Month: May 2023

AI is Loose: Is Bard Better?

The artificial intelligent search engine wars are starting. Microsoft has plans to use OpenAI and Chat GPT with Bing. I tried out that search engine with my Powerful Chat GPT Good?? post. As noted, it was not very accurate, though it did capture some good information.

To compare, I tried out Google’s Bard. You can try Bard and use Google’s AI by putting Bard.google.com as your URL. It notes all over the page that is experimental. They also encourage us to provide feedback on the information provided to improve their responses. I did a search by asking, Can you tell me about paneugenesis?

In the first few searches I did, others were given credit for the concept of paneugenesis. However, after providing feedback about the factual errors, new searches with the same query correctly attributed the concept of paneugenesis to me. It learned fast.

Is Feedback Considered Accurate?

I wonder about the feedback I provided. I saw it updated with the accurate information I provided, but does that mean it could update with incorrect information? I did not want to try it to find out. Although the responses by Bard to my query provided a lot of good information, some results made things up. For instance, some of the responses created indicated that there were books about paneugenesis and community groups that work on paneugenesis. All good ideas, but not factually incorrect.

Example Bard Search

Below is a picture of the top portion of my search asking Bard, “Can you tell me about paneugenesis?” The full output of Draft 2 from Bard is posted below. Although I would word things a bit differently, the responses were good. In Drafts 1 & 3 it incorrectly mentioned books or community groups about paneugenesis. If you do a query, users can export the full output to a Google Doc.

Bard’s Response Draft 2: Can you tell me about Paneugenesis?

As you can see, it incorrectly indicated I wrote a book, “The Positive Health Revolution.” That is just a post on this website. Other than that, the information seems good. What do you think?

Sure. Paneugenesis is a term coined by Craig Becker, a health promotion expert and author of the book “The Positive Health Revolution.” It is a process of creating comprehensive improvements by creating interactions so everyone and everything benefits. Paneugenesis is based on the principle that doing good things enables good outcomes as it simultaneously crowds out bad actions.

There are five key principles of paneugenesis:

  1. Regenerative: Paneugenesis is about creating interactions that are regenerative, meaning that they produce more good than they consume.
  2. Net-positive: Paneugenesis is about creating interactions that are net-positive, meaning that they produce more benefits than they create harm.
  3. Pervasive: Paneugenesis is about creating interactions that are pervasive, meaning that they have a positive impact on a wide range of people and things.
  4. Reciprocal: Paneugenesis is about creating interactions that are reciprocal, meaning that they benefit everyone involved.
  5. Synergistic: Paneugenesis is about creating interactions that are synergistic, meaning that they create even greater benefits when combined with other positive interactions.

Paneugenesis can be applied to a wide range of areas, including health, education, business, and the environment. When applied effectively, paneugenesis can help to create a more positive and sustainable world.

Here are some examples of paneugenesis in action:

  • A company that creates a product that is both environmentally friendly and profitable is practicing paneugenesis.
  • A school that teaches students about the importance of health and wellness is practicing paneugenesis.
  • A community that comes together to clean up a polluted river is practicing paneugenesis.

Paneugenesis is a powerful concept that can be used to create a more positive and sustainable world. By following the five key principles of paneugenesis, we can all make a difference.

The feedback I provided was that this was mostly good, except cleaning up a polluted river would not be practicing paneugenesis because it can only result in less bad. If actions were taken to make the community better than it was before, even without a polluted river, then that would be paneugenesis. I also told them I had not written that book.

It will be interesting to see how this develops and how it will impact our world. Please try out these new AI search engines and provide feedback. It is a monumental project similar to how Wikipedia was created but on a much larger scale.

Please share your experiences with this new Artificial Intelligence (AI). It appears Bard and other new AI tools can help us generate comprehensive improvements if we use them well. For these to work well, we will need to help make sure these tools help enable regenerative, net-positive, pervasive, reciprocal, selfish, selfless synergistic interactions so everyone and everything benefits. Please share how you think we can help make that happen!

Be Well’r,
Craig Becker

Be selfish, selfless, & synergistic so everyone and everything benefits!

#SelfishSelflessSynergy

Please share your thoughts and questions below.
Contact me: BeWellr@gmail.com

Hidden Gems Found

Like most people, I like finding great restaurants that serve what I want. I am a plant-based eater. Although I can generally get plant-based meals, meals prepared for plants rather than as a substitute are better.

