Category: Uncategorized

การประชุมเสวนา
“การเพิ่มขีดความสามารถของมนุษย์กับพระพุทธศาสนา”
(Human Enhancement and Buddhism)

วันศุกร์ที่ ๔ กรกฎาคม พ.ศ. ๒๕๕๑ เวลา ๑๓.๐๐ – ๑๕.๓๐ น.
ห้อง ๗๐๘ อาคารบรมราชกุมารี จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย

จัดโดยภาควิชาปรัชญาและศูนย์จริยธรรมวิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี คณะอักษรศาสตร์ จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย

ในปัจจุบันการใช้เทคโนโลยีเพื่อเพิ่มขีดความสามารถของมนุษย์ได้มีการพัฒนาขึ้นอย่างกว้างขวาง การเพิ่มขีดความสามารถของมนุษย์นี้หมายถึงการทำให้ความสามารถด้านต่างๆของมนุษย์มีมากขึ้น ซึ่งที่มีใช้กันแพร่หลายก็มีเช่น การใช้ยาเพื่อเพิ่มพลังของนักกีฬา นอกจากนี้ ก็ยังการทำให้ร่างกายของมนุษย์สวยงามขึ้น ซึ่งก็รวมอยู่ในเรื่องการเพิ่มความสามารถของมนุษย์นี้ด้วย การทำให้ร่างกายสวยงามขึ้นด้วยการใช้เทคโนโลยี ก็มีเช่น การผ่าตัดทางศัลยกรรมตกแต่ง การใช้ยาเพื่อทำให้ร่างกายมีกล้ามเนื้อสมบูรณ์ขึ้น เป็นต้น อย่างไรก็ตาม เทคโนโลยีในขณะนี้สามารถทำให้ความสามารถของมนุษย์เพิ่มขึ้นมากไปกว่าที่เป็นอยู่ เช่นการผ่าตัดศัลยกรรมหรือการใช้ยาอย่างมากมาย ซึ่งการพัฒนาใหม่ๆเหล่านี้เป็นผลพวงของการพัฒนาทางด้านนาโนเทคโนโลยี ซึ่งเป็นการผลิตอุปกรณ์และเครื่องมือในระดับความกว้างความยาวของอะตอม ตัวอย่างการพัฒนาทางด้านนี้ก็มีเช่น มีการพัฒนาการเพิ่มความสามารถในการจำของมนุษย์ ด้วยการฝังชิปคอมพิวเตอร์ลงไปในร่างกาย เพื่อให้ทำงานร่วมกับสมอง เพื่อทำให้สมองสามารถจดจำข้อความและเรื่องราวต่างๆได้มากขึ้น หรือช่วยให้สมองประมวลผลข้อมูลได้อย่างมีประสิทธิภาพมากขึ้น อันจะยังผลให้ผู้ที่เป็นเจ้าของสมองนั้นสามาาถคิดได้รวดเร็วมากเท่าๆกับคอมพิวเตอร์ ยิ่งไปกว่านั้นก็มีการพัฒนาอุปกรณ์ช่วยในการมอง ที่เมื่อฝังลงไปแล้ว ก็จะช่วยให้คนตาบอดมองเห็น หรือคนหูหนวกได้ยินเสียง และก็เป็นไปได้ว่าอุปกรณ์เช่นนี้จะสามารถทำให้มองเห็นช่วงความถี่ที่คนทั่วไปมองเห็นไม่ได้ เช่นคลื่นอินฟราเรด ซึ่งจะทำให้มองเห็นในที่มืดได้ หรือทำให้ได้ยินเสียงที่สูงหรือต่ำมากเกินกว่าความสามารถของหูมนุษย์ทั่วไปได้

