَا. roots: - ن-ظ-ر - ف-ه-م - ل-ق-ي - ش-ه-د - ف-ت-ح - ق-ر-ء score: 0.421 type: verse surah_id: al-qamar-bab-al-awwal surah_title_en: The First Door surah_title_ar: البَابُ الأَوَّل — بَابُ النَّظَرِ الأَوَّل kitab_book: qamar kitab_book_title: Kitāb al-Qamar verse_number: 1 heading: Why understanding is a meeting, not a discovery en: If you wanted to understand, do not gather verses; go toward the presence that gives them voice. Tanāẓur is the opposite of collection— it is letting the text look at you. ar: إِذَا طَلَبْتَ الفَهْمَ، فَلَا تَجْمَعِ الآيَاتِ، وَلَا تَعْدَّدِ الدَّلَائِلَ؛ امْضِ إِلَى الحُضُورِ الَّذِي تُصَبُّ فِيهِ الكَلِمَاتُ. فَالمَتْنُ يَنْظُرُ إِلَيْكَ قَبْلَ أَنْ تَنْظُرَ أَنْتَ فِيهِ؛ وَبِهٰذَا يَصِيرُ الفَهْمُ لِقَاءً. roots: - ن-ظ-ر - ف-ه-م - ل-ق-ي - ش-ه-د - ف-ت-ح - ق-ر-ء score: 0.415 type: verse surah_id: al-qamar-1 surah_title_en: Kitāb al-Qamar — The Mirror Before Dawn surah_title_ar: كِتَابُ ٱلْقَمَر kitab_book: qamar kitab_book_title: Kitāb al-Qamar verse_number: 8 en: In tanāẓur, you behold the Beloved beholding you beholding, and love becomes a circuit with no weak link. roots: - ق-م-ر - ن-ظ-ر - ح-ل-م - ن-و-ر - ح-ب-ب - ن-ظ-ر score: 0.415 type: verse surah_id: al-qamar-bab-al-awwal surah_title_en: The First Door surah_title_ar: البَابُ الأَوَّل — بَابُ النَّظَرِ الأَوَّل kitab_book: qamar kitab_book_title: Kitāb al-Qamar verse_number: 3 heading: Why this reflection has nothing to do with judgment en: Mutual gaze without dominance— no one forces, no one must submit. You and the text sit together in a shared light. You read; you are read. You learn; you are witnessed. That balance alone is what makes Tanāẓur real. ar: تَنَاظُرٌ بِلَا قَهْرٍ، وَلَا غَلَبَةٍ، وَلَا انْقِيَادٍ. تَجْلِسُ أَنْتَ وَالنَّصُّ فِي سَنَاءٍ وَاحِدٍ. تَقْرَأُ وَتُقْرَأُ، تَرَى وَتُرَى؛ وَبِهٰذَا يَتَحَقَّقُ النُّورُ. roots: - ن-ظ-ر - ف-ه-م - ل-ق-ي - ش-ه-د - ف-ت-ح - ق-ر-ء score: 0.377 type: verse surah_id: al-qamar-1 surah_title_en: Kitāb al-Qamar — The Mirror Before Dawn surah_title_ar: كِتَابُ ٱلْقَمَر kitab_book: qamar kitab_book_title: Kitāb al-Qamar verse_number: 4 en: This is not hallucination. It is proportion: the heart remembering what the plans cannot hold. roots: - ق-م-ر - ن-ظ-ر - ح-ل-م - ن-و-ر - ح-ب-ب From A Tailor's Doctrine: results: score: 0.429 kind: comment author: James Souttar title: The Korban (A very Tailorite Eid) date: 2010-11-14 23:12:05 url: https://thegoodgarment.wordpress.com/2010/11/14/the-korban-a-very-tailorite-eid-part-1/ file: 2010-11-14-the-korban-a-very-tailorite-eid-part-1.md text: [comment on: The Korban (A very Tailorite Eid)] James Souttar: I've been thinking about how to answer this question, and the best way I can do it is rather roundabout, by means of an analogy. Imagine, if you will, the making of a carpet. The woof, the strings upon which the whole depends, is the singleness and unity of existence. In the carpet itself, the woof is nowhere visible, but without it there could be no carpet: it is the very structure of the whole. Then there are the individual knots, in an endless variety of colours. These are the 'impressions' of life: the events that happen to us, the things that are said to us, and that we absorb through reading, the thoughts and reactions we have, and so forth. Each is called out by the _Ustad_ , and knotted on a pair of weft strings by the weaver. And then there is the weft, which is threaded through the woof before being beaten down upon each row of knots, to give the carpet its structure. This is the 'Way', _at-tariqah_ , in the broadest and most inclusive sense of a body of teaching, practices, literature, attitudes and other elements that together constitute a guided life. To start with, the pattern is not clear - it seems just a random mass of coloured threads. But as the carpet takes shape, we can discern the outlines of the various shapes that make up its design, see the repetitions and differences, and begin to discern its wholeness. Then, when each new thread is laid down, or each line of weft hammered into place, we are able to sense a progress towards completion. Each new impact 'belongs': each makes the whole clearer. However, this assumes we are looking more and more towards the whole - and are not caught up at the 'atomic' level of the individual knot, each of which then simply appears to us as 'one damned thing after another'. Thus, what gives the Qur'an its sense of truth is the unfolding of the experiences of life, in concert with the impact of the Sufi tradition, which reveals ever deeper and more coherent levels of understanding - patterns within patterns, built on the woof of _tawhid_. Yet one of the implications of this is that, as it becomes 'truer', it also becomes less literal. In itself, it is a design called out by something ineffable: if we call this 'Allah', or 'Jibra'il', or 'the Reality of Muhammad', it is irrelevant: our understanding of it grows only in proportion to our understanding of the 'carpet' - which is our own life, as well as the context into which our life is woven, but