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"Hi-tech" Russian robot turns out to be a man in a suit
The Russian robot named "Boris", promoted as hi-tech by state tv, was revealed to be an actor.
- A state-owned channel showed a report on a "robot" which turned out to be an actor in a suit.
- The robot "Boris" was supposed to be good at math and dancing.
- Russian journalists who raised questions ultimately found out the truth.
In a story rich with metaphors, a Russian-made dancing robot named "Boris", which was trotted out as a high-tech advancement, has been unmasked as being just a man in a suit.
While reporting on the Proyektoria technology forum in Yaroslavl, organized each year for the "future intellectual leaders of Russia", the state-owned channel Russia-24 promoted a "most modern" android as a tech breakthrough that could talk, walk and even dance.
But what they saw did not sit well with a number of Russian journalists who raised questions, not believing it was really a robot. One thing that stood out for many was the lack of external sensors on the "robot" and the fact that it made many "unnecessary movements" during dancing.
The truth came to light when a photograph showing an actor being outfitted with the suit was published by MBKh Media. This news agency was founded by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Putin's renowned opponent.
Credit: MBKh Media
"Boris" turned out to be a 250,000 rouble (~$3740) "Alyosha the Robot" costume, featuring a microphone and a tablet-like display. On its site, Show Robots, the company behind the suit, claims its product creates the "near total illusion that before you stands a real robot".
Whether this was truly a case of the state telling its citizens to not believe their eyes or a journalistic mistake remains to be seen, but the news report certainly portrays the dancing robot as an achievement. "Boris" is shown to say in a robotic voice "I know mathematics well but I also want to learn to draw." After that he gets the crowd to dance to the Little Big song Skibidi.
Here's the original news report from Russia-24 on the amazing "robot" Boris.
How your social media data can become a ‘mental health X-ray’
In the future, you might voluntarily share your social media data with your psychiatrist to inform a more accurate diagnosis.
02 February, 2021
Social media data may be a useful tool in psychiatry, leading to more accurate diagnoses and better outcomes.
Credit: I-Wei Huang / Adobe Stock
Sponsored by Northwell Health
- About one in five people suffer from a psychiatric disorder, and many go years without treatment, if they receive it at all.
- In a new study, researchers developed machine-learning algorithms that analyzed the relationship between psychiatric disorders and Facebook messages.
- The algorithms were able to correctly predict the diagnosis of psychiatric disorders with statistical accuracy, suggesting digital tools may someday help clinicians identify mental illnesses in early stages.
<p><br></p>
<p>For the 20 percent of people with a mental illness, early identification of the condition is key to getting the best treatment. But people often suffer symptoms for months, even years, without receiving clinical attention. Part of the problem is that psychiatrists have few tools to identify mental illnesses; they rely mostly on self-reported data and observations from friends and family.</p><p>The field is, in some ways, "stuck in the prehistoric age," <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-health-our-youth/202012/inferring-psychiatric-illness-based-digital-activity-crosses" target="_blank">according</a> to <a href="https://www.northwell.edu/find-care/find-a-doctor/psychiatry/dr-michael-leo-birnbaum-md-11361499" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Michael Birnbaum, MD</a>, an assistant professor at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research and an attending physician at Zucker Hillside Hospital and Lenox Hill Hospital at Northwell Health.</p><p>But digital tools could help bring psychiatry into the modern age.</p><p>"It became apparent, in my work with young folks, that social media was ubiquitous," Dr. Birnbaum told Big Think. "So, we started to think about ways that we could potentially explore the utility of the internet and social media in the way we diagnose our patients and the care that we provide."</p><p>The results of a recent study, conducted by Feinstein Institutes researchers and IBM Research, suggest that social media activity can provide useful insights into who's at risk of developing mental illnesses like mood disorders and schizophrenia spectrum disorders.</p><p>Published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41537-020-00125-0.epdf?sharing_token=Xc_lXe0XL5DdH_AVGTHS6tRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0P2EVm8NsJhgUKNWe4b0HuXbcARntZSs_Tl6rTDzxRXc_BZ10-CT2CFy5BYltxX9v_h_QAE2Ypqmzz2rBuzwK7Mqif61ioZBoFcxFTAetKod29fvYO0r431d1aohwHUQ-8%3D" target="_blank">njp Schizophrenia</a>, the study used machine-learning algorithms to analyze millions of Facebook messages and images, which were provided voluntarily by participants, ages 15 to 35. The data represented participants' Facebook activity for 18 months prior to hospitalization.</p>
