Science fiction and philosophy : from time travel to superintelligence / edited by Susan Schneider.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Schneider, Susan, editor.

Series:

THEi Wiley ebooks.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Science fiction--Philosophy.

Science fiction.

Philosophy--Introductions.

Philosophy.

Philosophy in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (431 pages)

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

West Sussex, England : Wiley Blackwell, 2016.

Language Note:

English

System Details:

Access using campus network via VPN at home (THEi Users Only).

Summary:

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

Contents:

Intro

Title Page

Table of Contents

Introduction

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

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

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

Part IV: Ethical and Political Issues

Part V: Space and Time

Conclusion

References

1 Reinstalling Eden: Happiness on a Hard Drive

2 Are You in a Computer Simulation?

3 Plato's Cave. Excerpt from The Republic

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

Of the Things of which we May Doubt

5 The Matrix as Metaphysics

I. Brains in Vats

II. Envatment Reconsidered

III. The Metaphysical Hypothesis

IV. The Matrix Hypothesis as a Metaphysical Hypothesis

V. Life in the Matrix

VI. Objections

VII. Other Skeptical Hypotheses

6 Where Am I?

7 Personal Identity

1. The Problems of Personal Identity

2. Understanding the Persistence Question

3. Accounts of Our Identity through Time

4. Psychological-Continuity Views

5. Fission

6. The Too-Many-Thinkers Problem

7. Brute-Physical Views

8. Wider Themes

Bibliography

8 Divided Minds and the Nature of Persons

The Ego Theory and the Bundle Theory

What We Believe Ourselves to Be

How We Are Not What We Believe

How the Split-Brain Cases Support the Bundle Theory

9 Who Am I? What Am I?

10 Free Will and Determinism in the World of Minority Report

Hard Determinism and the Threat to Free Will

The Soft Determinist Gambit

On Behalf of Freedom

The Verdict on Precrime

11 Excerpt from "The Book of Life: A Thought Experiment"

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

12 Robot Dreams.

13 A Brain Speaks

14 Cyborgs Unplugged

Rats in Space

Implant and Mergers

A Day in the Life

Dovetailing

15 Superintelligence and Singularity

The Intuitive Linear View Versus the Historical Exponential View

The Six Epochs

The Singularity Is Near

16 The Singularity: A Philosophical Analysis

1. Introduction

2. The Argument for a Singularity

3. The Intelligence Explosion Without Intelligence

4. Obstacles to the Singularity

5. Negotiating the Singularity

6. Internal Constraints: Constraining Values

7. External Constraints: The Leakproof Singularity

8. Integration into a Post-Singularity World

9. Uploading and Consciousness

10. Uploading and Personal Identity

11. Conclusions

17 Alien Minds

Alien Superintelligence

Would Superintelligent Aliens Be Conscious?

How Might Superintelligent Aliens Think?

18 The Man on the Moon

Holy Wars

Unholy Wars

The Man on the Moon

Genetic Engineering

Toward the Posthuman

New Crusades

19 Mindscan: Transcending and Enhancing the Human Brain

The Transhumanist Position

The Nature of Persons

Robert Sawyer's Mindscan and the Reduplication Problem

A Response to the Reduplication Problem

Two Issues that Modified Patternism Needs to Address

20 The Doomsday Argument

21 The Last Question

22 Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics" and Machine Metaethics

"The Bicentennial Man"

Machine Metaethics

Characteristic(s) Necessary To Have Moral Standing

Why the Three Laws are Unsatisfactory even if Machines Don't have Moral Standing

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

Two Agency Problems.

Capability Control Methods

Motivation Selection Methods

Synopsis

24 A Sound of Thunder

25 Time

The Flow of Time

The Space-Time Theory

Arguments against the Space-Time Theory: Change, Motion, Causes

26 The Paradoxes of Time Travel

27 The Quantum Physics of Time Travel

28 Miracles and Wonders

Humeans on Miracles

Three Modern Miracle Mongers

Three of my Favorite Sci-Fi Things: Time Travel, Other Dimensions, and Simulations

Simulation Epistemology and Metaphysics

An Argument for Miracles

Appendix: Philosophers Recommend Science Fiction

Novels and Short Stories

Movies and Television

Index

End User License Agreement.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781118922620

111892262X

9781118922606

1118922603

OCLC:

935251522