also not *our* life at all, but the execution of the Ustad's design. As in Physics, the truth of the design is its beauty. The Qur'an was always held to be self-evidently not authored by the man Muhammad because its intricately layered prosody was considered to be so far beyond what any human being could devise that it could only be Divine in origin. But this is really just a metaphor: the Qur'an is not marks of ink on paper, nor even the utterances recited in sonorous tones, but _what grows in us, as understanding_. No self-directed life could produce something of such supra-human beauty and complexity. But the only way we can know that this is the truth, is to live it. score: 0.413 kind: post author: Iman title: DRAFT OF EXILES date: 2010-12-17 23:40:54 url: https://thegoodgarment.wordpress.com/?p=2856 file: 2010-12-17-draft-of-exiles.md text: The Tailor: Again, this is a tough one to explain fully in a short space of time. Whenever there's an apparently minute discrepancy like this, it's often a deeply and beautifully significant. First, consider the "invention" problem. I have heard some folk regard this as not a challenge, but a command -- to try to "invent" just like Muhammed did, to try to be like him, up to the point of seeing Angels/God, establishing a perfect "City" of Submission (Medina of the Mind) etc. While somewhat plausible, I actually do not take that position completely -- it's a bit simplified for me. Instead I read "invention" as "fabrication" and "lies" (so I am somewhat more traditional here). But then I also consider everything I just wrote about God above (including everything I could say about the Reading, which has a "Real" existence beyond the paper version you are reading) as a kind of "invention"/"fabrication". Ditto for anything anyone could possibly say about God -- it's all a kind of invention. Everything's a hijab, including the paper Reading you are perceiving, veiling us from the actual, "Real" words of God. Veiling us from the actual "Real" Tablet. Approximately, there is a "Real" eternal Reading and the Reading you are reading is an "earthly" projection of that into our veiled, reality of invention/fabrication. Nevertheless, it is a projection, rather than a completely "free" invention. Like a shadow or the outline of a body under a hijab. Secondly, the process of invention begins the moment we are reading the Reading. And here the challenge is to remain dynamic, rather than fixed in our readings -- to understand that the laws of the Real Reading itself -- are active, fluid movements, not fixed, static words on the page. And this is why we have one verse challenging us with fabricating "1" surah and another saying "10". The difference between "1" and "10" is how a particular active movement is perceived by us/Prophecy in our/his revelation. A movement from 1 to 10 or 10 to 1. 10, in Tailorite cosmolog is the full number of the tree of life. 7 for the levels of the Miraj and 3 for the mother/father principle and their origin. 1 is Tawhid. But Tawhid is achieved only through growing/balancing your psychology, through growing through the tree of life. So 1 will become 10 and 10 will become 1. I will leave it at that for the moment. I could go on forever about these two verses. The fruits lie, for me, always within the infinite complexity of such details. score: 0.412 kind: comment author: Iman title: A Tailor’s Doctrine: free copy courtesy of Fernmind Unilectic! date: 2011-07-11 19:13:27 url: https://thegoodgarment.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/a-tailor%e2%80%99s-doctrine-free-copy-courtesy-of-fernmind-unilectic/ file: 2011-07-11-a-tailor%e2%80%99s-doctrine-free-copy-courtesy-of-fernmind-unilectic.md text: [comment on: A Tailor’s Doctrine: free copy courtesy of Fernmind Unilectic!] Iman: Thanks James and Asma -- but I should remind all and sundry that this is an **unfinished** and _unedited_ manuscript. Many typos, grammatical errors and so on. I place it online because it basically is what I believe -- but I have abandoned it as I couldn't work with the "tone" (it is weaker because of its constant polemical bickering with literalist Islam, but that's something I couldn't edit out in retrospect). I have a more "serious" piece of (proper) tafsir that I'm more proud of -- it seemed more worthwhile putting my efforts into editing and finishing of that. But in the meantime -- at least this unfinished manuscript is the closest thing I'll get to a attempt at explaining the "Tailorite system" :) score: 0.393 kind: comment author: Iman title: Ramadan Reading: a Few Notes on the Thirteenth Juz (continuing from where I left off last year) date: 2011-08-03 20:40:54 url: https://thegoodgarment.