Science Fiction and Philosophy (eBook, ePUB)

From Time Travel to Superintelligence
Redaktion: Schneider, Susan

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

Featuring numerous updates and enhancements, Science Fiction and Philosophy, 2nd Edition, presents a collection of readings that utilize concepts developed from science fiction to explore a variety of classic and contemporary philosophical issues. * Uses science fiction to address a series of classic and contemporary philosophical issues, including many raised by recent scientific developments * Explores questions relating to transhumanism, brain enhancement, time travel, the nature of the self, and the ethics of artificial intelligence * Features numerous updates to the popular and highly acclaimed first edition, including new chapters addressing the cutting-edge topic of the technological singularity * Draws on a broad range of science fiction's more familiar novels, films, and TV series, including I, Robot, The Hunger Games, The Matrix, Star Trek, Blade Runner, and Brave New World * Provides a gateway into classic philosophical puzzles and topics informed by the latest technology

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Wiley-Scrivener
• Erscheinungstermin: 22. Dezember 2015
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781118922606
• Artikelnr.: 44447321

Autorenporträt

Susan Schneider is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania, and a faculty member in Penn's Neuroethics program, its Institute for Research in Cognitive Science, and its Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. She is also a fellow with the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. She is the author of numerous pieces in philosophy of mind, neuroethics, and metaphysics, and has co-edited The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007) with Max Velmans.

Inhaltsangabe

Sources and Acknowledgments
Introduction
Thought Experiments: Science Fiction as a Window into Philosophical Puzzles
(Susan Schneider).
Part I: Could I be in a "Matrix" or Computer Simulation? Related Works: The
Matrix; Permutation City; The 13th Floor; Vanilla Sky; Total Recall;
Animatrix
1. Brain in a Vat (John Pollock).
2. Are You In a Computer Simulation (Nick Bostrom).
3. Excerpt from The Republic Plato
4. Excerpt from The Meditations on First Philosophy (René Descartes).
5. The Matrix as Metaphysics (David J. Chalmers).
Part II: What Am I? Free Will and the Nature of Persons Related Works:
Software; Star Trek, The Next Generation: Second Chances; Mindscan; The
Matrix; Minority Report
6. Where Am I (Daniel C. Dennett).
7. Personal Identity (Eric Olson).
8. Divided Minds and the Nature of Persons (Derek Parfit).
9. Who Am I? What Am I (Ray Kurzweil).
10. Free Will and Determinism in the World of Minority Report (Michael
Huemer).
11. Excerpt from "The Book of Life: A Thought Experiment" (Alvin I.
Goldman).
Part III: Mind: Natural, Artificial, Hybrid, and "Super" Related Works:
2001; Blade Runner; AI; Frankenstein; Terminator; I, Robot
12. Robot Dreams (Isaac Asimov).
13. A Brain Speaks (Andy Clark).
14. The Mind as the Software of the Brain (Ned Block).
15. Cyborgs Unplugged (Andy Clark).
16. Consciousness in Human and Robot Minds (Daniel C. Dennett).
17. Superintelligence and Singularity (Ray Kurzweil).
Part IV: Ethical and Political Issues Related Works: Brave New World;
Gattaca; Terminator; White Plague
18. The Man on the Moon (George J. Annas).
19. Mindscan: Transcending and Enhancing the Human (Brain Susan Schneider).
20. The Doomsday Argument (John Leslie).
21. Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics" and Machine Metaethics (Susan Leigh
Anderson).
22. Ethical Issues in Advanced Artificial Intelligence (Nick Bostrom).
Part V: Space and Time Related Works: Twelve Monkeys; Slaughterhouse Five;
The Time Machine; Back to the Future; Flatland: A Romance in Many
Dimensions
23. A Sound of Thunder (Ray Bradbury).
24. Time (Theodore Sider).
25. The Paradoxes of Time Travel (David Lewis).
26. The Quantum Physics of Time Travel (David Deutsch and Michael
Lockwood).
27. Miracles and Wonders: Science Fiction as Epistemology (Richard Hanley).
Index

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Introduction

Thought Experiments: Science Fiction as a Window into Philosophical Puzzles 1
Susan Schneider

Part I Could I Be in a "Matrix" or Computer Simulation?

Related Works: The Matrix; Avatar; Ender's Game; The Hunger Games; Simulacron?]3; Ubik; Tron; Permutation City; Vanilla Sky; Total Recall 17

1 Reinstalling Eden: Happiness on a Hard Drive 19
Eric Schwitzgebel and R. Scott Bakker

2 Are You in a Computer Simulation? 22
Nick Bostrom

3 Plato's Cave. Excerpt from The Republic 26
Plato

4 Some Cartesian thought Experiments. Excerpt from The Meditations on First Philosophy 30
René Descartes

5 The Matrix as Metaphysics 35
David J. Chalmers

Part II What Am I? Free Will and the Nature of Persons

Related Works: Moon; Software; Star Trek, The Next Generation: Second Chances; Mindscan; The Matrix; Diaspora; Blindsight; Permutation City; Kiln People; The Gods Themselves; Jerry Was a Man; Nine Lives; Minority Report 55

6 Where Am I? 57
Daniel C. Dennett

7 Personal Identity 69
Eric Olson

8 Divided Minds and the Nature of Persons 91
Derek Parfit

9 Who Am I? What Am I? 99
Ray Kurzweil

10 Free Will and Determinism in the World of Minority Report 104
Michael Huemer

11 Excerpt from "The Book of Life: A Thought Experiment" 114
Alvin I. Goldman

Part III Mind: Natural, Artificial, Hybrid, and Superintelligent

Related Works: Transcendence; 2001: A Space Odyssey; Humans; Blade Runner; AI; Frankenstein; Accelerando; Terminator; I, Robot; Neuromancer; Last and First Men; His Master's Voice; The Fire Upon the Deep; Solaris; Stories of your Life 117

