I found a way out of depression into bottomless joy by one of the modern mystics and his kriya yoga practices. So from my perspective whatever AI predicts is anyway based on modern science which does not look deep into life processes.
Meanwhile we have materials which have in some shape or form been passed down throughout human history which we willing discard as their models no longer match reality.
This is sometimes the right thing to do, it is also sometimes the wrong thing to do, after all - all models are wrong, some are useful.
On the flipside, a broken clock is still right twice a day.
Empiricism is the best we have at the moment, but we must not overlook the shortcomings of only working with things we can measure.
EDIT we should not kid ourselves with research not being shaped by that which we think to measure or it being shaped by what we can currently measure today. Before we had microscopes, it was very hard to consider germs being a thing after all.
The body is exquisitely complex and we barely understand the mind-body connection. Observations from as far as distressed myofascial tissue to gut flora can affect the mind so it's perfectly reasonable for me that a proportion of patients who experience depression find help via "alternative" means.
I guess another way of thinking about it is that "depression" is actually far too vague a classification for an issue, especially when considering the myriad causes
Western science barely understand it, I would say that a number of Eastern practices (types of meditation, yoga for example) seem to have a better understanding. Unfortunately there is a lot of woo that gets mixed up with this, so its difficult to separate the genuinely useful stuff out.
Something I can add to this is depression (and related states with so many names) is a subjective thing in a way that the cause is in how person sees the world. Subjective things you can't measure by definition so they only work with the consequences which can be measured like chemical changes, brain activity etc. But the source is quite different.
I think you are literally confusing cause and effect of depression here.
People are really, really good at believing that mystical things help them, when in fact they are no better than placebo. Placebo, by the way, is an incredibly strong effect which has helped some people tackle illnesses of all sorts. However, it's not replicable enough that we suggest everybody suffering from depression be treated with placebo and only placebo, and any medication is unhelpful.
please share detail
The second sentence in contrast asserts that science “dies not look deep into life processes”. This is an objective (as in non subjective, not necessarily true) statement about science without an explanation or justification to support it, and can easily be interpreted as a blanket anti-scientific position. The latter is quite unpopular on HN and is likely to attract downvotes.
It's the same approach but much more subtle than modern medicine can do, and I'm not saying medical thing is worthless - it is super helpful with more "physical" cases, what is called depression, anxiety, stress just involves more aspects. One thing about external chemicals (antidepressants in this case) is you may become addicted to them in many ways, while in yoga it's your own body which is doing the whole thing.
> which does not square with my (or many other people's) experiences
Well I can also show you many other people who feel the same about kriya yoga. Unless you try it you can't know.
About "Life Hacks" - what medicine is doing today 100 years people would see it as life hacks. Just that you are not comfortable with an idea that someone understands things well beyond your imagination. But what to do, if it works?
> Unless you try it you can't know.
Yeah, the same is true for curing cancer by eating nothing but cucumbers for a year. Unless you try it, you can't know.
In a way this is how it is, except not in words nor in your imagination, rather in a real experience of oneness with whole rest of the Universe where every cell in your body explodes with ecstasy. If it happens to you even for a moment you will never see depression (with any of it's grades) ever again. Sounds too good to be true? Well again, if it works it doesn't matter how it sounds.
> Yeah, the same is true for curing cancer by eating nothing but cucumbers for a year. Unless you try it, you can't know.
That is, if you are interested in genuine knowledge. If you want superficial knowledge to show off with your friends - you can read some books or talk to some people. Reality is only known by direct experience.
>> Yeah, the same is true for curing cancer by eating nothing but cucumbers for a year. Unless you try it, you can't know.
> That is, if you are interested in genuine knowledge.
So you would refuse cancer treatment that has been shown to work, and instead you would eat cucumbers for a year, because you refuse the evidence that this does not in fact treat cancer?
Yoga does not behave in the same way as an SSRI. We have science which shows that. It might, in some cases, help some people with depression - it did not help me sufficiently. Sorry to burst your bubble.
Also if you could burst "my bubble" with a few words it worth nothing and I would not talk about it in the first place.
> on modern science which does not look deep into life processes.
What does "deep into life process" even mean? The more in detail you look into processes and the more systematic way you use, the closer you get to a scientific approach. If anyone is doing that, they're doing science.
> What does "deep into life process" even mean?
The problem here is modern science only looks at what can be measured. Life has parts which can not be measured and thus are missed by science. This is the same when you ask to define something - what if there is something which is not possible to define in words but at the same time one can experience it? It is still science but not modern, physical, measurable science.