Part 1. Deconstruction of Structural Dukkha and the Termination of Computation

The ubiquity of artificial intelligence and algorithmic systems in contemporary society has inaugurated an era of "mechanized clinging," wherein human judgments and desires are increasingly automated by external technological conditions. This transformation of the technological landscape calls for a fundamental re-examination of the structural conditions under which suffering (Dukkha) is constituted, moving beyond conventional accounts that restrict Dukkha to subjective sensation or psychological experience. This study reinterprets two core doctrines of Early Buddhism—Dependent Origination (Paṭiccasamuppāda) and the Suffering of Conditioned States (Saṅkhāra-dukkhatā)—through the formalism of modern System Dynamics. By doing so, it aims to reconceptualize Dukkha not as "feeling" but as "structure," and Liberation (Nirodha) not as the attainment of a particular state, but as the termination of computation. The study first critically examines the limitations of two dominant approaches to suffering: functionalist approaches in contemporary technological and ethical discourse, which tend to treat Dukkha as a technical error to be eliminated, and ontological approaches that reduce suffering to subjective feeling. To move beyond these limitations, this dissertation adopts the methodology of Structural Isomorphism and models the Five Clinging-Aggregates (Pañcupādānakkhandhā) of Early Buddhism as a dynamical system governed by recursive feedback loops. On this basis, the study advances three central propositions. First, a sentient being (Satta) is defined here not as a fixed entity, but as a metastable operating state of a closed-loop system, formed with clinging (Upādāna) as its control parameter. Second, Saṃsāra is not a contingent repetition, but a structural necessity of asymptotic stability, in which the system becomes trapped in the local minima of a double-well potential and is unable to escape through its intrinsic dynamics. Third, Nirodha is not the cumulative result of temporal progression, but a discontinuous phase transition—specifically, a termination of recursive computation—occurring when the parameter of clinging falls below a critical threshold. In particular, through the formal demonstration presented in Section 5.3, this study shows that liberation is a structural event in which the system transitions from a closed-loop to an open-loop configuration. This framework provides a doctrinally grounded interpretation of the difficult Early Buddhist notion of "consciousness without surface" (Viññāṇaṃ anidassanaṃ), understood here as a systemic mode of cognition that registers objects without generating self-reinforcing feedback. In conclusion, this research extends Buddhist soteriology into a substrate-independent structural theory. It argues that the maturity of future civilization should be assessed not by computational speed or optimization efficiency, but by its termination capability—the capacity to voluntarily halt automated loops of suffering. In this way, the study proposes Buddhism as a viable philosophical coordinate system for diagnosing and dismantling structural Dukkha in contemporary technological society.

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Journal
Knowledge Commons (Lakehead University)
Published
2026-01-05
DOI
https://doi.org/10.17613/yvtqd-3zm90
Primary Topic
Indian and Buddhist Studies
Type
article
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article

Part 1. Deconstruction of Structural Dukkha and the Termination of Computation

Wonheo Seok
Knowledge Commons (Lakehead University)
Indian and Buddhist Studies
article

Part 1. Deconstruction of Structural Dukkha and the Termination of Computation

Wonheo Seok
article en

Abstract

The ubiquity of artificial intelligence and algorithmic systems in contemporary society has inaugurated an era of "mechanized clinging," wherein human judgments and desires are increasingly automated by external technological conditions. This transformation of the technological landscape calls for a fundamental re-examination of the structural conditions under which suffering (Dukkha) is constituted, moving beyond conventional accounts that restrict Dukkha to subjective sensation or psychological experience. This study reinterprets two core doctrines of Early Buddhism—Dependent Origination (Paṭiccasamuppāda) and the Suffering of Conditioned States (Saṅkhāra-dukkhatā)—through the formalism of modern System Dynamics. By doing so, it aims to reconceptualize Dukkha not as "feeling" but as "structure," and Liberation (Nirodha) not as the attainment of a particular state, but as the termination of computation. The study first critically examines the limitations of two dominant approaches to suffering: functionalist approaches in contemporary technological and ethical discourse, which tend to treat Dukkha as a technical error to be eliminated, and ontological approaches that reduce suffering to subjective feeling. To move beyond these limitations, this dissertation adopts the methodology of Structural Isomorphism and models the Five Clinging-Aggregates (Pañcupādānakkhandhā) of Early Buddhism as a dynamical system governed by recursive feedback loops. On this basis, the study advances three central propositions. First, a sentient being (Satta) is defined here not as a fixed entity, but as a metastable operating state of a closed-loop system, formed with clinging (Upādāna) as its control parameter. Second, Saṃsāra is not a contingent repetition, but a structural necessity of asymptotic stability, in which the system becomes trapped in the local minima of a double-well potential and is unable to escape through its intrinsic dynamics. Third, Nirodha is not the cumulative result of temporal progression, but a discontinuous phase transition—specifically, a termination of recursive computation—occurring when the parameter of clinging falls below a critical threshold. In particular, through the formal demonstration presented in Section 5.3, this study shows that liberation is a structural event in which the system transitions from a closed-loop to an open-loop configuration. This framework provides a doctrinally grounded interpretation of the difficult Early Buddhist notion of "consciousness without surface" (Viññāṇaṃ anidassanaṃ), understood here as a systemic mode of cognition that registers objects without generating self-reinforcing feedback. In conclusion, this research extends Buddhist soteriology into a substrate-independent structural theory. It argues that the maturity of future civilization should be assessed not by computational speed or optimization efficiency, but by its termination capability—the capacity to voluntarily halt automated loops of suffering. In this way, the study proposes Buddhism as a viable philosophical coordinate system for diagnosing and dismantling structural Dukkha in contemporary technological society.

Knowledge Commons (Lakehead University)
National Institute of Child Health (HU)
Openalex Percentile: Top 31%
Indian and Buddhist Studies
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