Blog

  • The Three Singers: A Personal Story

    The Three SingersI was brought downTo the place where all the world’s a poem, an art-garden,and all the people sculptors.Unwillingly admitted, in fact—a three-day sojourn among the cluttered, the broken-in.The fallen leaves, coloring still; not… Read more

  • Dissection: On Good Friday and Doing Science

    DissectionGod gave himself up to our dissection.An ultimate openness; a kenosis.“Leaves don’t exist as such”—sure.But can there be such a house with no foundation?Can there be haecceity all the way down?Things evolve at random when… Read more

  • Baby Bird: On Death and Living

    Baby birdBaby birdOn the sidewalk;Gone so young, never feathered;Once encased, never fettered—Through your intercession:Let my death be like yours—in a whisper;To a hymn sung by mi familia;For my tomb the whole world.And let them sing… Read more

  • The Frog and the Wren: On Authenticity and Becoming

    The Frog and the WrenI’ll make myself a characterif it enhance our storytimes.(Authenticity is not-being; it’s only not-to-do.The being is your game;It’s ultimately up to you.)This sort of divinationis our duty and our right:to seed… Read more

  • To Poetry and Magic

    To Poetry and MagicMy poems create their maker(I’m taller than I think I am).When I search among fields of choicesto call forth dialogue from noise,I grant peaceful power conduitto create myself by prophecyand reckon myself… Read more

  • A Meatball

    A MeatballI fold my napkin gingerly, like it’s afraid of my touch.There are so many sounds in the wall it’s like a quiet river.The cold outside makes our warmth more fragile, and that’s just as… Read more

  • The Swirling: On Finding Home

    And What of All This Swirling?And what of all this swirling?To see life always in reflectionOn the eye to which I hold myselfAnd when until its stopping?Can I hold for longer stillWith all I know… Read more

  • A Wave: On Love and Individuality

    A WaveThere is a place, a starting point for thought,Where the wave is not a breath, nor an unseen excitation;A time when the ocean wave is entirely and only itself.Here I see the space is… Read more

  • The Reflecting Wall

    I was thinkingthat one has a certain amount of time with one’s lover to essentially memorize their responses and reactions to things; to download, as it were, their “software.” During this period one obsesses over… Read more

  • In the Buzzing of Dragonflies: On Work and the Ego

    In the Buzzing of DragonfliesThere’s a manlike activity in the buzzing of dragonflies:Their darting and zipping,their pausing to evaluate, then flitting away toward gain.There’s economy, intention, drive.But our highest calling is not like this at… Read more

Welcome to my blog!

I’m Mark, a PhD student and researcher at the intersection of AI and cognitive science. This blog more or less consists of free form reflection on whatever I am grappling with personally or thinking about professionally or philosophically. Opinions are my own.