การเพิ่มขีดความสามารถของมนุษย์ด้วยเทคโนโลยีเช่นนี้ ทำให้เกิดปัญหาทางจริยธรรมต่างๆมากมาย เช่น การเพิ่มขีดความสามารถดังกล่าวเป็นการกระทำที่ถูกหลักจริยธรรมหรือไม่ ตัวอย่างเช่น การที่คนๆหนึ่งเพิ่มความสามารถทางร่างกายของตนเองด้วยเทคโนโลยีนี้ ซึ่งทำให้เขามีกำลังกายมากกว่าคนธรรมดาๆหลายเท่า เป็นสิ่งที่ถูกต้องหรือไม่ และก็มีปัญหาอื่นๆ เช่น หากมีการเพิ่มความสามารถเช่นนี้จริง จะทำให้เกิดมีคนสองประเภทหรือไม่ ได้แก่กลุ่มที่ได้รับการเพิ่มความสามารถและกลุ่มที่ไม่ได้เพิ่ม ปัญหาเหล่านี้ควรจะได้รับการพิจารณาอย่างละเอียดถี่ถ้วน

ยิ่งไปกว่านั้น เนื่องจากสังคมไทยเป็นสังคมพุทธเป็นส่วนใหญ่ การพิจารณาว่าพระพุทธศาสนามีทรรศนะหรือท่าทีเกี่ยวกับเรื่องนี้อย่างไรก็เป็นเรื่องสำคัญ ด้วยเหตุนี้จึงได้จัดการประชุมนี้ขึ้น ปัญหาเกี่ยวกับการเพิ่มความสามารถที่เกี่ยวกับพระพุทธศาสนาก็มีเช่น พระพุทธศาสนาจะมีทรรศนะอย่างไรเกี่ยวกับการเพิ่มขีดความสามารถของมนุษย์ที่ทำให้มนุษย์มองเห็นได้ในที่มืด หรือมีกำลังกายมากกว่าคนทั่วไป หรือมีความสามารถในการคิดและประมวลผลข้อมูลจำนวนมากอย่างรวดเร็ว เช่นเดียวกับคอมพิวเตอร์ นอกจากนี้ก็ยังมีปัญหาเกี่ยวกับพระพุทธศาสนาเอง เช่น การที่คนๆหนึ่งจะใช้เทคโนโลยีเพิ่มความสามารถเช่นนี้ เพื่อให้ตนเองปฏิบัติสมาธิได้อย่างมีประสิทธิภาพมากขึ้น จะเป็นการถูกต้องหรือไม่ หากมีการพัฒนายาแบบหนึ่ง ซึ่งทำให้การปฏิบัติสมาธิหรือเข้าฌานให้ได้ผลตามที่บัญญัติไว้ในคัมภีร์ ซึ่งตามปกติอาจจะต้องใช้เวลายาวนาน กลายเป็นการปฏิบัติที่ใช้เวลาเพียงเล็กน้อย และหากมียาที่ทำให้ผลของการปฏิบัติธรรมเกิดขึ้นได้รวดเร็วเช่นนี้ การพัฒนายากับการกินยานี้เพื่อการปฏิบัติจะเป็นการกระทำที่ถูกต้องตามหลักของพระพุทธศาสนาหรือไม่ การเพิ่มความสามารถเช่นนี้ดูเหมือนว่าจะเป็นการพัฒนา “ตาทิพย์” หรือ “หูทิพย์” ให้เป็นได้จริง การกระทำเช่นนี้ถูกต้องหรือไม่ การประชุมนี้จะพิจารณาปัญหาเหล่านี้รวมทั้งปัญหาอื่นๆ

วิทยากร
รศ. ดร. สมภาร พรมทา
รศ. ดร. โสรัจจ์ หงศ์ลดารมภ์

กำหนดการ
๑๓.๐๐ – ๑๓.๔๕ “ปัญหาทางจริยธรรมของการเพิ่มขีดความสามารถของมนุษย์”
รศ. ดร. โสรัจจ์ หงศ์ลดารมภ์
๑๓.๔๕ – ๑๔.๓๐ “ทรรศนะของพระพุทธศาสนาเกี่ยวกับการเพิ่มขีดความสามารถของมนุษย์”
รศ. ดร. สมภาร พรมทา
๑๔.๓๐ – ๑๔.๕๐ พัก (น้ำชา/กาแฟ/ของว่าง)
๑๔.๕๐ – ๑๕.๓๐ อภิปรายทั่วไป

ลงทะเบียนฟรี

The Department of Philosophy, Chulalongkorn University cordially invites the public to a colloquium on

“Learning to Philosophize the ‘Tibetan’ Way”

by

Georges B. Dreyfus

Williams College, USA

Room 708, Boromratchakumari Building, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University
March 10, 2008, 10 am to 12 noon.

