Cyborg Buddha Project
Cyborg Buddha BlogEdge.com asked 150 of the most visionary minds on the planet - including the IEET’s Nick Bostrom, Aubrey de Grey and Douglas Rushkoff - the question “What will change everything?”
Dec 18, 2008
Measuring and Quantifying Human Empathy
NeurosceneInterview with with Dr. Carl Marci who is the Director of Social Neuroscience for the Psychotherapy Research Program at the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Marci is involved with some of the most advanced research that focuses on measuring and quantifying the human emotion of empathy.
DOWNLOAD/LISTEN/VIEWDec 7, 2008
Religion and Transhumanism pt2
Changesurfer RadioOn April 16 I spoke in Tempe Arizona at a seminar on “Transhumanism and the Concept of Human Nature,” which is part of a four year exploration of Transhumanism and Religion there funded by the Templeton Foundation. My paper got a little out of hand and became a short book: “The Compatibility of Religious and Transhumanist Views of Metaphysics, Suffering, Virtue and Transcendence in an Enhanced Future” (PDF), and has now been published by the Global Spiral, the Metanexus Institute journal. Any comments welcome.
Abstract: Transhumanism – the proposition that human beings should use technology to transcend the limitations of the body and brain – is a product of the Enlightenment humanist tradition. As a consequence most avowed transhumanists are secular, and many religious are skeptical or hostile towards the transhumanist project. However there are also many religious transhumanists who find the project of human enhancement at least consistent with, and sometimes a fulfillment of, their metaphysics, soteriologies and eschatologies. Transhumanism appears to be especially compatible with religious traditions that emphasize human agency and evolution to a transcendent state, such as Buddhism, or that have incorporated Enlightenment values, such as liberal Christianity. But elements of the transhumanist worldview and enhancement technologies are compatible with one element or another of most world faiths, even the most fundamentalist. We can thus expect that human enhancement technologies will be adopted creatively into the theologies of groups within all the world’s faiths, producing many flavors of “trans-spirituality.”
Download the PDF - Slides - Audio Part1 - Audio Part 2
Nov 23, 2008
Religion and Transhumanism pt1
Changesurfer RadioOn April 16 I spoke in Tempe Arizona at a seminar on “Transhumanism and the Concept of Human Nature,” which is part of a four year exploration of Transhumanism and Religion there funded by the Templeton Foundation. My paper got a little out of hand and became a short book: “The Compatibility of Religious and Transhumanist Views of Metaphysics, Suffering, Virtue and Transcendence in an Enhanced Future” (PDF), and has now been published by the Global Spiral, the Metanexus Institute journal. Any comments welcome.
Abstract: Transhumanism – the proposition that human beings should use technology to transcend the limitations of the body and brain – is a product of the Enlightenment humanist tradition. As a consequence most avowed transhumanists are secular, and many religious are skeptical or hostile towards the transhumanist project. However there are also many religious transhumanists who find the project of human enhancement at least consistent with, and sometimes a fulfillment of, their metaphysics, soteriologies and eschatologies. Transhumanism appears to be especially compatible with religious traditions that emphasize human agency and evolution to a transcendent state, such as Buddhism, or that have incorporated Enlightenment values, such as liberal Christianity. But elements of the transhumanist worldview and enhancement technologies are compatible with one element or another of most world faiths, even the most fundamentalist. We can thus expect that human enhancement technologies will be adopted creatively into the theologies of groups within all the world’s faiths, producing many flavors of “trans-spirituality.”
Download the PDF - Slides - Audio Part1 - Audio Part 2
Nov 16, 2008
George’s notes on Cyborg Buddha presentation at Convergence
Mike Latorra and J. Hughes presented a workshop on the themes of future mass unemployment and our need to use neurotechnologies to pursue flourishing personalities instead of psychological and cultural stasis. George took notes.
Nov 15, 2008
The Buzz Lightyear Model of Enlightenment: To Infinity and Beyond
Buddhist GeeksIn this episode we bring back the Geeks of the Round Table segment. Joining us is one of our regulars Duff McDuffee, and a new geek to the lineup, Mike LaTorra. Mike is the resident teacher of the Soto Zen Center in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
During this conversation we discuss an article written by Shambhala Acharaya Judy Lief entitled, Glimpses of Awakening. We discuss the ideals surrounding awakening, and use the classic three trainings model (of ethics, concentration, & wisdom) to explore what enlightenment is about.
This is part 1 of a two-part series. Listen to part 2 (airing next week).
Sep 29, 2008
Two New Special Issues from JET
The IEET and the editors of the Journal of Evolution and Technology (JET) are pleased to announce the publication of two special issues of JET, one brought together by Sky Marsen with the intention of publishing a book on transhumanism, and the other a collection of papers from the IEET’s May 2006 Human Enhancement Technology and Human Rights conference at Stanford University. Together they represent the wide array of issues at play in the debate over human enhancement and our transhuman future, from the daily lived experience of pushing to maximize one’s potential, to the legal, political and philosophical arguments we will need to secure universal access to safe enhancement technologies. Enjoy!
Sep 23, 2008
Deep brain stimulation and exercise
by Christopher HarrisHard to motivate yourself to exercise? In a future with ubiquitous nano-neural interfaces finding the get-up-and-go could be only a button push away.
Aug 15, 2008
Enhancing Morality
Changesurfer RadioOn Changesurfer Radio, a bit of an essay by Julian Savulescu on the need to enhance morality, and then an episode of Buddhist Geeks podcast that interviews Dr. J. about the Cyborg Buddha project. (MP3)
Aug 13, 2008
Intelligence and Empathy
The Future and YouBen Goertzel, noted scientist, author, futurist and pioneer in the field of Artificial Intelligence, is today’s featured guest. Topics he discusses include: Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), the singularity, transhumanism, human immortality and how long he expects to live, and why (like your host) he is a founding member of the Order of Cosmic Engineers.
Highlights of the interview include: The mechanism of human empathy seems to have been identified, and so can be reproduced in AI; even AI that is radically different in its thinking from human beings. Doctor Goertzel explains that this empathy is not based on emotion, and he emphasizes that he does not want to create an AI which is governed by its emotions.
He stresses that the human mind does not qualify as a completely ‘General Intelligence’ but lies somewhere on the spectrum between AGI on one end and ‘Narrow AI’ on the other. This is one of several reasons why he does not expect AGI to be achieved by mimicking the workings of the human brain.
He describes how our brains fool us into believing that we understand our actions and decisions when we don’t. And why modeling an AI too closely on the human brain might make it too, vulnerable to false notions.
He also says, ‘I think virtual worlds are going to be absolutely critical to the development of Artificial General Intelligence.’ As well as ‘Right now connecting AI’s to virtual worlds is probably the best way to get an AI to have a general human-like embodied experience.’
Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the August 13, 2008 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 74 minutes]
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