What's New on WoK

•  Piet will offer a new virtual reality "Play as Being" exploration in Second Life beginning April 1st. You have a good chance of seeing Piet (Pema Pera in Second Life) during three of these four meetings, when he is not asleep—details depending on the time zone he happens to be in. You may enter via Piet's new Weblog page: http://playasbeing.wordpress.com/.
  

•  Recent additions make content generated during WoK's virtual reality forums available to WoK's readers.
  
• The Dialogues page now offers access to wiki pieces produced by participants in VR forums.
• A new Features page, Steven's VR Presentations, lists transcripts of talks by Steven in the Qwaq VR forum.
• Steven's WoKers Off Site link now gives access to mp3 sound files of Steven's talks at the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery.
• For Piet's first Second Life interview, see: http://www.ugotrade.com/2008/01/15/exploring-reality-in-virtual-worlds-with-piet-hut/
  
• The Home page top bar has been simplified and now has links for Virtual Reality activity and for The Weekly WoKer.
  

• An on-line newspaper, The Weekly WoKer, covering WoK website and related virtual reality activities, has been added.

• New WoK virtual reality forums are being added to our VR program.
• twice-weekly discussion sessions, following up on the Sunday Guest Lectures series.
• a weekly reading group, concentrating on informal discussion of a series of WoK-related readings.
  
• a series of weekly presentations by Steven Tainer on various Science/Spirituality topics, beginning Nov. 17 2007.
  

        For a complete listing of WoK Virtual Reality forums, see our VR Events Schedule.

• A new WoK Features section has been added to provide links to presentations by Piet (posted) and Steven (forthcoming) on other websites. It's called The WoKers Off Site. Also, three new such "off site" pieces by Piet have been added:
• February, 2006—Piet Hut at the Mind and Reality Symposium at Columbia Univ. This page includes video of his presentation and of an interview conducted while at the symposium, a transcript of the presentation, and also video of the concluding group panel discussion.
  
• February, 2007 (Piet Hut)—Round table at the Philoctetes Center in New York City. Discussion with Janna Levin, Charles Liu, Dimitri Nanopoulos (moderator), Tu Weiming, available as video, audio and transcript.
  
• June, 2007 (Piet Hut)—Interview on the Website "Seeds of Unfolding" (available as transcipt).
  

• A new virtual seminar summary has been added to WoK's Virtual Seminar section:
• June 24, 2007 (Zenon Pylyshyn)—The contemporary scientific view of the mind, and some shortcomings of this view

• A new virtual seminar summary has been added to WoK's Virtual Seminar section:
• June 17, 2007 (Piet Hut)—Groping in the Dark: Exploring the Use of Scientific Methods in Matters of Being

• A new virtual seminar summary has been added to WoK's Virtual Seminar section:
• June 10, 2007 (Sean Murphy)—Projectual Identity and Biological Intelligence
  

• A new Feature--VR Explorations--has been added to WoK. This Feature will concentrate on research-type explorations with volunteers in virtual-reality spaces. One branch of this Feature is called Virtual Seminars, and an initial contribution to this section has also been posted:
• June 3, 2007 (Jan Schwindt)—Mind as Hardward and Matter as Software
• A snippet has been added to WoK's Snippets section:
• June 5, 2007 (Piet)—Working with a Working Hypothesis
• An interview has been added to WoK's Interviews section:
• [recorded December 15, 2006] (Interview #1 with Prof. Eleanor Rosch)—On "Cognitive Science"
  

• An interview has been added to WoK's Interviews section:
• December 12, 2006 (Interview #3 with Prof. Arthur Zajonc)—On Science Education
  

• An interview has been added to WoK's Interviews section:
• December 7, 2006 (Interview #1 with Dr. Robert Magrisso)—On "Spirituality" and Medicine
  

2007, May 15

• An interview has been added to WoK's Interviews section:
• November 11, 2006 (Interview #2 with Prof. Arthur Zajonc)—On Education

2007, May 1

• See Editor's Summary for a six-page overview of both the WoK Experiment and Practice Intensive. Currently this summary is based on Steven's impressions, but will be supplemented with a few observations from Piet as well.
  

2007, April 10

• The WoK Practice Intensive, an exploration using a working hypothesis involving Piet Hut and six volunteers, has concluded.
  
• Piet's Videoranch Talks--summaries of talks given by Piet in the virtual world of Videoranch are now available on WoK. Topics range from astronomy/cosmology and general science to wider explorations of the nature of reality.
• A summary of the WoK Experiment and the WoK Practice Intensive will be posted within the next week or so. This summary will provide an overview of the two WoK Features, as seen primarily by Steven, with some additional comments from Piet.
• The WoK Interviews section will be a weekly WoK feature, starting in mid-May. In these interviews, Steven will chat with prominent people in a range of fields, discussing fundamental aspects of both science and spirituality, exploring their bearing on many aspects of human life and ways of knowing.
  
• A new and more challenging version of the Practice Intensive will be led by Piet this summer during a special 10-day event. In some respects, this offering replaces previously-planned continuations of the Practice Intensive. A description will be posted within the next couple of weeks.

