Harmonic Society: 8 Models of Art for a Scientific Paradigm of Aesthetic Qualia @/Andr%C3%A9sG%C3%B3mezEmilsson

Andrés Gómez Emilsson | Harmonic Society: 8 Models of Art for a Scientific Paradigm of Aesthetic Qualia @/Andr%C3%A9sG%C3%B3mezEmilsson | Uploaded October 2019 | Updated October 2024, 19 hours ago.
Andrés Gómez Emilsson from the Qualia Research Institute gives a presentation about how art works according to modern neuroscience and philosophy of mind.

The video discusses eight different models of art: models 1 through 4 have been discussed in academic literature and the current intellectual zeitgeist, while models 5 through 8 are new, original, and the direct result of recent insights about consciousness as uncovered by modern neuroscience, philosophy of mind, and the work of the Qualia Research Institute.

Abstract:

We start by assuming that there are real stakes in art. This motivates the analysis of this subject matter, and it focuses where we place our gaze. We examine a total of eight models for “what art might be about”, divided into two groups. The first group of four are some of the most compelling contemporary models, which derive their strength from fields such as philosophy of language, economics, evolutionary psychology, and anthropology. These models are: (1) art as a word only definable in a family resemblance way with no necessary or sufficient features, (2) art as social signaling of desirable genetic characteristics, (3) art as Schelling point creation, and (4) art as the cultivation of sacred experiences. These four models, however enlightening, nonetheless only account for what David Marr might describe as the computational level of abstraction while leaving the algorithmic and implementation levels of abstraction unexamined. They explain what art is about in terms of why it exists and what its coarse effects are, but not the nature of its internal representations or its implementation. Hence we propose a second group of four models in order to get a “full-stack” view of art. These models are: (5) art as a tool for exploring the state-space of consciousness, (6) art as a method for changing the energy parameter of experience, (7) art as activities that induce neural annealing (which implements novel valence modulation, i.e. surprising pain/pleasure effects), and (8) art as an early prototype of a future affective language that will allow diverse states of consciousness to make sense of each other. These frameworks address how art interfaces with consciousness and how its key valuable features might be implemented neurologically. We conclude with a brief look at how embracing these new paradigms could, in principle, lead to the creation of a society free from suffering and interpersonal misunderstanding. Such a society, aka. Harmonic Society, would be designed with the effect of guaranteeing positive valence interactions using principles from a post-Galilean science of consciousness.

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The 8 models of art are:

1. Art as family resemblance (Semantic Deflation)

2. Art as Signaling (Cool Kid Theory)

3. Art as Schelling-point creation (a few Hipster-theoretical considerations)

4. Art as cultivating sacred experiences (self-transcendence and highest values)

5. Art as exploring the state-space of consciousness (ϡ☀♘🏳️‍🌈♬♠ヅ)

6. Art as something that messes with the energy parameter of your mind (ꙮ)

7. Art as puzzling valence effects (emotional salience and annealing as key ingredients)

8. Art as a system of affective communication: a protolanguage to communicate information about worthwhile qualia (which culminates in Harmonic Society).

The presentation is based on an essay published in the Berlin-based art magazine Art Against Art (see: artagainstart.com/p/store.html#!/Issue-6-Summer-Fall-2019/p/148907646/category=0).

Article is posted online here: qualiacomputing.com/2019/09/16/harmonic-society-1-4-art-as-family-resemblance-cool-kid-theory

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See more about the Qualia Research Institute at: qualiaresearchinstitute.org

Andrés blogs at Qualia Computing: qualiacomputing.com/2019/06/14/top-qualia-computing-articles

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Infinite bliss!!!

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