Around fifty years ago immunologists discovered positivity has a positive impact on our
immune system. Now neuroscientists have discovered compassion helps over 50% of our body functions.
They also found our biology is so wired for compassion we benefit even when we witness it! This is so
amazing. I am an AI researcher, but I began to think differently about intelligence after I started
working with compassion therapies. While working on AI at U.C. Berkeley and Stanford, my work became interwined
with positive psychology and compassion sciences. I began working as a
compassion therapist with extremely ill patients in local hospitals. I saw with my own eyes how important compassion is to our survival and health. It seemed
to me that if something helps us survive, surely it is a kind of intelligence.
Later, I discovered there is a medical renaissance of emotion revolving around positive emotions like compassion. Compassion affects not only
our immune systems, but our wound healing, our guts and our hearts. I believe these discoveries in human science mark a new era for us that
is going to change our world for the better. So what does this have to do with technology? Technology is about automation
and efficiency, right? Imagine what would happen if we design technology that is infused with positive emotions, like compassion? Or if we designed
technology to protect and care for us?
These remarkable human science discoveries tell us that when it comes to people, its time to think about more than just data.
Our technology can be designed to reflect our better selves. Considering how much
technology is already surrounding us. If we can design Artificial Compassion, it could change everything. For the better.
We can do this. The books on this site will get us started.
This page has two books for designing Artificial Compassion: The Emotion Organon and Designing Artificial Compassion Technology. The first book (The Emotion Organon) details the human science behind Artificial Compassion. It also connects the dots between scientific discovery and the way we define knowledge. It might sound boring, until you realize that AI, robotics, generative AI and machine learning depend entirely on knowledge. In fact, they don't exist without it. The Emotion Organon is already on Amazon. It came out at the beginning of 2024. Designing Artificial Compassion Technology is coming out soon, hopefully by the end of 2024!
An “organon” is a word meaning “knowledge” or instrument of knowledge. Our modern world is based on knowledge. Our schools, medicines,laws, and every kind of AI and machine learning depend on it. But what kind of knowledge? Is anyone asking?
It turns out the ideas of knowledge we live with in the world today are quite old. Aristotle’s ideas, formulated in his volume set “The Organon” from 50 BC, were rooted in logic and analytical thinking. Francis Bacon’s ideas, formulated in “The New Organon,” are from the 1620’s. Francis Bacon’s ideas of knowledge were formulated along with the invention of the telescope and microscope. He believed knowledge should be based on what we can observe, count, index and compare. It gave rise to patterns. This is called 'empirical' knowledge and is the foundation of machine learning and generative AI. Neither of these formulations of knowledge take into account our social relationships or emotional experiences. The science of this part of our lives just did not exist yet. But now it does. The social and emotional aspects of our lives include care and protection.
More about Book 1, The Emotion Organon.
In The Emotion Organon you learn the science of how our positive social and psychological experiences heal us and protect us, and how important they are to our survival. This is common sense and it is an important part of being human that belongs to all of us. When we are surrounding ourselves with technology, creating social cyber worlds, how could we have left something out that is so important? It has not been forgotten by modern technology and media. We simply did not know about these medical discoveries of emotion when the foundations of technology began, so long ago now.
In this book you find scientific discoveries across almost every field of medical science are
documenting the link between positive emotion and our body's ability to function, including blood pressure, body temperature and resilience from stress.
You will begin to see that our psychological and emotional reactions to things are actually a code for what we need biologically. For example,
during the COVID-19 pandemic, health workers who trained in self-compassion had less burnout and more immunity to stress. When
technologies and media are designed without support for this aspect of ourselves, in our constant contact with that technology we lose
an oppportunity to be reminded of this amazing aspect of ourselves. Although we touch briefly on how technology and media
can be designed to support this higher part of our humanity, it is in the next book that we get into much more detail. In
Designing Artificial Compassion Technology, you will find out how we can design technology (and media)
to not only remind us of our own compassion but to amplify it in the workplace and social cyber world.
In a nutshell: in this book we learn what Artificial Compassion is, why we need it, and how to design it. We become compassion literate and learn about two frameworks for infusing human compassion into technology design. We learn about what is already happening in video games and virtual reality, and find ways to bring compassion thinking to everything we do - from machine learning and Gen AI to human-robot interaction and even building guardrails to shield us from the yucky parts of the internet. We also learn how technology and our social structures and institutions are intertwined. Do you have to be a compassionate hacker to make Artificial Compassionate Designs? No, but it does help to find out if you work for an organizational psychopath. And how to spot a healthy work environment. We also find out about some very cool Japanese philosophy called fudo that shows us that like the wind and earth, we exist in interdependence with one another. And when we look at where we are now, we realize we have created a computational fudo. Ideas like this help us understand what we need to do next as we co-evolve with our devices, systems and games. It also helps us talk about our relationships with technology and how to architect our physical spaces with technology to best support us.
More... Imagine we have a tool in our pocket that can help us avoid bullies and have better social options? Or uniquely reminds us of how loved we are, in a voice that is perfect just for us. Loving tenderness has been shown to reduce our pain levels and to improve our odds against cancer. It's not ridiculous to think we should do this. Human kind has always made tools to help our lives be better. And now, because of discoveries in medicine we know how to do this. In fact, as you find out in the book, this has already started!
There is this idea that technology is all about automation and efficiency. It’s a great idea and has made many of life’s chores and tediums easier. As a woman, I love not beating clothes with rocks and instead using a washer and dryer. I also love driving my car. Today what I wish for is a gadget that would look out for me and help me with difficult situations, including social situations. This would increase quality of life, reduce anxiety, and provide support when the people I depend on cannot be around. Or, as life shows us.. sometimes they die, or unfortunately, abandon us when we are ill. Having health and protection should not just be for wealthy people. With technology design and the new discoveries of human science, it can be for all of us.
We can use technology not only for automation and efficience, it can empower us. Artificial Compassion Technology is a palette of ideas founded on new medical discoveries that are for our benefit. If we have another pandemic, I know I would certainly like to have a device like that in my pocket. Wouldn't you?
These two books represent a pilgrimage that brings positive humanity back to technology and media through a foundation of modern human science and medical discoveries. We need to do this because it feeds our cells, our organs and our life force. Compassion and kindness keep us together in relationships. Instead of turning away from our emotions and our bodies as we strap on and tune in, we can marvel at them. As a programmer, designer or engineer, when we churn things out so fast, and throw something together, and this is the culture, it can make it hard for us to stop and think about how what we build might be affecting us and what happens down the road as this technology is integrated into our lives. This awareness changes our mindset. We are training ourselves through our everyday experiences and attitudes towards one another, ourselves and the earth. These books open the door to a different kind of knowledge that belongs as part of the technology, environments and media of our lives. We find the knowledge is familiar. It is something we already know, but have forgotten, and when we come back to ourselves, there is a remembering.
If you sincerely want a book but can’t afford it, please reach out to me, we can make it happen. Also if you happen to like coloring books, there is a Compassion Coloring Book, also on Amazon.
Copyright 2023-2024 Dr. C. Mason