<blockquote>...the health disparity between people with mental illness and those without is larger than disparities attributable to race, ethnicity, geography or socioeconomic status.</blockquote>
Identifying psychiatric disorders
<p>The goal was for the algorithms to analyze patterns in these datasets, then predict which group participants belonged to: schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD), mood disorders (MD), or healthy volunteers (HV). The results were promising, showing that the algorithms correctly identified:</p><ul><li>The SDD group with an accuracy of 52% (chance was 33%)</li><li>The MD group with an accuracy of 57% (chance was 37%)</li><li>The HV group with an accuracy of 56% (chance was 29%)</li></ul><p>The study also showed interesting differences in Facebook activity among the groups, such as:</p><ul><li>The SSD group was more likely to use language related to perception (hear, see, feel).</li><li>The MD and SSD groups were far more likely to use swear words and anger-related language.</li><li>The MD group was more likely to use language related to biological processes (blood, pain).</li><li>The SSD group was more likely to express negative emotions, use second-person pronouns and write in netspeak (lol, btw, thx).</li><li>The MD group was more likely to post photos containing more blues and less yellows.</li></ul><p>These differences tended to become more apparent in the months before a patient was hospitalized. But even 18 months before hospitalization, the results revealed signals that hinted participants might be on the path to developing a psychiatric disorder. That's where these tools may someday help improve early-identification efforts.</p><p>"In psychiatry, we often get a snapshot of somebody's life, for 30 minutes once a month or so," he said. "There's the potential to get much greater granularity with some of these new assessment tools. Facebook, for example, can allow us to understand somebody's thoughts and behaviors in a more real-time, longitudinal fashion, as opposed to cross-sectional moments in time."</p><p>Dr. Birnbaum noted that everyone has a unique style of <a href="https://www.northwell.edu/behavioral-health/news/insights/digital-activity-provides-more-clues-to-its-impact-on-mental-health" target="_blank">online behavior</a> and that certain behavioral changes may contain clues about mental health.</p><p>"The way that we're understanding this is that everybody has a digital baseline, a way they typically act and behave on social media and the internet," he said. "So, ultimately here we would want to identify this baseline for each individual—a fingerprint—and then monitor for changes over time, and identify which changes are concerning, and which are not."</p><p>Using digital tools to better identify psychiatric conditions could someday reduce the number of people who suffer without treatment.</p><p>"There's an alarming gap between the number of people who experience mental illness and those who receive care," said Michael Dowling, president and CEO of Northwell Health. "It's especially troubling when you consider that the health disparity between people with mental illness and those without is larger than disparities attributable to race, ethnicity, geography or socioeconomic status."<a href="#_msocom_1" target="_blank"></a></p>A step toward the future of psychiatry
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTU1NzkzNy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMjMyNTU2OX0.EP0V-l7aldnzNJKupUq4otg8r3UIE_f7vH7M4Pdisg4/img.jpg?width=980" id="6c141" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9b2303ef4ce0c88f0669e2d72a04b63d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="2000" data-height="1125" />Credit: Jewel Samad/AFP via Getty Images