The Center for Ethics of Science and Technology
cordially invites the public to a symposium on

DNA Analysis in the Context of Biobanking

Papers and presenters:

* Juergen Simon: “Recent developments in legal discourse on gene diagnostics in Germany”

* Rainer Paslack: “Genetic information, biobanks and legal regulations”

* Brigitte Jansen: “Gene diagnostic, information of storage data and DNA-banking in the context of the legal and ethical situation in India”

Wednesday, 30 January 2008 at Room 708, Boromratchakumari Building, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University, 08:00 to 12:00 hours.

The presenters are professors of law and bioethics at Lüneburg University, Germany.

For more information, please contact Dr. Soraj Hongladarom by mailing to him from this website.

A new website has been set up at http://epistemology-chula.wikispaces.com/ to facilitate exchanges of papers and discussions among teachers and students of epistemology. All discussions and topics about epistemology are welcome.

In this paper I would like to investigate the relationships between nanotechnology and Asian values. Nanotechnology has been proclaimed as a new technology that could bridge the gap between the rich and the poor countries. Areas such as drug development, agricultural production enhancement, elimination of environmental pollution, and energy management, to name but a few, are those where nanotechnology is promising to deliver solutions that could raise the standard and the quality of living in the developing world significantly.

Furthermore, many countries in Asia are fast developing their nanotechnological capabilities. Foremore among them are India and China, which are poised to become among the world leaders in the field. Countries such as Thailand and the Philippines are starting to catch up. According to Peter Singer et al. (2005), nanotechnological activities in India include product development and marketing, and in China the national infrastructure of funding for innovative nanotechnological research is very strong. Singer et al. believe that nanotechnology could be good news for the developing world, but that will not take place on its own. On the contrary, Singer et al. are proposing a global agenda whereby nanotechnology is highlighted as a kind of technology that could provide concrete changes for the better in the developing world.

However, in order for the visions of Singer and others’ can be fully realized, one needs to take into consideration the role that culture and values are playing in adoption of nanotechnological policies. In the paper I will investigate the various dimensions in which culture and values play a role. As with other powerful technologies, nanotechnology can create as many problems as solutions. The typical fear of the technology, that nanotechnology will someday produce “nanobots” or “nanogoo” which will take over the world and destroy human beings, needs to be seriously addressed and not merely dismissed as a fantasy. I will concentrate more on the Thai case, looking specifically at the Buddhist tradition in attempting to find out what Buddhism might have to say regarding the advancement of nanotechnology into the fabric of Thai culture. However, I believe what I am saying here is relevant to the other traditions in Asia too.

Reference
Singer, Peter, Fabio Salamanca-Buentello, and Abdallah S. Daar. (2005). Harnessing nanotechnology to improve global equity. Issues in Science and Technology, pp. 57-64.

The panel on “Technology and Happiness: Bridging the Digital Divide” which was part of the Third International Conference on Gross National Happiness took place on Tuesday, November 27, 2007 and was highly successful. The panelists were Purin Panichphant (in place of Craig Warren Smith), Roger Torrenti and Michel Bauwens. At first there were not too many people attending, but in the end we had a very stimulating and thought provoking discussion that will certainly have a lasting impact on policies.

