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ABSTRACT
Can an inorganic substrate such as an artificially intelligent android achieve Nirvana? Born free of the mortal coil and its toils, what is there for such an entity to awaken from, and to what end? Pak Sŏng-hwan's “Readymade Bodhisattva” (2004) interrogates this question and destabilizes the last bastion of existential aura our kind still holds dear to heart: spirituality. Reading the enlightened robot as an inverted image of the human subject, this essay explores a way out of anthropocentric ontology. I claim that the interactions between various parties of disparate ontological and social strata in the story show that the uncanny alterity of our own simulations is none other than our mirror images and suggest that what we deem to be the essence of our being may in fact be irreconcilably alien to who we are. Enlightenment, in this light, is the self-contradictory knowledge that admits to its own impossibility.
Notes on contributor
Haerin Shin is an assistant professor of English, Cinema and Media Arts, and Asian Studies at Vanderbilt University. Her focus fields are Asian American literature, issues of technology and ontology, critical theory, and visual/digital media.
Notes
1. All the quotes are in my translation. The title of the story in Korean, however, is a phonetic transcription of “Readymade Bodhisattva” (Redi meidŭ posal) and is therefore cited in English instead of being Romanized.
2. Ultimate deliverance from both one's mental but also physical tethers to the world (Enlightenment is its prior step).
3. Buddhist philosophy denies the existence of any immaterial and transcendental spirit, but here I use the term spirituality to broadly mean subjective experience or desire that concerns states or beings that extend beyond empirical reality, often, but not always, associated with religion. For a detailed etymology of the term, see Saucier and Skrzypińska 1257–58.
4. For more on Enlightenment, see King 83–97 and Abe 63–72.
5. See Metz.
6. “Substance [existence] is not unlike emptiness [illusion] and emptiness is not unlike substance; as substance is emptiness and emptiness is substance, sense, thought, action, and consciousness are all likewise, and all emptiness is substance (my translation)” (“Panya para milta simgyŏng” [色不異空 空不異色 色卽是空 空卽是色受想行識 亦復如是], Heart Sutra). I chose to translate the excerpt myself instead of resorting to existing English versions to emphasize that ‘空’ should be understood as illusion, although the character itself could mean emptiness or void. The kind of emptiness referred to here is distinct from nothingness; instead, it means that which appears to be in a certain way but in fact is not and does not exist.
7. I use the term “substrate” in reference to Nick Bostrom's idea of substrate independence, which he explains as follows: “[M]ental states can supervene on any of a broad class of physical substrates [the material through which a function or process occurs]. Provided a system implements the right sort of computational structures and processes, it can be associated with conscious experiences” (“Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?” 244).
8. The Mahāyāna tradition in Buddhism, in contrast to Hinayana, places “a radical emphasis upon total altruism and fullest Awakening, embodied in the Bodhisattva Path, and full and perfect Buddha-hood attained for the sake of alleviating the suffering of all beings” (Skilton 93). “Maha” refers to “great,” and “hina” is associated with “lesser or inferior”; “yana” indicates “path” or “vehicle.” For more on the history, philosophical foci, and current state of Korean Buddhism, see Korean Buddhism and Park.
The Huayan school of thought is a strain of Buddhist philosophy within the Mahāyāna tradition. The temple in “Readymade Bodhisattva” belongs to the Huayan denomination. Its teachings, in particular the four ways to view reality, direct the path to becoming and being Bodhisattva: “1. All dharmas [cosmic order in line with Buddha's teaching] are seen as particular separate events; 2. All events are an expression of the absolute; 3. Events and essence interpenetrate; 4. All events interpenetrate” (Garfield and Edelglass 76).
Prajñā-Paramitā sutras refer to “a collection of about forty texts […] composed in India between approximately 100 BC and AD 600” (Conze 131) that constitutes a body of early Mahāyāna sūtras. Prajñā-Paramitā sutras are key to understanding the path to and idea of the Bodhisattva, as shown in the latter part of this essay.
9. See “2004” and “Redi Meidŭ Posal..”
10. A recent development, interestingly, challenges the stereotype of religion being at odds with science and technology. See Sherwood for a feature story about a Chinese temple using robots to spread Buddhist teachings.
11. See Searle 417–57.
12. See Turing 433–60 for details about the Imitation Game.
13. See Mill.
14. See Hart 265–67 and Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy.
15. For more on the Buddha nature, see King 99–115.
16. See Bedau.
17. For more on singularity, see Vinge; Kurzweil; and Bostrom, Superintelligence.
18. Huayan (Flower Garland) School of Buddhism.