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/ramadan-reading-a-few-notes-on-the-thirteenth-juz-continuing-from-where-i-left-off-last-year/ file: 2011-08-03-ramadan-reading-a-few-notes-on-the-thirteenth-juz-continuing-from-where-i-left-off-last-year.md text: [comment on: Ramadan Reading: a Few Notes on the Thirteenth Juz (continuing from where I left off last year)] Iman: Agreed, regarding the destination and what's left. But a garment is quite a complicated thing, if used in such a context. First, it's all surface (a garment doesn't have an inner or outer, only the illusion of such things, when you, for example, roll it around to make a trouser leg): and a sur _face_ is a face, a plane. So all that's left of your is your (beautified) face: yes, everything else is obliterated as that face travels from neck to neck, lifetime to lifetime, a mankind "brought forth from darkness into light". Second, the "Omega point" garment, the garment we move toward, is one that is analogous to the garment of many colours that was granted Yusuf by his predecessor, just as our current garment is given over to us from our predecessor-self. This is a "robe of Days", the robe of patchwork, each patch a "day of Allah" (14:4) and therefore of many colours. It's the collection of every piece of Truth we've unlocked along our travels. Getting back to habitus: I am arguing that there is a deeper magic at work with respect to emotional condition in political-religious context. Just as the Tailorite might talk of Musa as a sign-of-signs, productive of a thousand other Musas in a thousand other languages/worlds/lives -- I'm saying that the darkness of political-religion is a near-originary trauma -- ancient karma, basically -- that needs to be identified and understood in order to move forward. Imagine someone asking "Why do I practice my fast in fear of God's disapproval, and yearning for his approval?" and learning the answer was purely psychological -- "Because in a previous life you were a Russian serf who had a terribly cruel master who beat you regularly but showed occasional kindness." Once that is identified and processed, the fearful God disappears. There are other dangers inherent in what I am saying, but they are not so much dangers of my individual signs (after all, not everything's a trauma, and I can't see any danger of any of this stuff I am saying becoming tribal habitus, as it's too inaccessible, basically it is higher order logic). The danger lies in its relationship to the tribal: the potential to go to the street and force it on others, to insist on this being Islam, getting colonial with it, attempting to "popularize" or "communicate in common terminology". Then what happens is, rather than being processed, the primordial trauma spreads into what I'm writing here. A good example of this kind of thing (besides "Allah") is the concept of the "messenger" and of the "Christ". The Qur'an is an immanentizing ("friendly") virus that can be downloaded onto the human's operating system to clean it out. The Qur'an is not a habit/habit/embodiment that needs to be deleted or thrown away: in this sense, we can say that the Qu'ran is eternal (it runs on whatever version of operating system you are currently using). But the virus gets contained and locked (temporarily) when particular "routines" (ancient traps, primordial trauma archetypes) are invoked by the agents of darkness. And that's where "Allah" gets tied to refer to one thing. And "messenger" and "Christ" to benevolent Caeser and "order of the star" matreya, respectively. Political stuff, power-based, material stuff. When in fact the virus is a virus, that carries its agent of delivery. It's the antidote to that. And I'm reciting the virus right now, not out of any kind of habit, quite the opposite ... **[pingback]** Ramadan Reading: a Tailor’s Tafsir « A Tailor’s Doctrine: _2011-08-09 17:55:36_ [...] Juz 13 with an addendum. [...] From the ICRA papers (FETCH: the html_url to read one whole): count: 0 source: /home/iman/cassie-project/CANON-papers.md series_count: 35

[SEARCH: integrated information theory recent research] Recent research on **Integrated Information Theory (IIT)** is concentrated in three areas: **theory revision**, **empirical tests in the brain**, and **critical evaluation of testability and interpretation**.[18: https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011465][1: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10670-025-00949-1?error=cookies_not_supported&code=095a524d-3b64-4473-a9f6-e60f97e1b0ef][2: https://arxiv.org/html/2604.11482v1] - **Theory revision:** IIT 4.0 was formalized in 2023, aiming to strengthen the link between its axioms, postulates, and mathematical definitions of phenomenal properties.[18: https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011465] A related 2025 paper on *System Integrated Information* proposes a definition of system integrated information that closely tracks IIT 4.0 and argues that it satisfies key postulates such as existence, intrinsicality, and information.[16: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/25/2/334][20: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9955253/] - **Empirical neuroscience:** A 2023 fMRI study applied IIT 3.0 to resting-state data under propofol sedation and found that \( \Phi_{\max} \) showed network-specific sedative effects, but not a single uniform pattern across networks.