From nv91-asa@nada.kth.se Sun Jul 13 21:37:52 1995 Status: RO X-Status: Received: from europe.std.com (root@europe.std.com [192.74.137.10]) by mail.nada.kth.se (8.6.10/8.6.10) with ESMTP id VAA11371 for ; Thu, 13 Jul 1995 21:37:25 +0200 Received: from world.std.com by europe.std.com (8.6.12/Spike-8-1.0) id PAA13717; Thu, 13 Jul 1995 15:28:16 -0400 Received: by world.std.com (5.65c/Spike-2.0) id AA12093; Thu, 13 Jul 1995 15:28:15 -0400 Received: from accu (accu.accugraph.com) by world.std.com (5.65c/Spike-2.0) id AA12031; Thu, 13 Jul 1995 15:28:11 -0400 Received: from huey.accugraph.com by accu (5.x/SMI-SVR4) id AA05107; Thu, 13 Jul 1995 13:27:27 -0600 Message-Id: <9507131927.AA05107@accu> Received: by huey.accugraph.com (1.38.193.3/16.2) id AA04389; Thu, 13 Jul 95 13:28:16 -0600 From: Michael LaTorra Subject: Buddhism, AI & Uploading To: omega-point-theory@world.std.com Date: Thu, 13 Jul 95 13:28:16 MDT Cc: sarfatti@ix.netcom.com Mailer: Elm [revision: 70.85] Sender: omega-point-theory-approval@world.std.com Precedence: bulk Reply-To: omega-point-theory@world.std.com Quoted from the book _GENTLE BRIDGES: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on the Sciences of Mind_ by Jeremy Hayward and Francisco Varela [Shambala, 1992] pp. 152-153: DALAI LAMA: In terms of the actual substance of which computers are made, are they simply metal, plastic, circuits, and so forth? VARELA: Yes, but this again brings up the idea of the pattern, not the substance but the pattern. DALAI LAMA: It is very difficult to say that it's not a living being, that it doesn't have cognition, even from the Buddhist point of view. We maintain that there are certain types of births in which a preceding continuum of consciousness is the basis. The consciousness doesn't actually arise from the matter, but a continuum of consciousness might conceivably come into it. HAYWARD: Does Your Holiness regard it as a definite criterion that there must be continuity with some prior consciousness? That whenever there is a cognition, there must have been a stream of cognition going back to beginningless time? DALAI LAMA: There is no possibility for a new cognition, which has no relationship to a previous continuum, to arise at all. I can't totally rule out the possibility that, if all the external conditions and the karmic action were there, a stream of consciousness might actually enter into a computer. HAYWARD: A stream of consciousness? DALAI LAMA: Yes, that's right. [DALAI LAMA laughs.] There is a possibility that a scientist who is very much involved his whole life [with computers], then the next life . . . [he would be reborn in a computer], same process! [laughter] Then this machine which is half-human and half-machine has been reincarnated. VARELA: You wouldn't rule it out then? You wouldn't say this is impossible? DALAI LAMA: We can't rule it out. ROSCH: So if there's a great yogi who is dying and he is standing in front of the best computer there is, could he project his subtle consciousness into the computer? DALAI LAMA: If the physical basis of the computer acquires the potential or the ability to serve as a basis for a continuum of consciousness. I feel this question about computers will be resolved only by time. We just have to wait and see until it actually happens. ....................................................................... This body is almost finished -- standby to upload! Live long & prosper, Michael LaTorra mikel@huey.accugraph.com You are here ^ | - _/-\_.........v..............................................._( )_ ALPHA OMEGA