The Happy Cow app has been fantastic. It has helped me find great restaurants anywhere I have been in the US. It is worth the $3.99 on the Apple App Store or Google Play. It is also available on a computer at https://www.happycow.net/. Another nice feature was the thank you letter I received after I wrote a review for Zizi’s Vegan at Berry Brook. This restaurant was one of the gems Happy Cow helped me find.

Gems Found

Recently I was in Charlotte, NC. I went to the Trader Joe’s and then was hungry for lunch. On my Happy Cow app, I found choices less than 1 mile from my location. I went to Zizi’s Vegan at Berry Brook. Although they also have a food truck, I visited their location in a health food store. It was hard to find because it was operated from a small kitchen inside a health food store.

The cook was very friendly and told me he developed the recipe for his burgers by trying it with his kids. The burgers were great, made with good things (Delish wholesome burger from lentils, wild rice, portobello, shiitake, beets, spinach & seasoning. Lettuce, tomato, onion, and veganaise. Served on an organic whole wheat bun). The burger was also quite filling. They were so good I got another for dinner and one for my daughter. She also thought it was great.

Other Gem

Another gem I found was when I was picking up my wife from the RDU airport. We wanted to stop at a close restaurant before driving home. Once again, I used my Happy Cow app, which showed me many good plant-based options. I generally also look at the ratings on the app, and they have proven to be very accurate. Again, the restaurant options were close by. We chose a highly-rated Thai restaurant, Champa. It also was great.

Happy Cow Practices Paneugenesis

The Happy Cow app has helped me generate comprehensive improvements by being able find a restaurant close to where I am, which means I don’t burn excess fossil fuels. The app enables me to make delicious, plant-based food choices which we all know improves personal and planetary health. I encourage you to use the Happy Cow app to help you engage in regenerative, net-positive, pervasive, reciprocal, selfish, selfless, synergistic interactions that benefit everyone and everything.

Be Well’r,
Craig Becker

Be selfish, selfless, & synergistic so everyone and everything benefits!

#SelfishSelflessSynergy

Please share your thoughts and questions below.
Contact me: BeWellr@gmail.com

Innate Reflex to Overcome

Despite the belief we have an evolved status, our detrimental reflex or automatic response to reject new ideas is problematic. Is this innate human quality keeping us from being all we can be? It is time for an improved response.

Is it Hard Wired?

As Daniel Kahnman and others have made clear, humans have a fast reptilian brain and a slower advanced brain in our prefrontal cortex. The Semmelweis Reflex comes to us automatically from the older, faster part of our brain. To overcome this automatic reflex, we will need to ponder ideas and critically analyze their implications using logic. Doing this has proven profoundly beneficial to forward-thinking companies that aim to make a positive impact. Interface Global, which was driven by the late Ray Anderson, provides a model. See, We Must Make It Better – Saving the Planet is not Enough!

Humans are Logical?

Despite being advanced, logical creatures, we humans are hesitant to accept new and better ideas. Although skepticism is good, missing better ideas has caused problems, especially since they are accepted as self-evident in the end. In a 2020 article in World Neurosurgery, it is explained that the innate age-old prejudice for belief perseverance is called the Semmelweis Reflex (by Gupta et al. doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2019.12.012). The article goes on to explain it is a primal human tendency to stick to preexisting beliefs, which also means rejection of contradictory fresh ideas.

Coincidences

I find it interesting how things often seem to overlap. I guess they are coincidences. This coincidence relates to the Semmelweis Reflex and the new TV series Extrapolations on Apple TV+. As noted, the Semmelweis reflex is the primal human tendency to stick to preexisting beliefs and rejection of new contradictory ideas.

