AI as a Buddhist Self-Overcoming Technique in Another Medium

Buddhist soteriology presents a discovery of a paradox at the very heart of the “human condition”. To reach awakening, one has to relinquish central tenets of what makes us human (in conventional understanding), such as mind and self, meaning that the process of awakening is necessarily at the same...

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Main Author: Primož Krašovec
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-05-01
Series:Religions
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/16/6/669
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author Primož Krašovec
author_facet Primož Krašovec
author_sort Primož Krašovec
collection DOAJ
description Buddhist soteriology presents a discovery of a paradox at the very heart of the “human condition”. To reach awakening, one has to relinquish central tenets of what makes us human (in conventional understanding), such as mind and self, meaning that the process of awakening is necessarily at the same time also a process of self-overcoming that shatters everything ordinarily understood as human and leaves it behind. In this sense, various strands of Buddhism come close to some contemporary neuroscience’s deconstruction of the self and its counterintuitive insights about the mind and intelligence. The main thesis of the present essay is that Buddhism exposes the limits of human intelligence and why it is so ill fitted to becoming awakened, especially when compared to machine intelligence. Unburdened by the organic substrate and the resulting desire and attachment, artificial intelligence (AI) might be a solution to an ancient Buddhist paradox of how the human can be overcome by human means.
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spelling doaj-art-77d1014f39ef4d77a24bec55c72e8f642025-08-20T02:21:57ZengMDPI AGReligions2077-14442025-05-0116666910.3390/rel16060669AI as a Buddhist Self-Overcoming Technique in Another MediumPrimož Krašovec0Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Aškerčeva 2, 1000 Ljubljana, SloveniaBuddhist soteriology presents a discovery of a paradox at the very heart of the “human condition”. To reach awakening, one has to relinquish central tenets of what makes us human (in conventional understanding), such as mind and self, meaning that the process of awakening is necessarily at the same time also a process of self-overcoming that shatters everything ordinarily understood as human and leaves it behind. In this sense, various strands of Buddhism come close to some contemporary neuroscience’s deconstruction of the self and its counterintuitive insights about the mind and intelligence. The main thesis of the present essay is that Buddhism exposes the limits of human intelligence and why it is so ill fitted to becoming awakened, especially when compared to machine intelligence. Unburdened by the organic substrate and the resulting desire and attachment, artificial intelligence (AI) might be a solution to an ancient Buddhist paradox of how the human can be overcome by human means.https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/16/6/669Buddhismemptinessselfmindovercominglife
spellingShingle Primož Krašovec
AI as a Buddhist Self-Overcoming Technique in Another Medium
Religions
Buddhism
emptiness
self
mind
overcoming
life
title AI as a Buddhist Self-Overcoming Technique in Another Medium
title_full AI as a Buddhist Self-Overcoming Technique in Another Medium
title_fullStr AI as a Buddhist Self-Overcoming Technique in Another Medium
title_full_unstemmed AI as a Buddhist Self-Overcoming Technique in Another Medium
title_short AI as a Buddhist Self-Overcoming Technique in Another Medium
title_sort ai as a buddhist self overcoming technique in another medium
topic Buddhism
emptiness
self
mind
overcoming
life
url https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/16/6/669
work_keys_str_mv AT primozkrasovec aiasabuddhistselfovercomingtechniqueinanothermedium