When I was in Boston a month or so ago, I got a chance to visit with Marvin Minsky. Professor Minsky was the co-founder of the Artificial Intelligence Lab at MIT and one of the pioneers in the field of computer science and robotics.

Since the early 1950s, Marvin Minsky has worked on using computational ideas to characterize human psychological processes, as well as working to endow machines with intelligence. In the early 1970s, Minsky and Seymour Papert began formulating a theory called The Society of Mind which combined insights from developmental child psychology and their experience with research on Artificial Intelligence. The Society of Mind proposes that intelligence is not the product of any singular mechanism, but comes from the managed interaction of a diverse variety of resourceful agents.

So I thought it might be fun to ask him some questions about what is the “sense of self”, awareness and consciousness.

Do you sometimes feel in a stranglehold of overwhelm? So pressed for time that meditation feels like an unwarranted diversion from the important affairs of life?

The very thought of meditation may begin to spark annoyance. And the actual act may feel excruciatingly painful.  When all the demands of life start pressing in, meditation can appear like an enemy on the battleground of life.

You came to meditation for a reason. You know that meditation is "good" for you, yet you resent the time it takes away from your real-world obligations.

How do you get through this?