2024 Buddhism, Consciousness & AI
-5th Woodenfish Forum on Buddhism, Science and Future
Date: June 21, 22, 23
Venue: Grand Hotel, Taipei, Taiwan
Click above link to register to attend in person at the Grand Hotel in Taipei, Taiwan
Registration for scholars, students, and young monastics, Deadline: 6/15
Employed scholars, enrolled graduate and undergraduate students, and young monks under 40 years old. Registration is free of charge, except for a required meal fee of 1000 NTD (includes vegetarian tea and lunch boxes. The fee is the same regardless of the number of days attended). Scholars are also welcome to make small donations.
Click above link to register to attend English live-stream online.
Click above link to register to attend Chinese live-stream online.
Agenda
<June 21 Friday 9am-12pm>
Pane 1: Buddhist Consciousness & Modern Science
This panel considers the mechanisms behind and products of mindfulness practices and its detractors
1、Paul Swanson (Emeritus Professor at Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture)
- “Meditation as Clarity, in Light of Zhiyi’s Tiantai Buddhism”
2、Eric Loucks(Director of the Mindfulness Center at Brown University)
- “Planet and People: The Power of Mindful Behavior Change”
3、Bernard Faure (Emeritus Professor at Columbia University)
- “Towards a One-dimensional Buddhism? Mindfulness, Neuroscience, and Naturalism”
4、Lee, Si-chen (Former President of National Taiwan University)- “The Discovery of Internet Universe by Finger Reading Experiments and Its Implication to Consciousness”
5、Yit, Kin-Tung (Professor at National Sun Yat-Sen University)
<June 21 Friday 1:30-5pm>
Panel 2: AI and Buddhist Ethics
This panel discusses the ethical implications of technological developments from Buddhist philosophical perspectives.
1、Evan Thompson (Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia)
- “Enactive Intuition and the Blind Spot of AI”
2、Thomas Doctor (Executive Director of the Ranjung Yeshe Institute)
- “Building Bodhisattvas: Towards a Model of Powerful, Reliable, and Caring Intelligence”
3、Peter Hershock (Director of Asian Studies at the East-West Center)
- “Consciousness Extended Digitally: An Evolutionary Leap or Karmic Digression?”
4、Soraj Hongladarom (Professor at Chulalongkorn University)
- “What is the Overall Goal of AI Ethics?”
~~Youth Participations~~
<June 22 Saturday 9am-12pm>
Panel 3: AI and Buddhist Metaphysics
This panel thinks about the possibilities and limitations of AI from Buddhist philosophical understandings of intelligence, karma, and consciousness.
1、Christian Coseru (Professor of Philosophy at College of Charleston)
- “Engineering Enlightenment?Artificial Minds and the Problems and Perils of Synthetic Phenomenology”
2、Robert Sharf (Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of California, Berkeley)
- “Can AI Meditate? (And Why It Matters)”
3、Georg Northoff (Professor of Medicine at the University of Ottawa)
- “Meditation and the Self: Why AI Cannot (Yet) Show Non-dual Awareness”
4、Gereon Kopf (Professor at Luther College)
- “AI, Sentience, and Buddha's Mind: A Fourth-Person Approach”
5、Cheng, Kaiyuan (Professor at the Institute of Philosophy of Mind and Cognition, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University)
- “The Body and the Brain in a Selfless Mindfulness practice of the Zhuangzi”
<June 22 Saturday 1:30-5pm>
Panel 4: Application of AI and Buddhism
This panel explores AI application in Buddhist spaces and Buddhist application in AI spaces.
1、Caroline Ting (Director of International Relations at Logica Universalis Association)
“AI Applications in Understanding Visual Representations of Paradise: A Comparative Study on Buddhist and Other Religious Artistic Interpretations and Their Diffusion Models“
2、Bill Duane (Principal at Bill Duane and Associates)
- “Buddha and the Corporation in an AI world”
3、Venerable Jiryu Rutschman-Byler (Co-Abbot of San Francisco Zen Center)
- “Roshibot: A Case Study of AI in American Zen Buddhism”
4、Kumagai, Seiji (Professor at the Institute for the Future of Human Society at Kyoto University) and Furuya, Toshikazu (CEO of Teraverse, Co.)
- “Report on Development of Buddhist Cyber-Physical System: BuddhaBot and Tera-verse” (online)
~~Taiwan Temple AI Projects Demo~~
<June 23 Sunday 9am-12pm>
Panel 5: AI and The Future of Buddhism
This panel weighs the possibilities of using AI toward Buddhist goals/ discusses positive relationships between AI and humans moving forward
1、Jundo Cohen (Author of Building the future Buddha)
-“BUILDING the FUTURE BUDDHA: Calling All 'White Hat' Researchers”
2、Olaf Witkowski (Founding Director at Cross Labs)
- “Interwoven Futures: Harmonizing Biological and Technological Minds”
3、Jeanne Lim (Co-founder and CEO of beingAI)
- “AI being: Co-Pilot in the Quest for Wisdom and Enlightenment”
4、Pat Pataranutaporn (Program Developer of Media Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
- “From Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Intelligence Augmentation (IA): Cyborg Buddhism and the Quest for Enlightenment
Fifth Woodenfish Forum: "Buddhism, Science, and the Future"
Background:
The American Woodenfish Foundation, a United Nations NGO, previously explored topics such as Buddhism and robotics, neuroscience, life sciences, and the era of AI in Shanghai (2017), Shenzhen (2018), and Seattle and Shenzhen (2019). This year's theme delves deeper into Buddhist consciousness and modern science, the ethics of AI in Buddhism, the metaphysics of AI and Buddhism, applications of AI in Buddhism, and the future of AI and Buddhism.
Participant Benefits:
1. Learning and exchanging ideas with top scholars from Harvard, Berkeley, MIT, and other world-renowned institutions.
2. Receiving a "Buddhist Consciousness and AI" study certificate from the American Woodenfish Foundation, a UN NGO.
3. Becoming a member of the Global Buddhist AI Alliance (participate in future Buddhist AI summits at Harvard, MIT, and other locations worldwide over the next 5 years).
Admission Fees (Includes two lunches, five refreshments, and translation headphone rental):
- Taiwan: 25,000 TWD
- Mainland China: 5,800 RMB
- United States:800 USD
*(Scholars and students may present ID for special rates.)*
Payment method: https://www.woodenfish.org/donate
Registration Procedure:
1. Fill out the registration form.
2. Receive payment instructions.
3. After payment, inform the organizers of your registration number to receive your participant badge at the venue.
4. For any questions, contact via email.
**Woodenfish AI Summit Organizing Office**
Email: wfusa@woodenfish.org