Science Fiction and Philosophy: From Time Travel to Superintelligence

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

 Thought experiments inspired by science fiction have been firing the philosophical imagination for centuries, offering meaningful insights into ethical quandaries, the notion of free will, and the very nature of our existence. Highly acclaimed upon its initial release, this second edition of Science Fiction and Philosophy presents an updated collection of readings that utilize concepts developed from science fiction to explore a variety of classic and contemporary philosophical issues from the nature of minds and puzzles about virtual reality to the possibility of time travel and the unforeseen consequences of artificial intelligence. Featuring numerous updates, it also includes provocative new readings that address cutting–edge issues such as transhumanism and the so–called technological singularity, the hypothetical moment in time when artificial intelligence will surpass human intelligence. Meaningful philosophical questions are raised while drawing on the genre s most intriguing stories, novels, and films everything from Brave New World and Blade Runner to The Matrix and The Hunger Games. As the convergence of science fiction with modern technology draws ever closer, Science Fiction and Philosophy, Second Edition offers invaluable insights into both classic philosophical ideas and the future of humanity itself.

Susan Schneider is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Cognitive Science at the University of Connecticut, USA, and a faculty member in the Technology and Ethics Group at the Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics. She is the author of The Language of Thought: A New Philosophical Direction (2011) and the co–editor of The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness (with Max Vellmans, 2006).

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

Susan Schneider is a Philosophy Professor at the University of Connecticut and a Fellow with the American Council of Learned Societies. She is the author of The Language of Thought: a New Philosophical Direction (2011) and the co–author, with Max Velmans, of The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness (2006).