Episode 43: Neuroscience and The Enlightenment Machine Posted October
29, 2007
In this episode we spoke with neuroscientist and Buddhist meditator
Daniel Rizzuto. Vince and he discussed a number of topics including
the link between contemplative and scientific methodologies, some of
the potential technologies that could emerge for the neuroscientific
research, including Daniel's favorite, an empathic training device.
Daniel also shared some of the meditation research he was aware of,
including Dr. Sara Lazar's research out of harvard where she found
that meditation actually affected the structural basis of the brain
(check out the study here) as well as some of the recent meditation
research that was conducted using EEG devices.
We then discussed the possibility of constructing a neural map that
describes a practitioners evolution, and the potential that such a
map could be used to help create a device—a so called "enlightenment
machine"—that could actually accelerate that process. The question
soon emerged, how might this machine impact one's ethical
understanding? Can someone actually go through the process without a
revolution in their ethical understanding? The Buddhist tradition
often describes the inseparability of insight and ethical
understanding or the unity of Emptiness and Compassion. Daniel
proposed that a sub-field of neuroscience, neuroethics is an attempt
at understanding the neural correlates of one's ethical choices, such
that this information could be built into a device even if it weren't
a by-product of the process of spiritual maturation.
This dialogue is a distillation of a longer conversation that
originally aired on The Techsattva. To find out more, visit
www.techsattva.com , and to find out more about Daniel visit his
personal blog, Evolutionary Mind.