Ignaz Semmelweis discovered the lifesaving doctrine of handwashing to reduce the death of new mothers giving birth. Despite solid evidence showing a dramatic benefit from handwashing, his advice was ignored and ridiculed. Rejecting new ideas, despite the evidence, seems to happen often. So often, most of us are familiar with what has been proposed as the stages of Revolutionary Ideas:

Stages of Revolutionary Ideas

  1. Ridiculed
  2. Opposed Violently
  3. Accepted as self-evident

Extrapolations Semmelweis Reflex

The new Apple TV+ show, Extrapolations, explores and attempts to show what will happen on Earth if we continue our current ways. Throughout the series, actors have a Semmelweis Reflex because they refuse to believe the realities of climate change they are experiencing. Again and again, they highlight how difficult it can be to change human behavior because we must counteract our innate Semmelweis Reflex. As noted by actors in the show, “…What bothers me is hypocrisy…”; people want comfort and ease, and then they are outraged by its consequences. They also said, “The problem has never been technology. The problem is us.” It’s time to overcome the Semmelweis Reflex.

Reviews of Extrapolations by NPR and Guardian are here and here. Below is one of the trailers.

Positive Health’s Semmelweis Reflex

Throughout my career, I have been attempting to counteract the Semmelweis Reflex in myself and others. After suffering from a near-fatal car accident, I knew to have the life I desired I had to cause more good to happen and not just fix what was broken. I recovered and earned a PhD which has enabled me to focus my career on ways to build the interdependent science of personal and planetary positive health.

The Semmelweis Reflex causes people to say we must focus on what is wrong before we can make things better. However, as most of us know, if we spend all of our time fixing what is wrong, we don’t have the ability to create what will be good.

The inability to focus on creating good was captured by a story told by Irving Zola – but is used in an article by John B. McKinlay in “A Case for Refocusing Upstream: The Political Economy of Illness” McKinlay, J.B. (1981).

“I am standing by the shore of a swiftly flowing river and hear the cry of a drowning man.  I jump into the cold waters.  I fight against the strong current and force my way to the struggling man. I hold on hard and gradually pull him to shore.  I lay him out on the bank and revive him with artificial respiration.

Just when he begins to breathe, I hear another cry for help.

I jump into the cold waters. I fight against the strong current, and swim forcefully to the struggling woman.  I grab hold and gradually pull her to shore.  I lift her out on the bank beside the man and work to revive her with artificial respiration.

Just when she begins to breathe,  I hear another cry for help. 

I jump into the cold waters.  Fighting again against the strong current,  I force my way to the struggling man.  I am getting tired,  so with great effort I eventually pull him to shore.  I lay him out on the bank and try to revive him with artificial respiration.

Just when he begins to breathe, I hear another cry for help.

Near exhaustion,  it occurs to me that I’m so busy jumping in,  pulling them to shore, applying artificial respiration that I have no time to see

who is upstream pushing them all in….”

A story told by Irving Zola – but is used in an article by John B. McKinlay in “A Case for Refocusing Upstream: The Political Economy of Illness” McKinlay, J.B. (1981)

Take Action!

Promoting personal and planetary health is self-evident after it is done. As we know, taking these actions is often ridiculed and opposed, as is predicted for any revolutionary ideas. This means to improve personal and planetary health, we must first overcome our Semmelweis Reflex.

We can overcome this innate reflex by practicing paneugenesis. To practice paneugenesis means to proactively create more good by generating comprehensive improvements through the creation of regenerative, net-positive, pervasive, reciprocal, selfish, selfless, synergistic interactions so everyone and everything benefits. Please share how you proactively practice paneugenesis…instead of waiting to save people from drowning.

Be Well’r,
Craig Becker

Be selfish, selfless, & synergistic so everyone and everything benefits!

#SelfishSelflessSynergy

Please share your thoughts and questions below.
Contact me: BeWellr@gmail.com

Kushner Created Meaning

I learned from the linked article in the Washington Post that Harold Kushner, a rabbi whose books brought solace to millions, died at 88. He was a hero of mine. I have read most of his over a dozen books and found them all helpful. I was especially touched by his most famous Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “When Bad Things Happen to Good People.” It meant a lot to me as I recovered from a near-fatal car accident in 1984 that killed the driver and the other 2 passengers in the car. I have re-read that book many times, each time learning more. His books helped me contemplate meaning and purpose.

Meaning & Purpose

Meaning and purpose in life are desires of most of us. Rabbi Kushner provides us with many clues on how to find it. I have contemplated questions about meaning and purpose in these posts: Meaning from Meaninglessness, Making Sense of Chaos, Meaninglessness, Disorientation, and Randomness & Creating Outcomes. Also, the post, Everything Happens for a Reason! Make it Good! relates to what I got from my many readings of Harold Kushner’s book, “When Bad Things Happen to Good People.”

