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.
While in some respects, the sheer proliferation of information and data means no one particular entity can control it, current applications of technological monitoring are allowing governments to compile extensive “databodies” of individuals. Whether criminal or not, anything from a fingerprint to an intercepted e-mail can be tracked, and more and more of what we say and do is recorded. The global trend, in terms of personal data, is toward total monitoring.
I once believed it important to determine the “Buddhist view” on many social and political questions. Today I’m much more circumspect. Buddhist texts offer few coherent views outside of the core doctrinal elements. Consequently, Buddhists, to an even greater degree than most religionists, are required to address contemporary problems in the spirit of their teachings, rather than according to the letter of their law.
In the case of abortion, classical Buddhist texts, from the Pali canon through the Mahayana sutras, offer no specific guidance. Even if there was a specific, classical Buddhist text addressing the moral status of the fetus and the act of abortion, it would not be consistent with “Buddhism” to accept this teaching uncritically. Buddhism encodes with its teachings a reflexive, dynamic, self-critical element, beginning with the Kalama Sutra, which encourages Buddhists not to simply follow scriptures, but to continually adapt the Dharma to new audiences.
Consequently, a Buddhist approach to abortion has more to do with approaching the issue with a characteristic set of concerns, and in dialogue with a vast body of texts and teachers. It therefore comes as little surprise that most Western and Japanese Buddhists come away believing in the permissibility of abortion, while many other Buddhists believe abortion to be murder. In this essay I would like to sketch some of the reasons why most Western Buddhists accept abortion as an unfortunate but necessary part of women’s reproductive health care.
Drawing upon both the insights of Buddhism and the Western liberal tradition, this essay criticizes established Buddhism’s restrictions on the involvement of women and develops a Buddhist feminist agenda appropriate to our own age and culture.
May 1, 1983
Altered States of Consciousness and Social Structure: Glossolalia in the Pentecostal Church
Introduction
Chapter One: Subject and Research Methodology
Chapter Two: ASCs and Personality
Chapter Three: Self in Community
Chapter Four: Liminal, Thinkable and Legitimate
Chapter Five: Power in Community
Chapter Six: Social Structure and Change
Conclusions
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
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.
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Contact: Executive Director, Dr. James J. Hughes,
Williams 229B, Trinity College, 300 Summit St., Hartford CT
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Email: director @ ieet.org phone:
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