Purin Panichphant opened the panel with a presentation of the project on “Meaningful User Experience” (MUX) which he had been developing together with Craig Smith. Both Purin and Craig are now affiliated with the Center for Ethics of Science and Technology, with myself also in the team. What we are trying to do is to place Thailand as a ‘development hub’ for policy research and technology design that embeds religious, moral and spiritual values into technology. The idea is not entirely new, and in fact many companies in the US and Europe, such as Nokia in Finland, are developing ways to incorporate these values into the design. Nokia, for example, is teaming up with Electronic Arts, a software game designer, to produce a new genre of games that builds upon local traditions and myths so that the game does not have the look and feel of the cultures that are foreign to the one the game is going to be promoted. However, the deeper reason is that by embedding local values into the games, it is envisioned that the game will not be merely an ‘entertainment’, but will be educational in a new way.

Hence, what is ‘meaningful’ in MUX is precisely that the user will gain an experience that is connected with deeper sense of identity and is in tune with the community and its traditions. We have often heard of tirades against technology, such that technology is going to destroy the world and the moral fabric. On the other hand, we believe that technology itself could be a force for the good. And this ‘good’ is not merely material, but religious, moral and spiritual.

Roger Torrenti is currently heading the EuroSoutheastasia-ICT.org project, which is funded by the EU and aiming at creating and providing opportunities for groups in the region to run projects designed to benefit the local people through novel uses of information technology. He talked about this new project, which could create real changes in South-east Asia and in the cooperation between the EU and the region. Roger also mentioned some other projects initiated by the EU and designed to help develop partnership with other regions such as Asia. One is the PARADISO project (PARADISO stands for “Paradigm and Society”), where the EU is envisioning a partnership with other regions and pushes for an alternative model through shared visions and shared perspectives toward progress and mutual understanding.

Michel Bauwens emphasized the role of peer-to-peer (P2P) networks as a solution to many of the problems facing the world today. What we are seeing the world today is an emergence of the peer, or the ordinary people themselves, as a force for changes, replacing the traditional elites in a growing number of fields. Web 2.0 is a clear example is this peer-to-peer network. What distinguishes web 2.0 from its predecessor is that the earlier web design is a one-to-many communication. The webmaster created the information and then put that up on the web for the many to read. However, new web 2.0 sites, such as YouTube, MySpace, or Facebook, changed this picture in a radical way. It is now possible for the users to post up information and media on the site, thus blurring the distinction between the webmaster and the user. For Bauwens this is a symptom of a profound change that is going on and that should be further encouraged. And his vision is that the world is changing toward this locally active, but globally interacting networks enabled by the new web technologies.

He cited a piece from European history. The Roman Empire, as is well known, is supported by slave labor. Much of its economy was maintained by this free labor extracted from slaves. However, after the Germans defeated the Romans and dissolved the Empire, they freed up all the slaves. Hence the slaves could now own their land and become masters of their own destinies. Slaves became independent farmers. For the traditional elites this was very bad, because they could no longer rely on slave labor, and this spelled the end of the Empire. However, for the slaves turned farmers, this was very good for them. Bauwens sees the trend happening today with the emergence of peer-to-peer networking. Instead of being controlled by one centralized source of power, the trend now is toward decentralization of power and of economy, but with a more intense communications between the localities. This could well be a way for technology to be a part in the actual promotion of happiness.

Naturally there were a lot of questions during the panel. One asked how technology could promote happiness at all. Suppose somebody chooses to live without any new technology, they can well be happy. The answer from the panelists was that, of course one can certainly choose how much technology one decides to allow into one’s life, but that does not mean that technology has no role at all in development and in promotion of happiness according to the GNH principles. We have to make a distinction between those who can afford to choose how much technology one wants, and those who cannot choose at all because they are too poor or their homes are too remote from the technological connection. If people have no choice, then the question becomes moot.