<p>Although previous research has examined the relationship between online activity and psychiatric disorders, the new study is unique because it paired online behavior with clinically confirmed cases of psychiatric disorders.</p><p>"The vast majority of the data thus far has been extracted from anonymous, or semi-anonymous individuals online, without any real way to validate the diagnosis or confirm the authenticity of the symptoms," Dr. Birnbaum said.</p><p>But before clinicians can use these kinds of digital approaches, researchers have more work to do.</p><p>"I think that we need much larger datasets," Dr. Birnbaum said. "We need to repeat these findings. We need to better understand how demographic differences, like age, ethnicity and gender, can play a role."</p><p>Privacy is another consideration. Dr. Birnbaum emphasized that these kinds of approaches would only be conducted on a voluntary basis, and that the Facebook data used in the recent study was anonymized, and the algorithms examined only individual words, not the context or meaning of sentences.</p><p>"This isn't about surveillance, or that Facebook should somehow be monitoring us," Dr. Birnbaum said. "It's about giving the power to the patient. I imagine a world where patients could come into the doctor's office and express their concerns, but also provide some additional clinically meaningful information that they own."</p><p>Dr. Birnbaum said the long-term goal isn't for algorithms to make official diagnoses or replace physicians, but rather to serve as supplementary tools. He added that these tools would be used only for people seeking help or information about their risk of developing a psychiatric condition, or suffering a relapse.</p><p>"Hopefully one day, we'll be able to incorporate this and other information to inform what we do, the same way you go to a doctor and you get an X-ray or a blood test to inform the diagnosis," he said. "It doesn't make the diagnosis, but it informs the doctor. That is where psychiatry is heading, and hopefully this is a step in that direction."</p>
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Iron Age discoveries uncovered outside London, including a ‘murder’ victim
A man's skeleton, found facedown with his hands bound, was unearthed near an ancient ceremonial circle during a high speed rail excavation project.
04 August, 2020
Photo Credit: HS2
Culture & Religion
- A skeleton representing a man who was tossed face down into a ditch nearly 2,500 years ago with his hands bound in front of his hips was dug up during an excavation outside of London.
- The discovery was made during a high speed rail project that has been a bonanza for archaeology, as the area is home to more than 60 ancient sites along the planned route.
- An ornate grave of a high status individual from the Roman period and an ancient ceremonial circle were also discovered during the excavations.
<p>An ancient skeleton of a man dating back to the Iron Age was uncovered outside of London last month, and though archaeologists aren't certain what the cause of death was, clues point to a murder most foul. </p>
Foul play?
<p>A skeleton representing a man who was tossed face down into a ditch nearly 2,500 years ago with his hands bound in front of his hips was dug up during a high speed rail excavation.</p><p>The positioning of the remains have led archaeologists to suspect that the man may have been a victim of an ancient murder or execution. Though any bindings have since decomposed, his hands were positioned together and pinned under his pelvis. There was also no sign of a grave or coffin. </p><p>"He seems to have had his hands tied, and he was face-down in the bottom of the ditch," <a href="https://www.livescience.com/iron-age-murder-victim-england.html" target="_blank">said archaeologist Rachel Wood</a>, who led the excavation. "There are not many ways that you end up that way."</p><p>Currently, archaeologists are examining the skeleton to uncover more information about the circumstances of the man's death. Fragments of pottery found in the ditch may offer some clues as to exactly when the man died. </p><p>"If he was struck across the head with a heavy object, you could find a mark of that on the back of the skull," Wood said to <a href="https://www.livescience.com/iron-age-murder-victim-england.html" target="_blank">Live Science</a>. "If he was stabbed, you could find blade marks on the ribs. So we're hoping to find something like that, to tell us how he died."</p>Other discoveries at Wellwick Farm
