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CyBuddha News


Transhumanism and the ‘Intelligence Principle’

Markets Love Selfish People

“Keeping an Open Mind is a Virtue, but not so Open that Your Brains Fall Out.”

Brains - Military, Disgusted, Forgetful

Existential Movie War

Moral Relativism vs. Moral Authority

Evil Genes Part 2


CyBuddha Events


The Perfect Body: Between Normativity and Consumerism

2009-10-09 - 13
Scandic Linköping Väst, Sweden









Cyborg Buddha Project

IEET Executive Director James Hughes - a former Buddhist monk and attenuated Buddho-Unitarian - is writing a book tentatively titled Cyborg Buddha: Using Neurotechnology to Become Better People.

IEET Board member Mike LaTorra - a Zen priest and author of A Warrior Blends with Life: A Modern Tao - runs the Trans-Spirit list promoting discussion of neurotheology, neuroethics, techno-spirituality and altered states of consciousness.

IEET Board member George Dvorsky - a practicing Buddhist - writes and podcasts frequently from a rationalist, transhumanist, and Buddhist point of view, winning him an award this year as one of the best Buddhist blogs.

The three of us are launching the IEET Cyborg Buddha Project to combine our efforts and promote discussion of the impact that neuroscience and emerging neurotechnologies will have on happiness, spirituality, cognitive liberty, moral behavior and the exploration of meditational and ecstatic states of mind.


Jun 23, 2009

Transhumanism and the ‘Intelligence Principle’

by George Dvorsky

“In sorting priorities, I adopt what I term the central principle of cultural evolution, which I refer to as the Intelligence Principle: the maintenance, improvement and perpetuation of knowledge and intelligence is the central driving force of cultural evolution, and that to the extent intelligence can be improved, it will be improved.”—Stephen J. Dick

Full Story...


Jun 20, 2009

Markets Love Selfish People

Life Inc.

For all the ability of genes and even memes to battle for survival against one another, human beings are just as likely to share and cooperate as they are to cheat and compete. But the ascendance of market rhetoric in America and Britain was accompanied by the assertion of some decidedly antiromantic science. University anthropologists seemed determined to correct the hopeful impressions that so many still clung to of peaceful, vegetarian gorillas enjoying one another’s company in the jungle. Like stories of supposedly peaceful aboriginal tribes as yet untainted by corrupt Western civilization, such visions—according to the new social Darwinists—were pure fantasy.

Life Inc. Dispatch 05: Markets Love Selfish People from Douglas Rushkoff on Vimeo.

DOWNLOAD/LISTEN/VIEW


Jun 15, 2009

“Keeping an Open Mind is a Virtue, but not so Open that Your Brains Fall Out.”

by Athena Andreadis

– saying attributed to Jim Oberg, space journalist and historian

Full Story...


Jun 13, 2009

Brains - Military, Disgusted, Forgetful

Changesurfer Radio

Jonathan Moreno on The use of neuroscience by the US military, Douglas Rushkoff on the need to train citizens in digital combat arts, the relationship of disgust sensitivity to conservatism, and Greg Beato’s defense of memory deletion in the participatory panopticon. (MP3)

DOWNLOAD/LISTEN/VIEW


Jun 8, 2009

Existential Movie War

by Mike Treder

Over on his Sentient Developments blog, IEET board member George Dvorsky has compiled and posted a list of what he calls “The Top 10 Existential Movies of All Time.” As a serious film buff, I was immediately prompted to respond by naming a few important—and great—existential movies that George left off his list. I’ll get to my own favorites in a moment, but first we should lay down some ground rules.

Full Story...


Jun 5, 2009

Moral Relativism vs. Moral Authority

by Mike Treder

Born in Hawaii—a crossroads of culture between Far East and Far West—of a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya and raised partially in Indonesia by a Muslim stepfather, an African-American man with an unlikely background and an even more unlikely name, Barack Hussein Obama, arose to become President of the United States. Does that globalized pedigree, along with a prodigious intellect, give him a unique moral authority?

Full Story...


May 30, 2009

Evil Genes Part 2

Changesurfer Radio

Dr. J. chats with Barbara Oakley about her book Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother’s Boyfriend (evilgenes.com), a sweeping review of the emerging neuroscience of psychopathy and Machiavellianism, and their relationship to history, politics and evolution. (Part 2 of 2)

DOWNLOAD/LISTEN/VIEW


May 30, 2009

Evil Genes Part 1

Changesurfer Radio

Dr. J. chats with Barbara Oakley about her book Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother’s Boyfriend (evilgenes.com), a sweeping review of the emerging neuroscience of psychopathy and Machiavellianism, and their relationship to history, politics and evolution. (Part 1 of 2)

DOWNLOAD/LISTEN/VIEW


May 23, 2009

Participatory Panopticon Trial One: FAIL

by Mike Treder

It is 2007 on the steamy tropical streets of Rangoon, Burma, where journalism is against the law, and where no outside reporters are allowed. Fed up with living under the oppression of a heavy-handed military dictatorship, a few courageous citizens dare to speak out. They are quickly silenced and carried off by police and plain-clothes thugs—but a small band of video journalists is able to capture the events and begin leaking the news to the outside world.

Full Story...


May 18, 2009

Choosing Our Imaginary Communities and Identities

by J. Hughes

In June 1983 I arrived in Sri Lanka with a starry-eyed commitment to grassroots Buddhist social change, and a lot of romanticism about national liberation movements and Asian Buddhism. The Sri Lankan civil war that started five days later forced me to confront how dangerous all identities and communities are unless we understand that they are fundamentally imaginary. My two years in Sri Lanka convinced me of the desperate need for a new project of global citizenship.

Full Story...


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Cyborg Buddha Resources


Scientific Study of Consciousness and Neurotechnology
  • Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness
  • NeuroInsights a neurotechnology consulting firm directed by Zack Lynch
  • Mind and Life Institute Works on establishing research partnerships between modern science and Buddhism, especially the Dalai Lama.
  • Wisebrain.org The "neurodharma" project of psychologist Rick Hanson and neurologist Rick Mendius, both of whom are Buddhist meditators. They teach a "Train the Brain Course" and have a many talks, slides, and articles at the site.

  • Neuroethics and Cognitive Liberty

  • Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics
  • Wikipedia on Cognitive Liberty
  • Neuroethics Society scholars, scientists and clinicians who share an interest in the social, legal, ethical and policy implications of advances in neuroscience.
  • Neuroethics at UPenn a source of information on neuroethics, provided by Martha Farah of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience

  • Happiness, Positive Psychology and The Virtues

  • Positive Psychology Center at UPenn, directed by Martin Seligman
  • Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification by Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman.
  • Wikipedia on Positive Psychology
  • Ethics of Mood Enhancement NY Academy of Sciences
  • The Hedonistic Imperative Advocates the development of neurotechnology to permit the elimination of all suffering
  • Abolitionist SocietyPromotes eliminating involuntary suffering and increasing lifelong individual happiness through science

  • Altered States of Consciousness and Transcendence

  • Trans-Spirit list a transhumanist research program into religion and spirituality. It seeks to understand religion and spirituality in terms of cognitive science and evolutionary psychology, and to project the future of religion and spirituality in the dawning transhuman era.
  • "Trans-Spirit: Religion, Spirituality and Transhumanism," Michael LaTorra, Journal of Evolution and Technology 14(1) August 2005: 39-53.
  • Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies Promoting clinical research on psychedelics
  • Council on Spiritual Practices


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