Dharma Wheel

If the current state of a person's mind was uploaded to a suitable machine then we should really say it was copied to the machine. The trouble is, this is mixing up a metaphor with reality. 'Mistaking the finger for the moon' on an epic scale. Consider the question from the perspective of abhidharm...

The ‘hard problem of consciousness’ is not a barrier to overcome or something which will one day be solved. If you think it’s just a matter of time, of having better technology, then you’re not seeing the nature of the problem. It’s a problem because objective analysis has limitations by virtue of i...

It seems a stunt to me. Maybe it would be a real news item if shooting broke out.

we don't know enough to rule out the possibility of fully sentient AI. The other point is, I've put forward an argument for why beings can't be 'uploaded', which I don't think you've actually tackled. It's a matter of principle - it's that we don't know what 'being' or 'mind' actually is , and so t...

Interesting thoughts but I think there’s something larger at stake, although plainly I haven’t been able to articulate it. Suffice to note The Atlantic’s review says Do people have the capacity to conceive of an online utopia, given the frailty of human nature and the imperfectability of the real wo...

Point being is can consciousness be quantized into information and uploaded? You have to be able to objectify something before you can quantify it. You can't do with that consciousness, as it's not an object. Yes, you can model it, but then you're basically back with animated characters and cogniti...

So there's no real difference between cartoon characters and sentient beings, then? Is Donald Duck worthy of compassion?

Your present no evidence for your "assertion ... that being has an attribute or characteristic that can't be captured or represented by binary information systems," and I can't see how you could possibly have any evidence to support it without, as I said, first solving the Hard Problem: we need to ...

Danny wrote:1000's of years later humanity is still chained to those early attempts.

Except for those liberated from saṃsāra, right? I mean, this being a Buddhist forum, there is some recognition of that, is there not? Or is Buddhism also to be consigned to religions’ failed attempts to understand life?

On one of the forums I used to post to, Online Philosophy Club, there's a thread on AI, which, when I was last there, about 4 years ago, had been running for over 8 years. I'm clearly in the naysayer's camp - i.e. that actually 'artificial intelligence' is an oxymoron, but I've long since given up b...

You're making an assertion based on no evidence at all, as you seem to be aware. I'm making an argument based on the assertion that beings cannot be digitised, that being has an attribute or characteristic that can't be captured or represented by binary information systems. To be honest, I'm astoni...

It’s interesting that there are people who think this is possible. It says something.

I am watching and quite enjoying a new Amazon TV series, Upload. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZfZj2bn_xg But, enjoyment aside, I think the basic premise of the show - that the ego/personality could be uploaded to a cloud-based computer system and enjoy a simulated existence, is forever impossible....

It should always be kept in mind that many of the Mahayana ideas developed from or against Sarvastivada doctrine. I think as a general point, the Madhyamaka in particular is a dialectic. There's a very elusive point about dialectical philosophy, which is that it's not positing that 'X is the case' ...

I am also very attracted to Soto Zen Buddhism, but I am not sure if their presentation of emptiness is similar to that of Yogachara. Similar, but not as scholastically elaborated. Soto is a very down-to-earth teaching - there is plenty of depth in it, but it is very much grounded in 'ordinary mind'...

Yogacara philosophy is profound and challenging to our sense of normality. You need to decide if you're ready to take on these kinds of teachings/practices. We all have to work at a level that's appropriate to our level of understanding and development.

Recall the 'simile of the raft'. In case you don't know it, you can find it here . The analogy is given of the Buddha's teaching being a raft used to cross to the other shore, that other shore being a metaphor for Nirvāṇa. But on reaching the other shore, goes the instruction, what do you do with th...

Agree. ‘Meditation’ has become a technique, something which can be bought and sold.

Here is a current scholarly book on the subject Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism, Christian Wedemeyer.

Nagarjuna (a very rough quotation, maybe even a paraphrase, doubtless someone else can be more accurate):Those who believe that things are real are stupid like cows. Those who believe they are unreal are even more stupid. I like that. But I wonder how that squares with Chandrakirti’s “things do not...