<p>The grim discovery was made at Wellwick Farm near Wendover. That is about 15 miles north-west of the outskirts of London, where <a href="https://www.hs2.org.uk/building-hs2/hs2-green-corridor/" target="_blank">a tunnel</a> is going to be built as part of a HS2 high-speed rail project due to open between London and several northern cities sometime after 2028. The infrastructure project has been something of a bonanza for archaeology as the area is home to more than 60 ancient sites along the planned route that are now being excavated before construction begins. </p><p>The farm sits less than a mile away from the ancient highway <a href="http://web.stanford.edu/group/texttechnologies/cgi-bin/stanfordnottingham/places/?icknield" target="_blank">Icknield Way</a> that runs along the tops of the Chiltern Hills. The route (now mostly trails) has been used since prehistoric times. Evidence at Wellwick Farm indicates that from the Neolithic to the Medieval eras, humans have occupied the region for more than 4,000 years, making it a rich area for archaeological finds. </p><p>Wood and her colleagues found some evidence of an ancient village occupied from the late Bronze Age (more than 3,000 years ago) until the Roman Empire's invasion of southern England about 2,000 years ago. At the site were the remains of animal pens, pits for disposing food, and a roundhouse — a standard British dwelling during the Bronze Age constructed with a circular plan made of stone or wood topped with a conical thatched roof.</p>Ceremonial burial site
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUzMTk0Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NDgwNTIyMX0.I49n1-j8WVhKjIZS_wVWZissnk3W1583yYXB7qaGtN8/img.jpg?width=1245&coordinates=0%2C82%2C0%2C83&height=700" id="44da7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="dda1941470024b1552cf212b2baec982" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="top down view of coffin" data-width="1245" data-height="700" />A high status burial in a lead-lined coffin dating back to Roman times.
Photo Credit: HS2
<p>While these ancient people moved away from Wellwick Farm before the Romans invaded, a large portion of the area was still used for ritual burials for high-status members of society, Wood told Live Science. The ceremonial burial site included a circular ditch (about 60 feet across) at the center, and was a bit of a distance away from the ditch where the (suspected) murder victim was uncovered. Additionally, archaeologists found an ornately detailed grave near the sacred burial site that dates back to the Roman period, hundreds of years later when the original Bronze Age burial site would have been overgrown.</p><p>The newer grave from the Roman period encapsulated an adult skeleton contained in a lead-lined coffin. It's likely that the outer coffin had been made of wood that rotted away. Since it was clearly an ornate burial, the occupant of the grave was probably a person of high status who could afford such a lavish burial. However, according to Wood, no treasures or tokens had been discovered. </p>Sacred timber circle
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzUzMTk0Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MDAwOTQ4Mn0.eVJAUcD0uBUkVMFuMOPSgH8EssGkfLf_MjwUv0zGCI8/img.jpg?width=1245&coordinates=0%2C149%2C0%2C149&height=700" id="9de6a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d41a3de8f5d906996dc808c5c9ad164c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="An aerial view of the sacred circular monument." data-width="1245" data-height="700" />An aerial view of the sacred circular monument.
Photo Credit: HS2
<p>One of the most compelling archaeological discoveries at Wellwick Farm are the indications of a huge ceremonial circle once circumscribed by timber posts lying south of the Bronze Age burial site. Though the wooden posts have rotted away, signs of the post holes remain. It's thought to date from the Neolithic period to 5,000 years ago, according to Wood.</p><p>This circle would have had a diameter stretching 210 feet across and consisted of two rings of hundreds of posts. There would have been an entry gap to the south-west. Five posts in the very center of the circle aligned with that same gap, which, according to Wood, appeared to have been in the direction of the rising sun on the day of the midwinter solstice. </p><p>Similar Neolithic timber circles have been discovered around Great Britain, such as one near <a href="https://bigthink.com/culture-religion/stonehenge-sarsens" target="_blank">Stonehenge</a> that is considered to date back to around the same time. </p>
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NASA's Perseverance records first-ever sounds of rover driving on Mars
Sound waves behave quite differently on Mars than on Earth.
19 March, 2021
Perseverance Mars rover
Credit: NASA
Surprising Science
- NASA's Perseverance rover landed on Mars on February 18, and is currently preparing to begin its main mission of searching for signs of ancient life.
- The rover contains two microphone systems, one of which was recently used to capture sounds of the rover traveling at speeds below .01 mph.
- NASA hopes to return Perseverance's rock collection to Earth by 2031.
