The Algorithms of Mindfulness

Abstract

This paper analyzes notions and models of optimized cognition emerging at the intersections of psychology, neuroscience, and computing. What I somewhat polemically call the algorithms of mindfulness describes an ideal that determines algorithmic techniques of the self, geared at emotional resilience and creative cognition. A reframing of rest, exemplified in corporate mindfulness programs and the design of experimental artificial neural networks sits at the heart of this process. Mindfulness trainings provide cues as to this reframing, for they detail each in their own way how intermittent periods of rest are to be recruited to augment our cognitive capacities and combat the effects of stress and information overload. They typically rely on and co-opt neuroscience knowledge about what the brains of North Americans and Europeans do when we rest. Current designs for artificial neural networks draw on the same neuroscience research and incorporate coarse principles of cognition in brains to make machine learning systems more resilient and creative. These algorithmic techniques are primarily conceived to prevent psychopathologies where stress is considered the driving force of success. Against this backdrop, I ask how machine learning systems could be employed to unsettle the concept of pathological cognition itself.

From Meditation to Techno-Mindfulness: On the Medicalization of Contemplative Practices and Future Prospects

“…Although anthropological considerations have yet to fully emerge, studies in this realm offer valuable perspectives. Bruder's recent article highlights the prevailing significance of mindfulness training programs and apps (Bruder 2022), suggesting that North Americans and Europeans are increasingly conceptualizing mindfulness, as well as their lives more broadly, in algorithmic terms. Technologies play a pivotal role in this process, as observed also by Ruckenstein and Schüll, wherein applications, trackers and device-based pedagogies imbue machinic agency into the way humans define, categorize and comprehend existence.…”

Artificial Intelligence and Mindfulness: Systematic Literature Review Based on Prisma Method

“…(Zhou et al, 2021) According to Huckvale et al (2023) Mindfulness training gives hints regarding this reorientation since they each describe in their own manner how intermittent moments of relaxation are to be utilised to enhance our cognitive capacities and battle the effects of stress and information overload. Typically, mindfulness training and applications are intended to facilitate the maintenance of emotional relationships (Bruder, 2021).…”