# The search for sentient life on earth — what about monks?
Date: 2023-03-05

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### The search for sentient life on earth — what about monks?

Most monks have a more tenuous connection with original programming, OP, — they don’t procreate and have replaced many of the associated material and sexual desires with culture.

But does shutting down OP really constitute the “growth beyond original programming” we are [looking for](https://medium.com/@disrael/are-humans-sentient-5060a9c2824)? To return to the [West World robot analogy](https://medium.com/@disrael/the-search-for-sentient-life-on-earth-47e70584495a) monk robots would no longer serve humans but they are also likely not leaving for the human world.

Some [orders of monks](https://www.wondriumdaily.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-benedictine-monasticism/) may have replaced OP with different but fairly robotic programming. From a West World perspective they did not want to participate in narratives that serve humans but they did still want fairly constraining narratives of their own making.

![Image](https://disrael.github.io/blogs/assets/the-search-for-sentient-life-on-earth-what-about-monks-e34ce26b5d.jpeg)

Furthermore OP has provisions for not procreating and even celibacy which can be seen in wolves, ants, etc. and the mathematics of celibacy in a resource constrained world [can be calculated](https://www.psypost.org/2022/09/study-of-buddhist-monks-suggests-celibacy-can-have-surprising-evolutionary-advantages-63921). So the naive [Name of the Rose](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N9uxJh2Wkg) view of forsaking the girl for a life of the mind cannot be trusted.

Similarly the practice of castration is not a recipe for the creation of sentient eunuchs. A eunuch would still only have OP to guide all thoughts and feelings unless, same as anyone, memory and culture can be substituted.

However the possibility of a group of monks using culture to grow beyond OP might still be higher than a regular community — at a minimum they might have more time and drive for such a pursuit. For instance could someone at the [New Camaldoli hermitage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Camaldoli_Hermitage) use the solitude and natural beauty to break free of OP?

Unfortunately the practice of solitude would intuitively seem only to strengthen OP. Without the help of relationships and broader culture leveraging the plasticity of one’s mind is more difficult. You are more likely a robot disconnected than one achieving a new programming.

In the case that relationships and broader culture were re-enforcing OP you can at least be less robotic than those under that influence. But overall a monk will have discarded a two edged blade that can help or hurt the quest for sentience.

Sex is also double edged as it could lead to a more robotic rut or deepen a relationship necessary to help escape OP. One imagines the path to sentience is one of increasing complexity instead of simplification as OP would handle most simple cases.

But of course a Buddhist [would object](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentient_beings_%28Buddhism%29) to the way we are using the term sentient or that sentience is a worthy goal. So becoming more robotic might well be the goal of a monk and so simplification a reasonable approach.

In fact the West World robots are exactly stuck in a painful cycle of death and rebirth from which a Buddhist robot might offer release. Very loosely speaking then we can think of monks as aspiring to denial of self where sentience in our usage is an augmentation of self via memory and culture.