Cyborg Buddha Blog
Created and produced by George Ortega, THE HAPPINESS SHOW premiered May 1st. 2003, on White Plains, New York Cable Channel 76. It has also been cablecast in San Francisco, and is now seen each week on cable television stations in Herkimer County, N.Y. and Fairfield County, C.T. All 140 episodes presented in MPEG format are available for free personal, public access, and commercial TV presentation and distribution anywhere in the world. Just download them, convert them to whatever format you like, and cablecast or present them to anyone you’d like, anywhere you’d like.
DOWNLOAD/LISTEN/VIEWMar 23, 2007
A neural substrate for moral decisions
by Moheb CostandiAn advance online publication in Nature shows that damage to a specific region of the frontal lobe alters people’s ability to make moral judgments.
Mar 22, 2007
How caffeine works
by Marshall BrainIf you are an adult in the United States, chances are that you have taken some caffeine today.
Mar 19, 2007
Managing your 50,000 daily thoughts
by George DvorskyA number of years ago the NSF estimated that our brains produce as many as 12,000 to 50,000 thoughts per day depending on how ‘deep’ a thinker you are (other estimates run as high as 60,000/day).
Mar 17, 2007
The Biology of Consciousness and Morality
On Point with Tom AshbrookTom Ashbrook talks with husband and wife philosophers Pat and Paul Churchland, professors at the University of California at San Diego, about neurophilosophy. They argue there is no independent “mind”, just the human brain. Consciousness itself, they say, is straight biology, a machine. MP3
Mar 10, 2007
Buddhism and Trans-Spirituality
Changesurfer RadioMike LaTorra is President of the Daibutsuji Zen Temple and a Director of the IEET and the World Transhumanist Association. He speaks with Dr. J. about neurotheology, chemical Zen, and the future of religion.
Mar 9, 2007
Buddhist Bioethics
by J. HughesDescribing anything as ‘Buddhist’, including in this case a distinctively Buddhist bioethics, is fundamentally problematic from both a historic and Buddhist point of view. Historically, the Buddhist tradition has evolved in dozens of countries for 2500 years, with no one tradition having clear doctrinal authority over the others. Internally, even if a common Buddhist ethics was implicit in the practices of the dozens of Buddhist cultures or the exegetics of their traditions, the core philosophical insight of Buddhism is that all things are empty of essential, authentic being, including the Buddhist tradition. So, starting from the understanding that there is no authentic Buddhist bioethics to explicate, and only a constellation of practices and ideas related to
medicine and the body among Buddhists throughout history, which may or may not be tied to core ideas of the Buddhist tradition, we can interrogate the tradition for the lessons it may hold for contemporary bioethics.
Mar 6, 2007
Christology and the Human Body
by J. HughesOn March 5th I was invited to discuss transhumanism with Dr. Brent Waters of Garrett Theological Seminary and the students and faculty of the East Texas Baptist University. I’d like to thank the very kind hospitality of ETBU. These are an edited version of the short prepared remarks from that morning (view video here) in which Dr. Waters and I were asked to address whether it was important to have a body to be human.
Feb 6, 2007
Zack Lynch on the Coming Neurosociety
Terasem MovementVideo of Zack Lynch’s 30 minute talk “Perception Shifting in a Neurosociety - Ethical and Societal Implications” given at a conference on the Geoethical Implications of Neuronanotechnology hosted by the Terasem Movement at Martine Rothblatt‘s Vermont retreat. The slides for the talk can be downloaded here.
Jan 31, 2007
Dvorsky’s Sentient Developments Nominated as a Top Buddhist Blog
The Sentient Developments blog of IEET’s George Dvorsky has been nominated for several Blogisattva awards, honoring “excellence in English-language Buddhist blogging during calendar year 2006.” There are 115 nominees in 21 categories. Sentient Developments is up for 4 awards including Best Blog of the Year.
Other awards that SentDev is up for include Best Achievement in Skilled Writing, Best Achievement Blogging on Matters Philosophical or Scientific, Best Achievement in Wonderful, Remarkable, Elegant Design.
The winners will be announced on February 15, 2007.
IEET Blog