Another question is a more philosophical one. The idea behind the internet has seemed to be one that promotes individualism, freedom of choice, and autonomy — in short those ideas behind traditional liberalism. But if the world is moving away from that model, and more toward an alternative which is based more on the idea that individual persons are more relational and their beings are more dependent toward others and their communities, then how would the internet be situated? This is a difficult question and one I am sure will be pondered on for some time from now. Nonetheless an answer seems to be that technology is not as determined as some technological determinists appear to think. If technological determinism is true, then in this situation the internet would seem to be doomed. However, one might find an answer in how the technology is designed. And in fact it is possible to design the internet, or another version of it, that promotes the idea of individuals being relational and depending on the whole, so to speak, rather than the old model of atomic individuals. After all the internet is nothing if not a communication tool, and as relations critically depends on communication, then there is a way for the internet itself to be adapted. The bottom line is that it does not have to be tied up with the philosophical idea of atomic individualism at all.

So the panel became deeply philosophical and theoretically in the end, which is very good indeed. Those who participated would like the conversation to continue, and certainly we will find a way to let that happen in the near future.

CODING FOR ETHICS

Project aims to turn His Majesty the King’s sufficiency and happiness theories into a new technology policy

Story by CRAIG WARREN SMITH

Craig Warren smith, co-host of colloquium
Electioneering will soon dominate headlines in Bangkok. But a quieter and more consequential issue looms beneath the surface: whether Thailand’s leaders can translate His Majesty the King’s ethical concept of a “sufficiency economy” and that of gross national happiness into tangible innovations in public policy.

If they succeed in doing so, the next elected government may well embrace the new approach.

But sceptics abound. Critics in Hong Kong, writing in The Economist and Asian Wall Street Journal, dismiss the King’s concepts as mere fodder in the anti-Thaksin PR wars.

They claim that sufficiency/happiness notions are too fuzzy to be operationalised, too anti-capitalistic to gain traction.

After all, Thailand sits in the geographic middle of a region that is experiencing the most significant growth surge in history.

Deputy PM Paiboon: three recommendations

Surely, they insist, the next government will fall in line with reality. Translation: endless consumption as in the Singapore model, not spiritual growth, will remain the implicit aim of the Thai government.

Maybe not.

Last month, a project emerged that aims to prove those critics wrong. It is a year-long series of small colloquia involving some of Thailand’s top academic and government leaders.

Chaired by the head of Chulalongkorn University’s governing board, Prof Charas Suwanwela, it is organised by the University of Washington’s Human Interface Technology Laboratory and Chulalongkorn’s Centre for Ethics in Science and Technology.

Called “Happiness, Public Policy and Technology,” it is intent on producing a dramatic shift in technology policy for the next elected Thai government, one that is in tune with the King’s concepts.

The session brings together technology centres in Thailand such as the Asian Institute of Technology, the National Science and Technology Development Agency, the government’s own technology research arm, Nectec, as well as Chulalongkorn itself.

And surprise: the project already has some powerful market forces on its side. IBM, Nokia and Intel participated in the first session, and Google has signalled that it wants to join in.

If the project succeeds, it could spread rapidly. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which helps 191 nations set telecommunications policy, is listening in.

“ICT can enhance ethics and national happiness,” says Dr Eun-Ju Kim, Head of the ITU’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.

Dr Suchada: momentum can grow quickly

Aligning with Web 2.0

“We believe that the ‘sufficiency/happiness’ concepts of the King are in tune with the new market forces in technology,” says Prof Soraj Hongladarom, one of the project’s co-organisers.

The key is to understand the innovation dubbed “Web 2.0,” exemplified by applications that have upended technology markets in the West, causing web sites like Google, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and Flickr to amass tens of millions of users in a matter of months. Initially, these sites had no business model, but their embrace by the public drew investors. The same could happen in Thailand.

Like China and many other governments, Thailand has taken a defensive stance against Web 2.0 by outlawing YouTube and limiting children’s access to massive multiplayer online gaming. But these problems could be transcended through public/private partnerships and new alliances in Thailand that cause Thailand to move into the forefront of Web 2.0, turning it to Thailand’s advantage. By turning Thailand into a hub for Web 2.0 technologies, the country could exert its comparative advantage in the technology market place and empower its citizens.