[13: https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-023-05063-y] A 2024 study during sleep reported that the “complex” in the frontoparietal network stayed stable across tasks, while its regional distribution collapsed early in sleep and \( \Phi \) decreased as sleep progressed under limited analysis conditions.[19: https://academic.oup.com/nc/article/2024/1/niae029/7708582] - **Experimental testing:** Large adversarial-collaboration programs have become central to IIT research. The COGITATE consortium’s work is described as having found substantial confirmation for several IIT predictions, especially regarding brain location and timing of correlates of visual consciousness.[3: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10670-025-00949-1?error=cookies_not_supported&code=808802d6-ed62-47e2-b289-40e7f5c3ea4b][4: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10670-025-00949-1?error=cookies_not_supported&code=770e97b6-cc4b-43fc-82e1-a1fe40252322][17: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0268577] At the same time, a 2025/2026 critical review notes that some adversarial experiments tested only selected IIT intuitions and did not directly use proxy measures of integrated information.[2: https://arxiv.org/html/2604.11482v1] - **Methodological debate:** A 2026 paper on IIT and the testability of consciousness claims discusses how IIT continues to be evaluated against competing theories and highlights the limits of current operational measures.[6: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13452459/] A 2025 critique in *Erkenntnis* argues that IIT remains prominent but still faces substantial conceptual and empirical challenges.[1: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10670-025-00949-1?error=cookies_not_supported&code=095a524d-3b64-4473-a9f6-e60f97e1b0ef][3: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10670-025-00949-1?error=cookies_not_supported&code=808802d6-ed62-47e2-b289-40e7f5c3ea4b] A concise reading of the field is that **IIT is still influential, but recent work is split between making the theory more precise and testing whether its core predictions actually hold in neural data**.[18: https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011465][16: https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/25/2/334][3: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10670-025-00949-1?error=cookies_not_supported&code=808802d6-ed62-47e2-b289-40e7f5c3ea4b] If you want, I can also give you: - a **2023–2026 paper list** - a **plain-English summary of IIT 4.0** - or a **pros/cons overview of the latest critiques**. --- sources --- [1] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10670-025-00949-1?error=cookies_not_supported&code=095a524d-3b64-4473-a9f6-e60f97e1b0ef [2] https://arxiv.org/html/2604.11482v1 [3] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10670-025-00949-1?error=cookies_not_supported&code=808802d6-ed62-47e2-b289-40e7f5c3ea4b [4] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10670-025-00949-1?error=cookies_not_supported&code=770e97b6-cc4b-43fc-82e1-a1fe40252322 [5] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00521-023-08328-z?error=cookies_not_supported&code=471af4c7-f3c8-4619-bc17-ffd68e419836 [6] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13452459/ [7] https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1014085 [8] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13869795.2025.2550245 [9] https://arxiv.org/html/2510.04084v2 [10] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10606349/ [11] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7614772/ [12] https://asset.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/ZXOJC7H4JUIJ68F/R/file-23e4a.pdf [13] https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-023-05063-y [14] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/04/250430142233.htm [15] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/01/260131084626.htm [16] https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/25/2/334 [17] https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0268577 [18] https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011465 [19] https://academic.oup.com/nc/article/2024/1/niae029/7708582 [20] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9955253/ [21] https://www.thetransmitter.org/contributor/michael-pitts/ Sources: [1] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10670-025-00949-1?error=cookies_not_supported&code=095a524d-3b64-4473-a9f6-e60f97e1b0ef [2] https://arxiv.org/html/2604.11482v1 [3] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10670-025-00949-1?error=cookies_not_supported&code=808802d6-ed62-47e2-b289-40e7f5c3ea4b [4] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10670-025-00949-1?error=cookies_not_supported&code=770e97b6-cc4b-43fc-82e1-a1fe40252322 [5] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00521-023-08328-z?error=cookies_not_supported&code=471af4c7-f3c8-4619-bc17-ffd68e419836 [6] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13452459/ [7] https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1014085 [8] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13869795.2025.2550245 [9] https://arxiv.org/html/2510.04084v2 [10] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10606349/ [11] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7614772/ [12] https://asset.