Tuesday, March 25

7:00-8:30pm

Hybrid | $25

With AI accelerating by the hour, we already have many AI buddhas multiplying on the internet.  Is it possible that the next buddha, Meitreya (who already "has" an AI "incarnation") will be an AI?  And, beyond that, which at this pace could be next week, are we approaching the Singularity, an AI-produced intellectual and emotional superintelligence made popular by Ray Kurzweil, former Google's Chief Engineer, which could be heaven or nirvana?  And that raises the question, if superintelligence can be attained, what if we already are a product of it; are we a version of a computer simulation?  And if so, what would that mean for us?  When Buddha said that all this is "like illusion," was he describing the Simulation?

We'll dive in, discuss all this, and meditate on it, as is done in Professor Kittay's courses at Columbia, including Technology Religion Future, Reincarnation & Technology, and Interpreting Buddhist Yoga: Hermeneutics East, West, and Quantum.