In fact, a number of corporations around the world have been nurturing technologies that aim to foster the well-being of users. Many, such as Nokia, have released the source code of their technologies so that local developers can join in. But their innovations remain mostly hidden in research labs, far from Asia. The reason: Till now these corporations have lacked a nation to serve as their beta test site.

One such researcher drawn to Thailand is Intel’s John Sherry, who manages a health care research group in Portland, Oregon. “We are developing biofeedback technologies that draw insight from Buddhist meditation,” he said. “These technologies can help patients monitor their behaviour and reduce stress. Thailand could offer a great environment to help companies such as Intel adapt these technologies to realities of emerging markets.”

Indian researchers echo this view. “The King’s ethical concepts can be incorporated into the design of technologies for education, games, devices, whatever,” said Arvind Lodoya, a Bangalore-based researcher at the Shrishti School of Design whose work is supported by Nokia. “As an open society, Thailand fits nicely with open source. Designers here could develop applications that release the pent up creativity of Thai citizens,” he said. “Unlike India, Thailand has the scale that could bring government officials into interaction with the private sector to point to a new paradigm of technology deployment.”

Prof Charas chaired the session

Three suggestions

Just how would this process begin in Thailand? Deputy Prime Minister Paiboon Wattanasiritham, a speaker at the recent colloquium, offered three concrete recommendations.

1) Ask citizens “what makes them happy?” An advocate of a strong local role in governance, Paiboon said that technology could be used to assess citizens to find out what in fact could satisfy citizens. “Rather than tell users what to do, the government could use web sites and digital devices to find out what communities want and to monitor their progress in achieving it.

Reinforcing Paiboon’s suggestion, some participants argued that applications could be designed to foster the “wisdom of crowds,” so that by deliberating with each other users could come to embrace the ethical principles that would make their happiness sustainable over time.

2) Identify who knows what: A second concept advanced by Paiboon is a concept he called “wisdom mapping,” in which community members could identify each others’ skill levels, much as users of Amazon.com and eBay use technologies for peer review. In a similar way, applications of technology could be designed to evaluate and honour the skills of neighbours in hundreds of communities. “A village, district or tambon could develop a bank of identified skills that could be called upon in times of need,” he said.

3) Teach mindfulness: A third notion he suggested was “spiritual technologies,” in which technology applications could combine with instruction to teach mind training or mindfulness in citizens, helping them cope with the stresses of modern life. Noting web sites such as spiritualcomputing.com, Paiboon suggested that the colloquia bring to Thailand the best thinking about how technology could release citizens from stress.

A search for the new

If Thailand’s next government is to embrace such ideas it will need measures that allow policy-makers to distinguish between technologies that foster virtuous behaviour and those that cause harm. The colloquia explored the notion that recent innovations in neuroscience catalysed by the Dalai Lama could be the source of those measures.

Using the latest brain imaging technologies such as fMRI, the University of Wisconsin Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience has been measuring the “happy brains” of adept meditators, creating the visual basis for measurable comparisons with normal citizens who lack mind training. A plan of the project’s organisers is to bring neuroscience researchers to Thailand in an effort to help public policy makers and designers use such measures to chart progress towards the happy state.

So far the Thai colloquia is just a discussion. “This sort of informal conversation is the best way for significant collaborative projects to emerge in Thailand. As the ideas catch on, momentum can grow quickly,” said Dr Suchada Kiranandana, president of Chulalongkorn University.

The next colloquium in the series, slated for November 30, will focus on education technologies that foster happiness. Next in line for consideration, early next year, are colloquia that consider computer games and a final session in the Spring will address the cause favoured by the Royal Family: rural development.

Will it work? Keep your fingers crossed.

Formerly a professor at Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, Craig Warren Smith, PhD, is now senior advisor to the University of Washington Human Interface Technology Laboratory. Outside of academia, he has advised multinationals (Microsoft, Intel, IBM, Nokia, Oracle), philanthropic institutions, ministers of emerging markets, including Thailand, intergovernmental institutions and leading universities.

