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.
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.
What are we finding about the effects of meditation on the brain? Can software save us from digital distractions? Are psychdelics helpful on the road to Enlightenment? Is our innate empathic response to others’ pain suppressed by racism, classism and capitalist hyperindividualism? MP3
Could it be that there is no intelligence without a body? That there’s only computation? That cognition is the byproduct of biological processes, and never the driver of them?
In his recent contribution to The Huffington Post, Sam Harris offers a detailed defence of his proposal for a science of morality, writing in the aftermath of reactions to his TED talk back in March. A great deal of his defence concentrates on answering the latest criticisms from Sean Carroll.
As part of the spring 2010 Take Your Brain to Lunch Lecture Series, Martha Farah, Annenberg Professor of Natural Sciences in the Department of Psychology and Director of Penn’s new Center for Neuroscience and Society, led conversations with Penn faculty members about the brain. In this video, Susan Schneider, Fellow of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies and Assistant Professor of Philosophy, discusses Future Brains: How Might Our Great-Great-Grandchildren Think (and Will They Still Be Human?).
(Hattip to io9) Paul Zak has shown that oxytocin supplementation can enhance interpersonal trust and trust in institutions. Social stressors may suppress oxytocin and trust, and lead to bad social outcomes. Read Zak’s Moral Molecule blog at Psychology Today.
Patterns are relationships of a particular sort: a relationship between one entity and a set of others, where the first is judged to represent and simplify the others.
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