Spiritual Computing Craig Warren Smith cwsmith@hitl.washington.edu cwsmith@hitl.washington.edu...

Spiritual Computing

Craig Warren Smith cwsmith@hitl.washington.edu

Chulalongkorn University November 2 2007

What is Spiritual Computing?

• What is “spiritual?”• Spirituality and religion• Why SC is emerging now? • Why does SC matter? • Examples• Methods • Where• Connections to philosophy

My Talk

Why Now?

Spiritual Computing is possible now due to– Changes in technology:• “UX” as competitive factor • Emergence of HCI

– Changes in spirituality: • Buddhism’s new role• Secularization of spirituality in advanced

markets• Post-modern “kick-back” in Asia

What is “Spiritual?”

Spirituality, in this case, refers to:

“a learning process through which, over time, one gains the ability to enhance the meaningfulness of one’s own experience.”

This process has four phases: 1. Stop/start

2. Renunciation/letting go

3. Purification/clarification

4. Transformative action

What does spirituality have to do with religion?

• Spirituality constitutes the experiential core of religions as well as secular philosophic traditions.

• Religions claim to transmit the spiritual innovations of their founders.

• Over time, religious authorities are frequently disrupted by reformers offering new ways to transmit these innovations.

What is Spiritual Computing?

“the ideas, methods, and practice needed to bring ‘spirituality’ into the design of next-generation technologies.”

Examples?

Educational

Health care

Computer Search

Home design

Biofeedback for stress reduction (Intel)

Serious Games

(Wild Divine)

Meaningful search(Google)

Sacred space inhomes (Microsoft)

Methods?

• Humanistic critique of AI

• Weiser’s response: center/periphery

• Varela’s innovations: – Seeing phenomenology with Buddhist eyes

• Innovation in scientific method– First, second and third person science– From neuroscience to tech labs

The Geopolitics of SC

• The World Tour

• USA: Cambridge, SF, Seattle

• India: Gandhi in the tech sector

• Thailand: Towards an ecoystem of

“happiness technologies”

What SC could mean to philosophy

• Bringing the tech sector “kicking and screaming” to first principles?

• New practical application for philosophy?

• Catalyst for Western/Asian philosophic convergence?

How you can help

• Join the global web community (spiritualcomputing.com)

• Keep abreast of developments in Thailand– Center for Ethics of Science and Technology

• Give us your best thinking