Dr. James Hughes On Moral Enhancement Through Neurotech & Uploading The Mind To Computers
What If Artificial Intelligence Was Enlightened? Deep Breath #1
5 Steps to Achieve Enlightenment — All Supported by Science
Cyborg Buddha – IEET’s James Hughes on Transhuman Enlightenment and Basic Income
Posthuman Rights: Dimensions of Transhuman Worlds
Moral Bioenhancement: Thinking Synergistically - interview with Harris Wiseman
Everything You Know About Artificial Intelligence is Wrong
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
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.
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
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

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.
Dr. James Hughes On Moral Enhancement Through Neurotech & Uploading The Mind To Computers
Warrior Radio
One of IEET’s projects is Cyborg Buddha, which explores the role neurotechnology will have on spirituality, happiness, and alternate states of mind. In this interview, Warrior pick Dr. Hughes’ brain on how technology can be used to engineer virtue – something all religions throughout time have stressed is the key to a good life. They also get into technology allowing us to upload our minds computers, a possibility available sooner than most realize.
[Listen Here]
What If Artificial Intelligence Was Enlightened? Deep Breath #1
Future Thinkers
There are many dystopian theories about Artificial Intelligence taking over the world, as many cultural narratives portray - from Terminator and The Matrix.
5 Steps to Achieve Enlightenment — All Supported by Science
Big Think
Andrew Newberg, director of research at Jefferson Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine, explains the five steps along the path to enlightenment.
Cyborg Buddha – IEET’s James Hughes on Transhuman Enlightenment and Basic Income
Future Thinkers Podcast
In the Cyborg Buddha book, IEET Executive Director James Hughes borrows from his personal experience of studying Buddhism for several decades, briefly being a buddhist monk, and later living as a secular buddhist in USA. James attempts to distil key human virtues, and argues for the possibility of human moral enhancement in the future.
Listen to the podcast HERE
Posthuman Rights: Dimensions of Transhuman Worlds
Teknokultura
Woody Evans has published an article on Posthuman rights in the Spanish journal, Teknokultura. Below is the abstract of the paper. You can click on the journal title to find the full article online.
Moral Bioenhancement: Thinking Synergistically - interview with Harris Wiseman
by
Hank Pellissier
Harris Wiseman gained his PhD from the University of Cambridge, and is author of the book The Myth of the Moral Brain – The Limits of Moral Enhancement, published by MIT Press.
I emailed him the interview questions below:
Everything You Know About Artificial Intelligence is Wrong
by
George Dvorsky
It was hailed as the most significant test of machine intelligence since Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov in chess nearly 20 years ago. Google’s AlphaGo has won two of the first three games against grandmaster Lee Sedol in a Go tournament, showing the dramatic extent to which AI has improved over the years. That fateful day when machines finally become smarter than humans has never appeared closer—yet we seem no closer in grasping the implications of this epochal event.
Exploring Transhumanism
Share a Slice with Sean
IEET Advisory Board Member Nicole Sallak Anderson is interviewed on Transhumanism, by Sean McGuire in Montreal, Canada
Buddhism’s Teaching on the Five Elements: An Answer to Creating Friendly AGI?
by
Gareth John
To start, I need to be specific about what Buddhism means in this context.
I suggest there is no such thing as ‘Buddhism’, but rather ‘Buddhisms’. There is little in common with Buddhism as taught in the Theravada (the earliest Buddhist teachings as based on those of Siddhartha Gautama - ‘the Buddha’), Zen, or the Tibetan tantric traditions. Although they all maintain the base of their teachings on the realisation of the Buddha, the methods they employ vary widely.
Summary of Marshall Brain’s, “The Day You Discard Our Bodies”
by
John G. Messerly
Marshall Brain (1961 – ) is an author, public speaker, and entrepreneur. He earned an MS in computer science from North Carolina State University where he taught for many years, and is the founder of the website HowStuffWorks, which was sold in 2007 to Discovery Communications for $250,000,000.