12 Robot Dreams 119
Isaac Asimov

13 A Brain Speaks 125
Andy Clark

14 Cyborgs Unplugged 130
Andy Clark

15 Superintelligence and Singularity 146
Ray Kurzweil

16 The Singularity: A Philosophical Analysis 171
David J. Chalmers

17 Alien Minds 225
Susan Schneider

Part IV Ethical and Political Issues

Related Works: Brave New World; Ender's Game; Johnny Mnemonic; Gattaca; I, Robot; Terminator; 2001: A Space Odyssey; Mindscan; Autofac; Neuromancer; Planet of the Apes; Children of Men; Nineteen Eighty?]Four; Player Piano; For a Breath I Tarry; Diamond Age 243

18 The Man on the Moon 245
George J. Annas

19 Mindscan: Transcending and Enhancing the Human Brain 260
Susan Schneider

20 The Doomsday Argument 277
John Leslie

21 The Last Question 279
Isaac Asimov

22 Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics" and Machine Metaethics 290
Susan Leigh Anderson

23 The Control Problem. Excerpts from Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies 308
Nick Bostrom

Part V Space and Time

Related Works: Interstellar; Twelve Monkeys; Slaughterhouse?]Five; All You Zombies; The Time Machine; Back to the Future; Flatland: A Romance in Many Dimensions; Anathem 331

24 A Sound of Thunder 333
Ray Bradbury

25 Time 343
Theodore Sider

26 The Paradoxes of Time Travel 357
David Lewis

27 The Quantum Physics of Time Travel 370
David Deutsch and Michael Lockwood

28 Miracles and Wonders: Science Fiction as Epistemology 384
Richard Hanley

Appendix: Philosophers Recommend Science Fiction 393
Eric Schwitzgebel

Index 410

Rezensionen

"Looking over the pages one can see Schneider's attention to detail ... .Schneider has obviously made her choices for their accessibility and we should applaud her for this ... .The collection stands as an important and provocative dialogue between two very rich areas of contemporary cultures and societies. Science Fiction and Philosophy gives us a chance to redeem science fiction ... and take the questions it poses seriously and with a critical gaze. This volume will be of interest to audiences read in science fiction, philosophy of science, philosophy of time, philosophy of mind, consciousness studies, epistemology, robot ethics and bio-ethics and biotechnology and general audiences alike." (Metapsychology)

"I highly recommend Schneider's collection, whether for use as a reader in a course on philosophy and science fiction, or simply for those interested in engaging the issues raised in much science fiction at a higher degree of abstraction, in conversation not only with the works of fiction themselves but also the philosophers and physicists who tackle many of the same questions from other angles." (Exploring Our Matrix, June 2009)

"Despite its rather uneven balance between philosophy and literary criticism, the volume is a valuable pedagogical resource which will benefit tutors and students who are seeking to engage proactively with modern technology and its fictional representation." (Forum for Modern Language Studies, 3 June 2012)

"If science fiction and philosophy give you pleasure, you may enjoy reading this book immensely. " (Minds & Machines, 2010)

"Science Fiction and Philosophy brings two areas together and into a dialogue: philosophy holds the fantasmatic enjoyment of science fiction to account for its illusions and awesome possibilities while science fiction reminds philosophy that all reason and no play makes thought a very dull thing indeed. Hopefully, this volume will find its way into the hands of those who wish to discover something about the highly technological world-view and horizon of meaning of our current epoch." (Discover Magazine, November 2010)"Science Fiction and Philosophy: From Time Travel to Superintelligence (Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, 2009), Schneider mines time travel, artificial intelligence, robot rights, teleportation, and genetic modification to discuss the nature of space and time, free will, transhumanism, the self, neuroethics, and reality." (Discover, December 2010)

"Looking over the pages one can see Schneider's attention to detail ... .Schneider has obviously made her choices for their accessibility and we should applaud her for this ... .The collection stands as an important and provocative dialogue between two very rich areas of contemporary cultures and societies. Science Fiction and Philosophy gives us a chance to redeem science fiction ... and take the questions it poses seriously and with a critical gaze. This volume will be of interest to audiences read in science fiction, philosophy of science, philosophy of time, philosophy of mind, consciousness studies, epistemology, robot ethics and bio-ethics and biotechnology and general audiences alike." (Metapsychology)

"I highly recommend Schneider's collection, whether for use as a reader in a course on philosophy and science fiction, or simply for those interested in engaging the issues raised in much science fiction at a higher degree of abstraction, in conversation not only with the works of fiction themselves but also the philosophers and physicists who tackle many of the same questions from other angles." (Exploring Our Matrix, June 2009)

"What are consciousness and free will? Will artificial beings have them? Do we? And do we owe an ethical debt to future generations, even if they wear quite different bodies, or minds? These, and countless other questions first raised by a century's worth of canonical science fiction, are now ambitiously appraised by Susan Schneider in a volume that explores our philosophical frontier."

David Brin, astrophysicist and Times best-selling author of The Postman and Earth

"Susan Schneider has assembled an incredibly wide range of stimulating and accessible thoughts in these pages. The second edition of Science Fiction and Philosophy will fascinate anyone who enjoys thinking 'outside of the box'--though it might leave their minds in a whirl!"

Martin Rees, 'UK Astronomer Royal'