2007, January 1

• A new section of WoK has now officially started. It's called the WoK Practice Intensive, a continuation and more rigorous extension of the WoK Experiment, again lead by Piet Hut. The Practice Intensive will be conducted in three-month cycles, and begins with Piet and six volunteers. (A second cycle will start in April, with additional volunteers.) Participants commit to daily practice, based on the use of a working hypothesis selected by Piet, plus note taking and the composition of a weekly (monthly etc.) results summary (see ground rules and guidelines). All new summaries will be posted weekly on WoK's Practice Intensive page, beginning January 8. WoK readers are encouraged to follow along unofficially, making their own practice commitments, doing the practice and writing their own notes and summaries.
  

2006, November 18

• The second round of the WoK Experiment, a series of experimental interactions between Piet Hut and volunteers Rod Rees and Heloisa, has concluded. We are now moving on to the final round, with our third volunteer, Maria Yung, joining Piet, Rod and Heloisa.

2006, October 10

• The first round of the WoK Experiment, a series of experimental interactions between Piet Hut and volunteer Rod Rees has concluded, and four summary pieces from Piet and Rod are also now posted. We are about to move to the next round, with our second volunteer, Heloisa, joining Piet and Rod.

2006, September 2

• We are getting ready to begin a new WoK feature—the WoK Experiment, an interpersonal, interactive approach to exploring limits to direct knowing. This experiment will be conducted by Piet and WoK volunteers, and begins September 10, 2006.  Go to this feature's main page for information about the experiment's basic format, and an introduction to the first volunteer.

2006,  June 1-July  31

• A new article has been added to WoK's Snippets section:
  
• July 31, 2006 (Piet)—Deep Questions
  
• A two-piece dialogue has been added to WoK's Dialogues section:
• May 11, 2005 (Piet & Steven)—More about "the Self" and Alternatives #1
  
• May 11, 2005 (Piet & Steven)—More about "the Self" and Alternatives #2
• A six-piece dialogue has been added to WoK's Dialogues section:
• May 10, 2005 (Piet & Steven)—Easy, Hard and "the Self" #1
• May 10, 2005 (Piet & Steven)—Easy, Hard and "the Self" #2
• May 10, 2005 (Piet & Steven)—Easy, Hard and "the Self" #3
• May 10, 2005 (Piet & Steven)—Easy, Hard and "the Self" #4
• May 10, 2005 (Piet & Steven)—Easy, Hard and "the Self" #5
• May 10, 2005 (Piet & Steven)—Easy, Hard and "the Self" #6
• The introduction to a long dialogue has been added to WoK's Dialogues section:
• May 3, 2005 (Piet & Steven)—Ways of Knowing, Types of Mind #1
• A two-piece dialogue has been added to WoK's Dialogues section:
• May 2, 2005 (Piet & Steven)—Discovering "IS" #1
• May 2, 2005 (Piet & Steven)—Discovering "IS" #2
• A four-piece dialogue has been added to WoK's Dialogues section:
• June 21, 2006 (Piet & Steven)—Science and "Spirituality" #1
• June 21, 2006 (Piet & Steven)—Science and "Spirituality" #2
• June 21, 2006 (Piet & Steven)—Science and "Spirituality" #3
• June 21, 2006 (Piet & Steven)—Science and "Spirituality" #4
• A four-piece dialogue has been added to WoK's Dialogues section:
• June 16, 2006 (Piet & Steven)—Theory and Practice #1
• June 16, 2006 (Piet & Steven)—Theory and Practice #2
• June 16, 2006 (Piet & Steven)—Theory and Practice #3
• June 16, 2006 (Piet & Steven)—Theory and Practice #4

2006,  May 3-May 31

• Several links to articles by Piet have been added to The WoKers section.
• A new article has been added to WoK's Snippets section:
  
• May 30, 2006 (Piet)—Beyond Methods and Goals
  

2006,  April 26-May 2

• Two dialogues have been added to WoK's Dialogues section:
• May 2, 2006 (Piet)—There's Plenty of Room at the Side
• May 2, 2006 (Piet & Steven)—Understanding "Humanity"
  

2006,  April 16-25

• An interview has been added to WoK's Interviews section:
• April 25, 2006 (Interview #1 with Prof. Arthur Zajonc)—Knowledge Projects

• Three new articles have been added to WoK's In the News section:
• April 18, 2006 (Steven)—Can the Study of Happiness Make Us Happy?
• April 19, 2006 (Steven)—Lanchester on Happiness #2
• April 20, 2006 (Steven)—Lanchester on Happiness #3

2006, April 8-10

• Four new articles have been added to WoK's Snippets section:
• April 8, 2006 (Steven)—An Anemia of Unknown Type?
• April 8, 2006 (Piet)—Is our world part of the world?
• April 9, 2006 (Steven)—Prologue on "Ways of Knowing"
• April 10, 2006 (Piet)—Getting in Touch

2006, March 14

• As part of his participation in the February 25-26 conference on Mind and Reality at Columbia University, Piet gave a talk which is available via webcast. If you download and play this file, note that his was the last talk in "Panel III: Wisdom" on February 25.

2006, February 14

• A new Wonderment bulletin board was created by Andrew McGowan. The discussions will use the WoK material provided here as the inspiration for the list and as reference material, but the bulletin board will be managed independently.

2006, February 9

• We acquired the domain name "WaysOfKnowing.net", and started to build the WoK web site.