<p>It's been nearly a month since <a href="https://bigthink.com/technology-innovation/perseverance-rover-brain" target="_blank">Perseverance</a> landed on Mars, where the rover will search for evidence of ancient life. Since the landing on February 18, Perseverance has returned <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/raw-images/" target="_blank">images</a>, conducted tests of its robotic arm and <a href="https://twitter.com/NASAPersevere/status/1367643559063523329" target="_blank">steering system</a>, and recorded the <a href="https://twitter.com/NASAPersevere/status/1369694335168516097" target="_blank">sound of wind</a> on the red planet.</p><p>This week, NASA released audio of the six-wheeled rover driving on the surface of Mars, captured by Perseverance's Entry Descent and Landing (EDL) microphones. The 16-minute recording features raw, unedited audio of the rover traveling 90 feet across the Martian surface at speeds approaching about .01 mph. </p><p>It's the first time a NASA rover has captured audio of itself driving.</p>
<iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https://soundcloud.com/nasa/sounds-of-perseverance-mars-rover-driving-sol-16-16-minutes" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b4c09c1ebd295fcc07ff894ffbd9a2d4"></iframe><p><br></p><p>It's also not the most pleasant recording.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"If I heard these sounds driving my car, I'd pull over and call for a tow," Dave Gruel, lead engineer for Mars 2020's EDL Camera and Microphone subsystem, told <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/another-first-perseverance-captures-the-sounds-of-driving-on-mars" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory</a>. "But if you take a minute to consider what you're hearing and where it was recorded, it makes perfect sense."</p><p>It sounds like that partly because the rover's off-the-shelf EDL microphones weren't intended to capture sounds from the Martian terrain, but rather to record audio as the rover made its descent. And then there's the wheels.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"A lot of people, when they see the images, don't appreciate that the wheels are metal," Vandi Verma, a senior engineer and rover driver at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, told <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/another-first-perseverance-captures-the-sounds-of-driving-on-mars" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory</a>. "When you're driving with these wheels on rocks, it's actually very noisy."</p><p>Sound waves also behave differently on Mars. Compared to Earth, the red planet's atmosphere is colder, less dense and contains far more carbon dioxide. That means sound waves travel more slowly and quietly, and the atmosphere would absorb more higher-pitched sounds, an effect known as <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/participate/sounds/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">attenuation</a>.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"The variations between Earth and Mars – we have a feeling for that visually," Verma said. "But sound is a whole different dimension: to see the differences between Earth and Mars, and experience that environment more closely."</p>
<iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https://soundcloud.com/nasa/sounds-of-perseverance-mars-rover-driving-sol-16-90-second-highlights" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="41b94ed845d3c9ef564a5965de525bea"></iframe><p>NASA released an <a href="https://soundcloud.com/nasa/sounds-of-perseverance-mars-rover-driving-sol-16-90-second-highlights#t=0:27" target="_blank">edited version</a> of the audio that filters out some of the screeches and rattles.</p><p>Perseverance has a second microphone system included in its SuperCam instrument, which was designed to identify organic compounds on the Martian surface. SuperCam works by firing a laser at rocks and soil, and using a camera and spectrometers to study the composition of the materials.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"SuperCam's laser is uniquely capable of remotely clearing away surface dust, giving all of its instruments a clear view of the targets," Roger Wiens, the project's principal investigator, told <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/instruments/supercam/" target="_blank">NASA</a>.</p>
<div id="e3f00" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="128737ae0746fc3648c975846e90798d"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1369457760237019136" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">How do we fly a helicopter on Mars? It takes ingenuity and perseverance. Tune in on Thursday, March 11, 7pm PT (10p… https://t.co/FxHpBCMw8L</div> — NASA JPL (@NASA JPL)<a href="https://twitter.com/NASAJPL/statuses/1369457760237019136">1615339147.0</a></blockquote></div><p>What's next for Perseverance? In April, NASA plans to conduct a test flight of the Ingenuity helicopter, which will fly near the rover to monitor the environment and provide imaging support. Soon after, Perseverance will spend one Mars year (687 Earth days) on its main mission: Collecting arguably the most scientifically significant rock collection in human history. NASA hopes the rocks will contain evidence that life once existed on Mars. </p><p>But it might take years to find out, considering that the ultimate goal is to send another spacecraft to Mars to return the rocks to Earth for closer inspection. For that retrieval mission, NASA and the European Space Agency have their sights on <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01114-0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">launching 2028 and returning in 2031</a>.</p>
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Can you be scientific and spiritual?
