How reliable are articles on yoga by contributors to Wikipedia? 🤷‍♂️

More than they used to be, thanks to the input of Ian Alexander, who’s personally edited between a third and half of them. Many meet the criteria for what the free encyclopaedia calls a “good article” – combining clear and neutral writing with verifiable sourcing and broad coverage.

For the 25 years since Wikipedia launched, it’s been dependent on the work of volunteers. In an age of hallucinating chatbots, this human commitment is all the more striking. Our conversation explores how it works, why Ian got involved and where the yoga WikiProject might go from here.

We also talk about other things – from pages on the writings of Tolkien to Swami Propagandananda, a nickname for Sivananda that Ian included in one of his edits. He’s a longstanding yoga practitioner, as well as writing books about nature and software engineering.

For more on Wikipedia, and the principles of trust it depends on, see this book by founder Jimmy Wales – thanks to Dominik Wujastyk for the recommendation.

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What does it mean to be human in the age of AI? 🤖

How old is the fear of machines taking over? What might we learn about how to respond from previous examples? Is technology dehumanising or can it also be liberating? How could philosophy expand our understanding of its potential?

Dan Turello is a cultural historian, photographer and author. His new book Connection: How Technology Can Make Us Better Humans explores a middle way between nostalgia and utopianism, focusing closely on social dimensions.

Together, we consider both the perils and the promise of technology, drawing inspiration from a range of perspectives – including those of Christian mystics, contemporary philosophers, yogic traditions and Battlestar Galactica.

An excerpt from Dan’s book was recently published by the New Yorker. He holds a PhD in Romance Languages and Literatures from Harvard and is a Fellow at the Center for the Future of Mind, AI & Society at Florida Atlantic University.

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How do we know what we think we know? Are our opinions our own, or are they conditioned by external influences? What helps to balance opposing views? How important are such questions to yoga – both philosophically and practically?

This podcast explores some of the voices in my head. It was inspired by a recent conversation about the Yoga Sūtra on my year-long course, The Path of Knowledge. There are also ingredients from Gavin Flood, a colleague at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, plus an essay on tensions between scholars and practitioners.

That article cites writing by C. W. Huntington, Jr. – particularly Māyā, a novel he describes as “a first person narrative rooted in the literary tradition of Henry Miller, Thomas Merton, Jack Kerouac, and Carlos Castaneda”, and his last book, What I Don’t Know About Death. It also draws on Robert M. Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (about which more here, in a BBC broadcast).

🗣️ P.S. the discussion I mention in the podcast introduction is available here.

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