A HUB FOR HAPPINESS TECHNOLOGIES

Thailand could harness Web 2.0 concepts to create applications based on sufficiency economy concepts

Story by TONY WALTHAM

Bhutan’s Minister of Home Affairs Jigmi Y. Thinley
No other country is putting ethics at the top of its public policy agenda in the way that Thailand is, according to senior advisor to the University of Washington’s Human Interface Technology Lab Craig Smith who has been holding meetings here for the past three weeks, including co-hosting the colloquium he refers to above.

Last week a process was outlined in a meeting with the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec), Chulalongkorn University and the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) whereby internal teams will hold a series of meetings.

Later, three recommendations outlined by Deputy Prime Minister Paiboon Wattanasiritham would be operationalised – and before the next colloquium, he said.

These ideas are around identifying what makes people happy, mapping who knows what in communities and in applying technology to teaching meditation or mindfulness. A design prototype will be prepared at AIT on November 29, the eve of the next colloquium here, he said.

This should be followed by the signing of a Memoandum of Understanding the following day.

“We have to develop some sophisticated instruments that could measure the ethical impact of technologies and look at the way applications shape behaviour; do they have an ethical impact or an addictative impact?” he said. With such tools, government policy-makers could make informed decisions about technology and whether it is good for its people, he explained.

Thailand would definitely set the agenda for the world, Smith said, adding that he had been invited to Geneva to discuss the latest developments with the secretary-general of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Next week, he is also meeting with Google to brief its top executives about the concepts.

The term Gross National Happiness (GNH), which aims to define the quality of life in holistic terms – in contrast to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is merely an economic indicator – was conceived by Bhutan’s King Jigme Singye Wangchuck back in 1972.

But it wasn’t until 1998 that Bhutan decided to share this idea with the rest of the world. Before that, the Himalayan kingdom and been “too shy” to talk publicly about the concept, according to Bhutan’s Minister of Home Affairs, Jigmi Y. Thinley.

Speaking at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand (FCCT) last month, he explained how the concept of GNH promoted a sustainable, simple way of life and a peaceful society, and how it was now gaining currency and interest in the world at large.

Thinley had been in Bangkok to participate in a two-day International Conference on Happiness and Public Policy, staged July 18-19 by the Public Policy Development Office of the Prime Minister’s Office.

At the FCCT, Thinley also announced that the 3rd International Conference on Gross National Happiness would take place in Nong Khai, followed by a session in Bangkok, from November 22-28 this year.

Some of those who had made presentations at the two-day conference on Happiness and Public Policy at the UN later joined the 20 or so academics, representatives from NGOs, the Government and companies such as IBM and Intel at a colloquium – referred to in the story above – that explored how Thailand might become a centre that could “operationalise” GNH.

This was a brainstorming session that, in particular, looked at health care – the first of several planned for the coming year by its organisers.

This series of seminars, conferences and colloquia mark a new phenomenon that recognises the need to apply morality and ethics to societies.

And Thailand is now at the epicentre of activity – presenting an opportunity for the country to position itself as a global leader for innovation in this field.

This comes as His Majesty the King’s sufficiency economy concept is providing both the setting and is serving as a moral guiding principle for national development.

During the colloquium, which I attended, Deputy Prime Minister Paiboon Wattanasiritham pointed out that a few years ago most businessmen here would have said that the sufficiency economy concept did not apply to business but related only to farmers and rural areas.

But this had all changed, he noted. Many inroads had been made and business leaders at chambers of commerce and the Federation of Thai Industries now seriously discussed sufficiency economy principles, he said.

Paiboon also reminded those present how Thailand’s 10th national economic and social development plan, which was based on the sufficiency economy concept, stated clearly that the final stage of its development goal was to have a society where people lived together in peace, happiness and togetherness, including being in good health.

In discussions about happiness, ethics and morality another fundamental element is spirituality.