Although the book became a bestseller, the obituary stated that Kushner wrote the book to “redeem my son’s death from meaninglessness” and to try to understand why the world is not fair. His son died as a teenager from progeria, the rapid aging disease. As he contemplated the bad things that happened to him, his conclusions were another example of an undoing of tradition. Kahneman and Tversky’s extensive scientific work demonstrated breakthroughs generally break with traditional practice. Michael Lewis reviewed their work in his book, “The Undoing Project,” and I discussed their work in my “Undoing” Needed to Create Better!” post.

Rabbi broke with traditions by giving up the belief that God was good, but not all-powerful. As he explained,

…“If I, walking through the wards of a hospital, have to face the fact that either God is all-powerful but not kind, or thoroughly kind and loving but not totally powerful, I would rather compromise God’s power and affirm his love,” Rabbi Kushner once told NPR.

…“The theological conclusion I came to is that God could have been all-powerful at the beginning, but he chose to designate two areas of life off-limits to his power,” he continued. “He would not arbitrarily interfere with laws of nature, and secondly, God would not take away our freedom to choose between good and evil.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2023/05/04/harold-kushner-bad-things-good-people/

Below is a short video summary of “When Bad Things Happen to Good People:”

I hope this helps in your search for meaning and purpose. If you have not read his book, “When Bad Things Happen to Good People,” I strongly recommend you do. It is a short book, just over 100 pages, but very powerful. It helped lay the foundation for how I work to create meaning and purpose in my life. I do this by working to generate comprehensive benefits by creating regenerative, net-positive, pervasive, reciprocal, selfish, selfless, synergistic interactions so everyone and everything benefits. Please share how you generate meaning and purpose in your life.

Be Well’r,
Craig Becker

Be selfish, selfless, & synergistic so everyone and everything benefits!

#SelfishSelflessSynergy

Please share your thoughts and questions below.
Contact me: BeWellr@gmail.com

More Good = Long Term Better

I was told to use KISS, Keep It Simple St%^$ when I was young. If we want to create better for everyone and everything, this provides good advice. What is simple = just Do Good!

  • Send a nice note to someone, even someone that is not your favorite
  • Do a random act of kindness
  • Work hard and do good work
  • Take a walk
  • Do a workout
  • Go swimming
  • Share an honest complement by finding someone doing good things
  • Reduce use of materials, (i.e. walk or bike instead of drive)
  • Read something thought provoking and/or inspiring
  • See our connections or similarities rather than differences
  • Set and accomplish a short term goal that moves you closer to your long term vision
  • Find and eat some fresh fruit and vegetables (pick fresh if you can)
  • Do backyard composting
  • Grow a garden in your yard for fresh m vegetables

Doing good things, crowds out bad things. (see Becoming our Best Is Best, Great New Years Message!, Be Led by Your Dreams, Good Begets Good and Bad Begets Bad: Green Grass Theory, More than a “Whack a Mole” Life, Questions Enlighten and many more).

Abhishek Jain makes this same point in his linked From ‘Less Bad’ to ‘More Good’ post.

Why More Good?

In simple terms, we should just add good because it gets to what we want faster. It also helps earn the good feelings generated. If we attempt to stop certain things, human nature automatically finds reasons to defend a previous action. As Wendy Wood, PhD documents in her research and outlines in her book, Good Habits, Bad Habits: The Science of Making Positive Changes That Stick, anything we do we defend and assume it must be helpful. If it wasn’t, why would we do it? I review more about her book at What We Do Without Thinking.

Additionally, simply stopping what we shouldn’t do only takes away harm without doing any action that could generate good outcomes. Doing good things enables good outcomes as it simultaneously crowds out bad actions. This is why I Practice Paneugenesis to generate comprehensive improvements by creating regenerative, net-positive, pervasive, reciprocal, selfish, selfless, synergistic interactions so everyone and everything benefits. Please share how you add more good!

Be Well’r,
Craig Becker

Be selfish, selfless, & synergistic so everyone and everything benefits!

#SelfishSelflessSynergy

Please share your thoughts and questions below.
Contact me: BeWellr@gmail.com