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Science fiction and philosophy : from time travel to superintelligence
- Available as
- Online
Details
- Creator
- edited by Susan Schneider
- Format
- Books
- Language
- English
- Contributors
- Publication
-
- Second edition
- West Sussex, England : Wiley Blackwell, 2016
- ©2016
- Series
- Physical Details
-
- 1 online resource (431 pages)
- ISBNs
- 9781118922590, 111892262X, 1118922611, 9781118922620, 9781118922606, 9781118922613, 111892259X, 1118922603
- OCLC
- ocn935251522, ocn924683977
- Description based upon print version of record.
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Access using campus network via VPN at home (THEi Users Only).
- English
- 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 -- Part I: Could I Be in a "Matrix" or Computer Simulation? -- 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 -- Part II: What Am I? Free Will and the Nature of Persons -- 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 -- Bibliography -- 17 Alien Minds -- Alien Superintelligence -- Would Superintelligent Aliens Be Conscious? -- How Might Superintelligent Aliens Think? -- Conclusion -- References -- Part IV: Ethical and Political Issues -- 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 -- Conclusion -- References -- 20 The Doomsday Argument -- 21 The Last Question -- 22 Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics" and Machine Metaethics -- Introduction -- "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 -- Conclusion -- References -- 23 The Control Problem. Excerpts from Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies -- Two Agency Problems
- Capability Control Methods -- Motivation Selection Methods -- Synopsis -- References -- Part V: Space and Time -- 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 -- References -- Appendix: Philosophers Recommend Science Fiction -- Novels and Short Stories -- Movies and Television -- Index -- End User License Agreement