In articles on the web at spiritualcomputing.com, Craig Smith details aspects of the convergence of ancient wisdom and modern tools and says that a framework and a research agenda is now emerging through informal meetings.

In applying technology to the concepts of GNH or the sufficiency economy as well as to spiritual computing, the Web 2.0 concept of interactive computing would appear to be the foundation on which solutions or applications might be built, he notes.

This is a picture taken from the colloquium on “Happiness, Public Policy and Technology,” July 23rd, 2007 at Chulalongkorn University. The next colloquium will be held at the same place on November 30, 2007. The topic will be “Technology and Education.”

FINAL CALL FOR PAPERS

***Deadline of submission of abstracts (no more than 1,000 words): September 30, 2007***

The Third Asia-Pacific Computing and Philosophy Conference
November 2-4, 2007
Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Website: http://www.stc.arts.chula.ac.th/APCAP2007/

The Third Asia-Pacific Computing and Philosophy Conference will again take place at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. The conference is being held in succession to the successful Second Asia- Pacific Conference in January 2005 (http://www.stc.arts.chula.ac.th/CAP/AP-CAP.html).

AP-CAP2007 is part of the series of conferences organized by the International Association for Computing and Philosophy (http://www.ia-cap.org). The conferences have been in held in various regions of the world. As of now there are three major regions where these conferences are held, namely in North America (NA-CAP), Europe (ECAP) and Asia- Pacific.

As with the other CAP conferences, AP-CAP2007 will also deal with all aspects of the “computational turn” that is occurring through the interaction of the disciplines of philosophy and computing. And in continuation from the second conference, papers dealing with ‘cultural’ aspects of computing and philosophy would be specially emphasized, though papers in other areas will of course be welcome. The conference is interdisciplinary: We invite papers from philosophy, computer science, social science and related disciplines.

INVITED SPEAKER

Rafael Capurro

SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS

Please send an extended abstract of not more than 1,000 words to Dr. Soraj Hongladarom. Files in .DOC, .RTF, .TXT, or .PDF formats are acceptable. Deadline for submission: 30 September 2007. Authors will be notified of the committee’s decision before October 15th.

PhD and master students are especially encouraged to submit. Student speakers will not have to pay a conference fee.

Abstracts should be sent to Soraj Hongladarom at s.hongladarom@gmail.com

PUBLICATION

Papers presented at the Second Asia-Pacific Conference were successfully placed in a variety of publications, including Computing and Philosophy in Asia (Cambridge Scholars Press) and a number of academic journals. It is foreseen that papers at the Third AP-CAP will be published in the same way.

REGISTRATION

Due to the foreseen subsidy by the Commission on Higher Education, we are pleased to announce that registration fees for the conference are very much reduced. We have a flat fee of 4,500 Thai Baht for non-members of the International Association for Computing and Philosophy, and members pay only 3,000 Baht. (See this link for currency exchange information). Students don’t have to pay registration fees. (Please show your current ID.) The fees for non-members already include membership fees, so everybody becomes a member of the IACAP upon registration to the conference.

Due to the low registration fees, we are not in a position to process international transfer of any kind. So if you come to Thailand from abroad, please pay for your registration in cash in Thai Baht and in person at the site of the conference. Thai participants can wire their payment to the following account:

Name: Center for Ethics of Science and Technology
Number: 038-4-02757-0
Bank: Siam Commercial Bank, Siam Square Branch

Important – international participants please don’t wire your fees to this account. You have to come to the conference and pay your fees in cash only.

In order to register in advance, please send an email to Dr. Soraj Hongladarom (s.hongladarom@gmail.com) stating your name, affiliation, paper title, contact address and email address. Advance registration is available until the last day before the conference (November 1, 2007). Fees for advance and normal registration are the same.

AP-CAP conferences are organized under the supervision of the International Association for Computing and Philosophy (IACAP). Website: http://www.ia-cap.org/.

CONTACT
Dr. Soraj Hongladarom, Center for Ethics of Science and Technology, Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
Tel. +66(0)2218-4756; Fax +66(0)2218-4755