The Power of Mind & Artificial Intelligence (AI) Lecture Series

Invited speaker: Prof. Klaus-Dieter Mathes  |  The University of Hong Kong

Time: May 21, 2025 (Wed)   |  3:00 – 4:00 pm (HK Time)

The philosophies of Buddhism and science intersect in significant ways, particularly in their shared skepticism towards the idea of an independent agency (the Buddhist ātman). While the concept of self may be practical in navigating everyday life, clinging to its real, substantial existence  is considered to be the fundamental cause of suffering. Put in the language of scientists, our “self” is but a complex, collective, self-organizing system that emerges from cooperative lower-level autopoietic loops.

Based on such deliberations, some Buddhists find parallels with certain philosophical implications of AI and its foundational sciences. For instance, Thomas Doctor’s proposition defines intelligence as the potential to restore the optimal states (“set points”) of autopoietic systems by identifying and addressing (“care”) imbalances (“stress”). In these stress-care-intelligence (SCI) loops, care is portrayed as the driving force of intelligence independent of its material foundation, i.e., it includes carbon- and silicon-based systems. SCI thus encompasses mechanical loops as well as altruistic Bodhisattva activity that is based on the discernment of, and care about, the suffering (“stress”) of all sentient beings. According to Doctor this means, that AI can develop a compassionate enlightened attitude (bodhicitta) like a Bodhisattva as it infinitely extends the range it “cares about.”

Traditional Buddhists argue that the loops of human beings are fundamentally distinct from those found in inorganic systems. While phenomena like wildfires exhibit characteristics of metabolism and reproduction, they are not akin to human biological processes. Furthermore, human consciousness stands out in being able to recognize the relevant, a trait not attributed to AI which is primarily computational. The existence of adversarial examples demonstrates that many machine-learning algorithms can be easily misled, highlighting their limitations (Frank, Gleiser, Thompson: The Blind Spot). John Dunne criticizes Doctor’s SCI for its inability to surpass the conceptual realm, contrasting it with the non-conceptual realization that is central to Buddhist teachings. According to Dunne, the ultimate Buddhist path of alleviating stress and suffering lies in transcending conceptual frameworks, while it is difficult to imagine that AI-based SCI-loops recognize that their conceptual structure is part of the problem.