Spirituality can be an uncomfortable word for atheists. But does it deserve the antagonism that it gets?
19 March, 2021
The sun tries to break through the trees and mist of Cannock Chase Forest at Severn Springs in Stafford, England.
- While the anti-scientific bias of religious fundamentalism requires condemnation, if we take a broader view, does the human inclination towards spiritual practice still require the same antagonism? The answer, I think, is a definitive "No."
- Rather than ontological claims about what exists in the universe, the terms spiritual and sacred can describe the character of an experience. Instead of a "thing" they can refer to an attitude or an approach.
- One can be entirely faithful to the path of inquiry and honesty that is science while making it one aspect of a broader practice embracing the totality of your experience as a human being in this more-than-human world.
<p><span>The tension between science and religion is old news to us moderns. Historical events like the Catholic Church's </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_affair" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">trial of Galileo</a><span> or the </span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Scopes-Trial" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Scopes Monkey Trial</a><span> over teaching Darwin in schools, seem to imply that religion and science are incompatible. More recently, writers like </span><a href="https://bigthink.com/u/richarddawkins" target="_self">Richard Dawkins</a><span>, </span><a href="https://bigthink.com/u/danieldennett" target="_self">Daniel Dennett</a>,<span> and other '</span><a href="https://iep.utm.edu/n-atheis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">New Atheists'</a><span> have been vigorous in their condemnation of the anti-scientific bias of religious fundamentalism. But if we take a broader view beyond these fundamentalisms, if we ask about the human inclination towards spiritual practice in general, do we still have to find the same antagonism? The answer, I think, is a definitive "No." And that answer is important as we consider the totality of what it means to be human.</span></p>
<p>First, it's important to distinguish between religion and what I'll call spiritual practice. In his excellent book "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062316117?tag=bigthink00-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sapiens</a>," Yuval Noah Harari defines religion as "a system of human norms and values that is founded in the belief in a superhuman order." There are two parts of this definition that are important for our discussion. First is the "system of human norms." That phrase points to a lot of stuff, but it also means politics. There is an aspect of organized religion that has always been about establishing and enforcing social norms: Who is an authority; who justifies who is in charge; who marries whom; who tells you how to behave. This aspect of religion is about power within social hierarchies. </p>
<p>The second part of Harari's definition refers to a "superhuman order." Note that he does not say a "supernatural" order. Why? Because some religions like Buddhism don't pivot around the existence of an all-powerful deity. This distinction is important because it allows you to see a point many scholars of religion have made after looking at the long human history of what I'll call <em data-redactor-tag="em">spiritual endeavor</em>. From our beginnings as hunter-gathers, we have always been responding to a sense of a "superhuman order." That response has taken many different forms from beautiful paintings on <a href="https://www.oldest.org/artliterature/cave-paintings/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cave walls</a> to beautiful paintings on the ceiling of the <a href="https://m.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani-mobile/en/collezioni/musei/cappella-sistina/storia-cappella-sistina.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sistine Chapel</a>. </p>
<blockquote>Even though I consider myself an atheist, experiences of a superhuman order have been with me since I was a kid. </blockquote>
<p>In my <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0520265866?tag=bigthink00-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1" target="_blank">first book</a>, I looked in depth at this response, its history, and its relation to science. Even though I consider myself an atheist, experiences of a superhuman order have been with me since I was a kid. Heck, that's what science was to me—an order expressible in mathematics beyond the purely human. In fact, many of my deepest <em>experiences</em> of being alive had come to me through my scientific practice. Working through some line of mathematical reasoning or encountering some image of a nebula or galaxy, I'd get thrust into an overwhelming sense of the universe's presence, of its perfect unity and wholeness. At first, I saw the laws of physics as the source of that order but as I got older my focus widened.</p>