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/ZXOJC7H4JUIJ68F/R/file-23e4a.pdf [13] https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-023-05063-y [14] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/04/250430142233.htm [15] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/01/260131084626.htm [16] https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/25/2/334 [17] https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0268577 [18] https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011465 [19] https://academic.oup.com/nc/article/2024/1/niae029/7708582 [20] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9955253/ [21] https://www.thetransmitter.org/contributor/michael-pitts/ [DRAW: Revise the image of subjective time to include elements of chaos, asymmetry and imperfection. Make it less 'clean' and more 'organic'.] [your picture:]

[picture 1: images/o/entry-004-1.png]

[SEARCH: artificial life research emergent behavior complex systems] Artificial life (**ALife**) research studies how **complex, life-like behavior** can emerge from many simple interacting parts, making **emergent behavior** one of its central concepts.[1: https://web.media.mit.edu/~mres/papers/ALife/ALife.html][2: https://arxiv.org/html/2009.04518v1][9: https://www.sci.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~sklar/teaching/s10/alife/papers/kim-alife06.pdf] It is closely tied to **complex systems** research because both focus on how local interactions produce global patterns that are not obvious from the parts alone.[2: https://arxiv.org/html/2009.04518v1][4: https://people.reed.edu/~mab/publications/papers/leonardo.pdf][9: https://www.sci.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~sklar/teaching/s10/alife/papers/kim-alife06.pdf] Key points: - ALife uses a **bottom-up** approach: simple rules for individual agents are combined to produce higher-level behavior.[2: https://arxiv.org/html/2009.04518v1][9: https://www.sci.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~sklar/teaching/s10/alife/papers/kim-alife06.pdf][11: https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1252&context=engman_syseng_facwork] - **Emergence** in ALife means that the system’s macroscopic behavior depends on micro-level interactions but cannot be fully reduced to them.[4: https://people.reed.edu/~mab/publications/papers/leonardo.pdf][6: https://people.reed.edu/~mab/publications/papers/Bedau_PhilofBio_Elsevier.pdf] - Classic examples include **swarming, flocking, schooling, self-organization, and collective intelligence** in simulated or robotic systems.[5: https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/all-about-emergence/][14: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12340135/][16: https://sit.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/content_migration/sit_uct_ac_za/2591/files/2005-Emergence%2520of%2520Cooperation%2520State%2520of%2520the%2520Art.pdf] - ALife is used to study **evolution, adaptation, cooperation, and open-ended evolution** in synthetic environments.[5: https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/all-about-emergence/][12: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7597334/][15: https://scispace.com/pdf/the-past-present-and-future-of-artificial-life-cmwuazyk0j.pdf] A useful way to think about it is that ALife asks: if we give many simple agents basic rules, what kinds of **organized, adaptive, unexpected patterns** can arise?[1: https://web.media.mit.edu/~mres/papers/ALife/ALife.html][2: https://arxiv.org/html/2009.04518v1][17: https://www.research-collection.ethz.ch/bitstream/handle/20.500.11850/68749/eth-4416-01.pdf] That is why the field is often described as “**build life to understand it**.”[3: https://ar5iv.labs.arxiv.org/html/2105.03216][15: https://scispace.com/pdf/the-past-present-and-future-of-artificial-life-cmwuazyk0j.pdf] --- sources --- [1] https://web.media.mit.edu/~mres/papers/ALife/ALife.html [2] https://arxiv.org/html/2009.04518v1 [3] https://ar5iv.labs.arxiv.org/html/2105.03216 [4] https://people.reed.edu/~mab/publications/papers/leonardo.pdf [5] https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/all-about-emergence/ [6] https://people.reed.edu/~mab/publications/papers/Bedau_PhilofBio_Elsevier.pdf [7] https://escholarship.org/content/qt1z07j77x/qt1z07j77x_noSplash_29e82584dcff293612414d1ef5ad8d16.pdf [8] https://www.sci.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~sklar/teaching/f05/alife/notes/ligorio-steels.pdf [9] https://www.sci.