Leigh M. Johnson is in the hot seat to explain why philosophers should be thinking more about emergent technologies. Co-hosts Shannon and Ammon make her seat hotter with questions about what counts as “intelligence,” how close we are to the Singularity, whether robots will have feelings or should have rights, and which emergent technologies we should be excited (and worried) about in the near future.

If technology is now so omnipresent that there is no field of philosophy that is not affected by it, why aren’t philosophers more open to learning and teaching about the philosophy of technology? Is it fear, laziness, or simply the outdated beliefs that current developments in robotics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence are only more advanced toasters? This episode explores the various technologies that are shaping our reality moment to moment. While some of these technologies are dangerously racist, classist, and entirely beholden to capitalistic enterprise, others offer the possibility of creating a world wherein possibilities never before imagined by human beings are within our grasp.

For further reading, check out the links below:

If technology is now so omnipresent that there is no field of philosophy that is not affected by it, why aren’t philosophers more open to learning and teaching about the philosophy of technology? Is it fear, laziness, or simply the outdated beliefs that current developments in robotics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence are only more advanced toasters? This episode explores the various technologies that are shaping our reality moment to moment. While some of these technologies are dangerously racist, classist, and entirely beholden to capitalistic enterprise, others offer the possibility of creating a world wherein possibilities never before imagined by human beings are within our grasp.

For further reading, check out the links below:

• OpenAI’s GPT3 is still not available to the public, but we are starting to see some of the ways that it will affect software development in 2021.
• CRISPR brings up a myriad of ethical and other philosophical problems. Some of them are discussed in Caplan et. al (2015)
• Days after the recording of this episode the world saw the announcement of multimodal neurons in artificial neural networks.
• Does your Alexa have a personality?
• On the differences between artificial intelligence, machine learning and deep learning see, “Artificial Intelligence vs. Machine Learning vs. Deep Learning: Essentials.” 
• For an example of an account of IQ tests that argues that they do track “general intelligence” see Gottfredsen (1998). For a criticism of this idea, see Shenk (2009).
• Heidegger develops his account of moods in Being and Time (Part I, chapter 5)
• The philosophy of eliminative materialism is associated with Paul and Patricia Churchland 
• For an account of moral agency and moral patiency as it relates to AI and ethics, see John Danaher (2017)
• Check out an explanation of deep fakes here and. For a truly terrifying application, check out @deeptomcruise Tiktoks.
• On predictive policing and algorithmic racism, see Heaven (2020)