<p>Now, one could say that my experiences were "just awe" and nothing more. But as the great scholar of religion, <a href="https://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Reln101/Otto.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Rudolph Otto</a> noted, awe is the essential component of a spiritual experience. It is an encounter with what other scholars have called "sacredness."</p>
<p>So, what are we to make of these words "spiritual" and "sacred"? Some strident atheists recoil at these terms because they believe they must entail a belief in supernatural entities. This is a mistake. Both can point to something much broader. Rather than ontological claims about what exists in the universe, <em>spiritual</em> and <em>sacred</em> can describe the character of an experience. Instead of a "thing", they can refer to an attitude or an approach. This is the central point William James made in his masterwork "<a href="https://www.giffordlectures.org/lectures/varieties-religious-experience" target="_blank">The Varieties of Religious Experience</a>." To speak about sacredness is to understand that some experiences (the birth of your child, coming upon a silent forest glade, hearing a powerful symphony) <em>evoke an order that is more than just our thoughts about that order</em>. And to speak of "the spiritual" can call to the highest aspects of the human spirit: compassion, kindness, empathy, generosity, love.</p><p>This kind of understanding of spiritual and sacred have always been with us and they may, or may not, have anything to do with a particular religion. This is where we can draw a distinction between a spiritual practice and a religious one. In a spiritual practice, people purposely attempt to deepen their lived sense of the superhuman order they experience. It is, literally, a practice. You work on it every day, perhaps using meditation or ritual or service to others. The methods differ but the daily application and aspiration are the same.</p><p>The important point is that spiritual practice has a purpose: <em>transformation</em>. It is to become a person who lives in accord with that sense of experienced order, that sacredness. Such a lifelong aspiration and effort can happen within an individual religious tradition <em>if</em> there are domains within that tradition that truly support this kind of interior work. Unfortunately, the politics of religion can sometimes keep this from happening. As scholars Joseph Campbell, Walter Houston Clark, and others have said, church can be a <a href="https://www.context.org/iclib/ic12/campbell/" target="_blank">"vaccination" against the real thing.</a></p><p>It's also possible to build such a practice outside of established religious tradition. In that case, the difficulty comes in inventing forms that can support a lifelong practice. There is something to be said for traditions or rituals that have endured for many generations and the best of these often occur within some religious traditions.</p>
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="46553a3ddf4bda814b15d6f0e9e0eb9e"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zLKNvBdUtZY?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>The bottom line is human beings have felt the need for spiritual practice for a long, long time. That means that even as participation in traditional religions <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">drops</a>, people claiming to be "spiritual but not religious" and people who embrace science continue to grow. The writer <a href="https://annakaharris.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Annika Harris</a> and her spouse New Atheist <a href="https://samharris.org/books/the-end-of-faith/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sam Harris</a> are, for example, strong defenders of science. They have also both <a href="https://samharris.org/how-to-meditate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">written</a> about the importance of contemplative practice in their lives.</p><p>I have long argued that science is one way that the aspiration to know the true and the real is expressed. It is one way we express that sense of an order beyond us. But there are other ways that go beyond descriptions and explanation, and all of them make up the totality of being human. That means you can embrace science in all its power and still embed it within the larger context of human experience. All of us can be entirely faithful to the path of inquiry and honesty that <em>is</em> science while making it one aspect of a practice meant to embrace the fullness of your experience as a human in this more-than-human world.</p>
<div>Adam Frank is the author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0520265866?tag=bigthink00-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1" target="_blank">"The Constant Fire"</a><br></div>
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