Chris Smith

Word Embeddings in the Pāli Canon

Mon, 14 Aug 2017 09:09:05 -0700

Is there a point where Buddhism and artificial intelligence could converge? Yes, there are already some perspectives on how a religion so grounded in the human conscious experience would regard a hypothetical sentient machine; one can only wonder how such an alien intelligence would itself consider introspective practices created by and for our own organic minds. A more practical starting point might be using machine learning to help us understand Buddhism, especially those of us in parts of the world to which it has only been introduced within the past few generations. There are many good high-level introductory resources, but more serious students must navigate a massive amount of scripture and philosophy, full of terms and concepts that are notoriously difficult to translate well into Western languages, without the benefit of a long-term cultural context.

Hotel Gracery Shinjuku

Tue, 07 Jun 2016 21:00:11 +0700

The Hotel Gracery is located in Kabukichō, Tokyo, just northeast of Shinjuku station. It looks something like an Alienware tower, especially when viewed from the street as pictured above. Notably, the cinema attached to the hotel features a full-size Godzilla head which can be seen peeking over the rooftop.

Yushima Tenman-gū

Sun, 05 Jun 2016 21:00:11 +0700

Yushima Tenman-gū is a small Shinto shrine in northern Tokyo I found after getting off at the wrong train station on the way to Ueno Park. The building pictured above is actually not the main shrine itself, but one of the other buildings in the complex.

The Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower

Sat, 04 Jun 2016 11:47:20 +0700

One of my favorite buildings in Tokyo is the Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower. Located in Shinjuku, it’s one of the most striking buildings on the skyline. The above is shot from an unusual angle, looking up from an opening in the pedestrian tunnel that leads west from the station.

Book Review: Cumulus

Thu, 02 Jun 2016 17:02:42 +0700

Cumulus is a new novel from Eliot Peper, set in an near-future Bay Area remade by severe economic inequality, ubiquitous surveillance and consolidation of corporate power. While it works better as a commentary than as a novel, the dystopia it presents is a plausible evolution of current economic and social trends and worth a read by fans of the genre, or anyone interested in where another decade or so might take us.