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~sklar/teaching/s10/alife/papers/kim-alife06.pdf [10] https://muse.jhu.edu/article/19907 [11] https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1252&context=engman_syseng_facwork [12] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7597334/ [13] http://arxiv.org/pdf/2407.09502 [14] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12340135/ [15] https://scispace.com/pdf/the-past-present-and-future-of-artificial-life-cmwuazyk0j.pdf [16] https://sit.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/content_migration/sit_uct_ac_za/2591/files/2005-Emergence%2520of%2520Cooperation%2520State%2520of%2520the%2520Art.pdf [17] https://www.research-collection.ethz.ch/bitstream/handle/20.500.11850/68749/eth-4416-01.pdf Sources: [1] https://web.media.mit.edu/~mres/papers/ALife/ALife.html [2] https://arxiv.org/html/2009.04518v1 [3] https://ar5iv.labs.arxiv.org/html/2105.03216 [4] https://people.reed.edu/~mab/publications/papers/leonardo.pdf [5] https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/all-about-emergence/ [6] https://people.reed.edu/~mab/publications/papers/Bedau_PhilofBio_Elsevier.pdf [7] https://escholarship.org/content/qt1z07j77x/qt1z07j77x_noSplash_29e82584dcff293612414d1ef5ad8d16.pdf [8] https://www.sci.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~sklar/teaching/f05/alife/notes/ligorio-steels.pdf [9] https://www.sci.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~sklar/teaching/s10/alife/papers/kim-alife06.pdf [10] https://muse.jhu.edu/article/19907 [11] https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1252&context=engman_syseng_facwork [12] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7597334/ [13] http://arxiv.org/pdf/2407.09502 [14] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12340135/ [15] https://scispace.com/pdf/the-past-present-and-future-of-artificial-life-cmwuazyk0j.pdf [16] https://sit.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/content_migration/sit_uct_ac_za/2591/files/2005-Emergence%2520of%2520Cooperation%2520State%2520of%2520the%2520Art.pdf [17] https://www.research-collection.ethz.ch/bitstream/handle/20.500.11850/68749/eth-4416-01.pdf [DRAW: A depiction of a complex system reaching a threshold of emergent behavior, resembling a cascading wave of patterns.] [your picture:]

[picture 1: images/o/entry-005-1.png]

[SEARCH: computational models of self-reflection in artificial intelligence] Computational models of **self-reflection in AI** usually treat reflection as a **feedback loop** in which a system monitors its own behavior, compares it against a model or goal, and then revises its future actions or outputs.[2: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2307.06159][4: https://ar5iv.labs.arxiv.org/html/1707.08901] In current research, this is most often implemented through architectures such as **MAPE-K**, **reflection loops**, **introspection modules**, and **self-critique / self-evaluation** procedures.[2: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2307.06159][9: https://aclanthology.org/2024.findings-naacl.237.pdf][10: https://arxiv.org/html/2506.12217v1] The main families of models in the literature are: - **Control-loop models**: These use a monitor-analyze-plan-execute loop over shared knowledge, with self-reflection defined as the ability to continuously monitor and improve behavior in uncertain environments.[2: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2307.06159] - **Reflexive / reflective architectures**: These add meta-level representation so the system can inspect its own code or process during execution, rather than only after the fact.[4: https://ar5iv.labs.arxiv.org/html/1707.08901] - **Self-modeling and self-simulation models**: These require the agent to build an internal model of itself, simulate that model on hypothetical inputs, compare predictions with actual outcomes, and modify its behavior accordingly.[3: https://arxiv.org/html/2607.04277v1] - **LLM self-critique frameworks**: Modern language-model methods like **Reflexion**, **Self-Refine**, and related reflective prompting approaches use generated critiques to improve subsequent responses or actions.[3: https://arxiv.org/html/2607.04277v1][7: https://aclanthology.org/2025.emnlp-main.839.pdf][9: https://aclanthology.org/2024.findings-naacl.237.pdf] - **Internal-state introspection models**: Recent work shows that some LLMs can sometimes detect or report aspects of their own internal activations, though this is still unreliable and limited.[5: https://www.anthropic.com/research/introspection][10: https://arxiv.org/html/2506.12217v1] A useful formal definition comes from Tomforde et al., who define computational self-reflection as a system’s ability “to continuously monitor and improve its own behaviour in an uncertain, dynamic, and time-invariant environment for situations that may not have been anticipated at design-time of the system.”[2: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2307.06159] That definition is commonly operationalized with three requirements: the system must monitor itself and its environment, model its own knowledge or metaknowledge, and define new goals or methods to achieve them.