Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy 2026 in Manipal, India

I'm extremely excited to be traveling to Manipal, India for this year's Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy Conference!

Here's what I posted as an update on the Science Fiction and Philosophy Society website:

Society Co-founder Manjula Menon and Society President Ethan Mills will be on a panel, "Remembering Anand Vaidya," at the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy Annual Conference in Manipal, India, May 19-22, 2026! Manjula will be reading Anand's paper, "The (In)Significanct of Sentience," and Ethan will be presenting a paper, "Robo-Buddhas, Suffering, Moral Standing: A Conversation with Anand Vaidya."

Here's an abstract for my talk:

The late Anand Vaidya (1976-2024) argued that machines can have moral standing in light of his claim that sentience is not a necessary condition for moral standing. After considering his examples of zombies, Vulcans, and robots, I focus on Vaidya’s mention of Buddhism through a deeper analysis of the role of suffering in Buddhist philosophy and whether what Mark Siderits referred to as “Robo-Buddhas” would meet Vaidya’s criteria for moral standing. Could Buddhism’s commitment to healing through ending suffering make sense without phenomenal consciousness? Are consciousness and suffering both ultimately illusory? Might Vaidya’s concept of preferentially-tied computational intelligence explain suffering—a being aims to satisfy their preferences, which fails, and suffering arises? But if the Buddhist path requires eliminating preferences entirely (the very thing that allows for moral standing), are we left with the surprising conclusion that Buddhas lack moral standing? Does the healing promised by the Third Noble Truth require eliminating one’s own moral standing? Is this form of healing worth the price of such radical transformation? Is this a reason to reevaluate Vaidya’s theory, Buddhist philosophy, or both? I sketch some possible answers to these questions; by doing so, I hope to encourage others to continue the philosophical conversations that Vaidya began.

Since I'm flying halfway around the world, I figured I'd do a bit of tourism as well. I'll spend a few days in Delhi before the conference and then head to Kolkata after the conference. I'll also head to Bodh Gaya, where the Buddha became enlightened and where I studied abroad as an undergrad many years ago.

While in Kolkata, I'll be giving a talk at Presidency University: "Rethinking 'Scepticism' with Vandubandhu and Ratnakīri" on Thurs. May 28 at 3:30pm.

I'm a bit less excited about the travel time involved, but I have some good books to keep me busy while I can't sleep on the plan (Machinehood by S. B. Divya, The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson, Selfless Minds by Monima Chadha, and A Goddess of the River by Vaishnavi Patel). I'm excited to see what books I may find in India as well! I even get to stop in Toronto on the way there, which as a huge Kids in the Hall fan makes me happy, and Frankfurt on the way home with just enough time for a pretzel.