CONSCIOUSNESS

222 6. Culture and the Humanities
History, Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills, Mindful Attention Awareness during
Video Game Play Scale, Immersive Tendency Questionnaire, and Presence Questionnaire.
Only those who reported that traditionally hard core games (i.e., first person shooter, strategy,
action, adventure, and role playing) were their favorite type were included in the subsequent
factor analysis. Only 77 of these played a game prior to filling out the surveys. For these 77
individuals, most of whom were male (n=57), a factor analyses was computed based on scale
and subscale scores and items including gender. These variables were entered into a principle
component factor analysis and five factors emerged. The first factor offers support for the
primary hypothesis. That is, the younger they were when they began playing and the more
presence they felt while playing a recent game were associated with a tendency to experience
immersion and with three mindfulness scores from the Kentucky Mindfulness scale and one
from the video game mindfulness scale. The other factors further illuminated this relationship.
In this preliminary inquiry we found some support for the hypothesized relationship between
game play (history and presence) and mindfulness attenuated by a tendency to become absorbed
(immersion). When gender entered the equation then gaming was either negatively
related to mindfulness (females) or not related to mindfulness (males). P6
6.9 Ethics and legal studies
341 Consciousness and Human Rights: Preservation and Protection of Consciousness-
Based Technologies of Indigenous Peoples Lurleen Brinkman
(American Indian and Indigenous, University of Tulsa College of Law, Lawrence, KS)
Even as Western scholars are beginning to explore the ontology and science of consciousness,
many consciousness-based technologies are in a critical state of existence throughout
the world. That is, many indigenous and traditional knowledge systems, such as mind-body
healing practices, in addition to critical languages, are on the brink of extinction. This presentation
will address the issues of American Indian and other indigenous peoples of the
world in their quest to preserve and protect their local, consciousness-based technologies.
This presentation will also address the role of the Western researcher in the appropriate reflection
of consciousness-based technologies in academia. The methodology for this presentation
will include critical analysis, comparative analysis, and case studies, and will conclude with
a discussion on the guidelines (as they relate to consciousness studies in academia) from the
2007 U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. P6
342 Key Bioethical Questions at the Cusp of Our Assuming the Governance of
Evolution Timothy Dolan (Public Administration,
The Catholic University of Korea, Bucheon, Gyonggi Do Korea, Republic of Korea)
A theme review of the 58 principle articles published in The Journal of Bioethics (AJB)
was conducted for content pertaining to genetic policy. The initial review found some references
with one special issue with specific focus on individual access to genetic testing. Many
deal with popular concerns around the seemingly perennial question of the status of human
fetuses in stem cell research and cloning. Other articles are more prosaic ranging from moral
questions over the development and use of performance-enhancing technologies for soldiers
in the military to the emergence of nanotechnology as a legitimate concern for bioethicists. If
this topical inventory is at all representative of the field, bioethicists have indeed at least begun
to wrestle with this very significant emerging issue while maintaining a focus on those perennial
ones. A further analytical breakdown of governance themes indicates the focus clustering
around the following: 4 articles on personal control of genetic information; 2 of which also
spoke to governmental policy on this dimension) 7 articles on government policy primacy
over genetic innovation (3 focusing on shared governance with individual control over a:
personal genetic information (2) and b: corporate involvement (1) 3 articles on corporate policies
governing genetic products (1 of which seeing shared government policy formation and
regulation on the issue of monopoly patent rights) 1 article on physician primacy on decisions
to use biotech in the treatment of patients. If this snapshot actually represents the distribution
of foci among bioethicists, then it would suggest that the emphases are somewhat misplaced.