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Bad Buddhists, Good Robots: Techno-Salvationist Designs for Nirvana

Authors: Gould, Hannah; Walters, Holly;

Bad Buddhists, Good Robots: Techno-Salvationist Designs for Nirvana

Abstract

When Buddhism fails to live up to the projected promise of its doctrine or past forms, it is often the human nature of its adherents ("Bad Buddhists"), rather than the content of its teachings ("Bad Buddhism"), that is blamed. But what if such human failings—greed, corruption, violence, even mortality—could be transcended? In the quest for a "good Buddhism," high-tech designs that utilise robotics, artificial intelligence, algorithmic agency, and other advancements are increasingly pursued as solutions by innovators inside and outside Buddhist communities. In this paper, we interrogate two recent cases of what we call "Buddhist techno-salvationism." Firstly, Pepper, the semi-humanoid robot who performs funeral sutras to a rapidly secularising and aging population of parishioners in Japan. Secondly, the Lotos Network, a US start-up proposing to use blockchain technology to combat financial corruption within global sangha. We argue that such robotic and digital experiments are the logical outcome of techno-salvationist discourses that identify human failings as the principal barrier to perfect Buddhist praxis. If not always practical solutions, these interventions are powerful nonetheless as contested projections of Buddhist futures.

Country
Switzerland
Related Organizations
Keywords

robotics, Philosophy. Psychology. Religion, B, orthopraxy, Buddhism, digital religion, techno-salvationism

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selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
views
OpenAIRE UsageCountsViews provided by UsageCounts
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2
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113
68
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Published in a Diamond OA journal