the qualia journal

There was a poignant obstinacy in Albert Einstein's effort to come up with an unified field theory in his later years. Einstein's re...

So I have been reading "Anne of Windy Willows" in the toilet. Classics have many hidden truths that you discover when you re-read...

Many interesting problems can be stated in 10 seconds, like "what's the relationship between the brain and mind?" or "do ...

When I was seven, I thought I discovered how to create a stone. It was during the summer holidays. I was playing with mud near house, mixing...

In the favorite novel of my youth "Anne of Windy Willows" (aka "Anne of Windy Poplars", but I somehow prefer the Willow...

Whenever I encounter an interesting person I try to strike up a conversation. The other day I was running in the park forest. I chanced upon...

There are certain areas of spiritual tradition that leaves you bewildered in a special and indescribable impression when you are there. The ...

One of the cute and poignant things I encountered during my recent stay in Hong Kong was the Yuen Po Street Bird Garden. There you could tak...

In the Christmas Special episode ("Party Games") of my favorite British political comedy, "Yes, Minister", Sir Arnold, t...

The fifth Asia-Pacific Computing and Philosophy Conference. 1st & 2nd October, 2009, at University of Tokyo You are invited to submit an...

When I was a kid, I used to imagine that it is always sunset somewhere on earth. Actually, as the earth rotates on its axis, the relation to...

Findings in the cognitive neurosciences suggest that the orbitofrontal cortex, along with other loci, is involved in regret. Regret is fasci...

There are countless electrons in the universe, and yet they all have exactly the same mass and charge. Why should all the electrons have exa...

On 3rd January 2007, I posted in this journal an essay titled "Managing insanity in a proper way" . Therein I quoted Ken Shiotani,...

I am in Hong Kong now, attending a conference on the science of consciousness. In the morning, I gave a talk in the auditorium of the Hong K...

On August 9th, 1945, an airplane approached Kokura, a city in the northern part of Kyushu island. My mother, a girl of 9 then, lived in Koku...

I have not figured out how and why yet, but I do observe that creative people sometimes have very strong visions, bordering on the hallucina...

I regard this blog as an experimentation in the expression of things I encounter during the course of my life. I started to learn English at...

The speeches of some people reach us as heavenly music. With some people under certain situations, every second of listening to becomes a to...

I admit I used to be very clumsy in my youth. During my senior high school days, I found it difficult to talk to girls naturally. I attended...