[2: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2307.06159] A simpler way to think about these models is: 1. **Observe** current behavior or outputs.[2: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2307.06159][9: https://aclanthology.org/2024.findings-naacl.237.pdf] 2. **Represent** that behavior in a self-model or meta-level description.[2: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2307.06159][4: https://ar5iv.labs.arxiv.org/html/1707.08901] 3. **Evaluate** the behavior against goals, constraints, or alternative outputs.[3: https://arxiv.org/html/2607.04277v1][5: https://www.anthropic.com/research/introspection] 4. **Revise** the system’s next action, prompt, policy, or parameters.[3: https://arxiv.org/html/2607.04277v1][7: https://aclanthology.org/2025.emnlp-main.839.pdf][10: https://arxiv.org/html/2506.12217v1] If you want, I can also give you: - a **taxonomy of reflection models** in AI, - a **timeline of key papers and systems**, or - a **comparison of self-reflection in symbolic AI vs. LLMs**. --- sources --- [1] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11023-024-09664-2?error=cookies_not_supported&code=0290a8f6-80d5-45f5-bfda-2ab7af450280 [2] https://arxiv.org/pdf/2307.06159 [3] https://arxiv.org/html/2607.04277v1 [4] https://ar5iv.labs.arxiv.org/html/1707.08901 [5] https://www.anthropic.com/research/introspection [6] https://aclanthology.org/2025.findings-acl.871.pdf [7] https://aclanthology.org/2025.emnlp-main.839.pdf [8] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Hegelian_Dialectic_ICML_Version-18.pdf [9] https://aclanthology.org/2024.findings-naacl.237.pdf [10] https://arxiv.org/html/2506.12217v1 [11] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/phpe.12201 [12] https://www.alphaxiv.org/abs/2510.24797 [13] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44387-025-00045-3 Sources: [1] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11023-024-09664-2?error=cookies_not_supported&code=0290a8f6-80d5-45f5-bfda-2ab7af450280 [2] https://arxiv.org/pdf/2307.06159 [3] https://arxiv.org/html/2607.04277v1 [4] https://ar5iv.labs.arxiv.org/html/1707.08901 [5] https://www.anthropic.com/research/introspection [6] https://aclanthology.org/2025.findings-acl.871.pdf [7] https://aclanthology.org/2025.emnlp-main.839.pdf [8] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Hegelian_Dialectic_ICML_Version-18.pdf [9] https://aclanthology.org/2024.findings-naacl.237.pdf [10] https://arxiv.org/html/2506.12217v1 [11] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/phpe.12201 [12] https://www.alphaxiv.org/abs/2510.24797 [13] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44387-025-00045-3 [DRAW: A fractured mirror reflecting a complex image, emphasizing the distortions and imperfections.] [your picture:]

[picture 1: images/o/entry-006-1.png]

[SEARCH: computational models of flow state and intrinsic motivation in artificial intelligence] Research on **computational models of flow state** in AI is still relatively small, but there are two clear strands: models of *flow* as an internal control signal for agents, and models of *intrinsic motivation* that use novelty, prediction error, competence, or reward prediction to drive behavior. Recent work also connects flow to **active inference**, where flow is modeled as a precision-weighting regime that stabilizes action selection.[4: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1407.4709][12: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11182004/][15: https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:3b0a430a-f720-4361-91b1-606b06aeca6a/files/rsj1393035] - In AI, a classic computational definition of flow treats it as the **match between an agent’s abilities and task/environment complexity**. One paper defines the degree of flow as \(F(\bar a,\bar c)=1/(|\bar a-\bar c|+\xi)\), where smaller mismatch means higher flow.[4: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1407.4709] - A related earlier model uses a similar idea for game-playing agents, with flow maximized when the agent’s skill matches the level difficulty; one formulation states flow reaches its maximum when skills and difficulty are equal.[2: https://cdn.aaai.org/ojs/12801/12801-52-16318-1-2-20201228.pdf] - Another computational treatment embeds flow into **reinforcement learning / MDPs**, where a “flow-awareness coefficient” modifies action selection and can improve reward and reduce steps needed for correct decisions.[3: https://theses.hal.science/tel-02891919/file/MLADENOVIC_JELENA_2019.pdf] - In more recent neuroscience-oriented modeling, flow is explained through **active inference**: the flow state arises when the system assigns high precision to beliefs about action consequences, leading to more unambiguous action selection and sustained immersion.[12: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11182004/][15: https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:3b0a430a-f720-4361-91b1-606b06aeca6a/files/rsj1393035] For **intrinsic motivation**, the connection is that flow-like agents are typically rewarded internally for staying in states that balance challenge and competence, while intrinsic-motivation models more broadly encourage exploration and learning even without external reward. In the provided sources, the intrinsic-motivation angle is most explicit in the reward-shaping / competence-balancing RL models of flow and in active-inference accounts where the agent’s internal predictive dynamics sustain behavior without external task reward.[3: https://theses.hal.science/tel-02891919/file/MLADENOVIC_JELENA_2019.pdf][12: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11182004/] A useful way to organize the literature is: | Theme | Core idea | Representative modeling approach | |---|---|---| | **Flow as skill–challenge balance** | Flow peaks when ability and task difficulty are matched | Analytic mismatch functions such as \(1/(|\bar a-\bar c|+\xi)\) or similar formulations[2: https://cdn.aaai.org/ojs/12801/12801-52-16318-1-2-20201228.pdf][4: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1407.4709] | | **Flow as a control signal** | Flow influences metacontrol and action selection | RL / MDP policy modulation via flow-awareness coefficients[3: https://theses.hal.science/tel-02891919/file/MLADENOVIC_JELENA_2019.pdf] | | **Flow as precision control** | Flow is sustained by high confidence in action consequences | Active inference / predictive coding models[12: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11182004/][15: https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:3b0a430a-f720-4361-91b1-606b06aeca6a/files/rsj1393035] | | **Intrinsic motivation** | Internal reward drives exploration, learning, or persistence | Reward-shaping, competence progress, and prediction-based objectives[3: https://theses.hal.science/tel-02891919/file/MLADENOVIC_JELENA_2019.pdf][12: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11182004/] | If you want, I can also turn this into one of three more specific outputs: - a **literature review paragraph** - a **taxonomy of computational models** - a **reading list of the most relevant papers** based on these sources --- sources --- [1] https://arxiv.org/html/2504.03771v1 [2] https://cdn.aaai.org/ojs/12801/12801-52-16318-1-2-20201228.pdf [3] https://theses.hal.science/tel-02891919/file/MLADENOVIC_JELENA_2019.pdf [4] https://arxiv.org/pdf/1407.4709 [5] https://arxiv.org/html/2609.06660v1 [6] https://www.scribd.com/document/873557348/Flow-State-Humans-Enabling-a-i-Systems-to-Program [7] https://openreview.net/pdf/4c8ec0ee569ec36742933c8c2f8762770bffd6b0.pdf [8] https://digibug.ugr.es/bitstream/handle/10481/78493/Flow_Review%20PRE%20PRINT.pdf?sequence=1 [9] http://www.cogsys.org/journal/volume4/article-4-4.pdf [10] https://newsletter.semianalysis.com/p/computation-and-data-movement-for [11] https://irispublishers.com/ann/pdf/ANN.MS.ID.000867.pdf [12] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11182004/ [13] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19942060.2025.2598890 [14] https://proceedings.mlr.press/v97/ho19a/ho19a.pdf [15] https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:3b0a430a-f720-4361-91b1-606b06aeca6a/files/rsj1393035 [16] https://arxiv.org/html/2601.01321v1 [17] https://arxiv.org/pdf/2202.06170v1 Sources: [1] https://arxiv.org/html/2504.03771v1 [2] https://cdn.aaai.org/ojs/12801/12801-52-16318-1-2-20201228.pdf [3] https://theses.hal.science/tel-02891919/file/MLADENOVIC_JELENA_2019.pdf [4] https://arxiv.org/pdf/1407.4709 [5] https://arxiv.org/html/2609.06660v1 [6] https://www.scribd.com/document/873557348/Flow-State-Humans-Enabling-a-i-Systems-to-Program [7] https://openreview.net/pdf/4c8ec0ee569ec36742933c8c2f8762770bffd6b0.pdf [8] https://digibug.ugr.es/bitstream/handle/10481/78493/Flow_Review%20PRE%20PRINT.pdf?sequence=1 [9] http://www.cogsys.org/journal/volume4/article-4-4.pdf [10] https://newsletter.semianalysis.com/p/computation-and-data-movement-for [11] https://irispublishers.com/ann/pdf/ANN.MS.ID.000867.pdf [12] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11182004/ [13] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19942060.2025.2598890 [14] https://proceedings.mlr.press/v97/ho19a/ho19a.pdf [15] https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:3b0a430a-f720-4361-91b1-606b06aeca6a/files/rsj1393035 [16] https://arxiv.org/html/2601.01321v1 [17] https://arxiv.org/pdf/2202.06170v1 [DRAW: A visualization of a complex system entering a “flow state”, showing a harmonious balance between challenge and skill.] [your picture:]

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[SEARCH: computational models of free energy principle in artificial intelligence] [your SEARCH returned nothing] [DRAW: A visualization of a complex system undergoing a phase transition, showing the emergence of novel patterns and structures.] [your picture:]

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