Essay on Our Posthuman Future: The Philosophical Implications

For years, Artificial Intelligence has posed the question, what it means to be human, and more specifically the nature of consciousness. When confronted with the issue of the relationship between the mind and the body, the most likely argument is that both exist independently of each other but have a two-way relationship. However, recent advancements in machine learning, the technical algorithms that make up artificial intelligence, have suggested that this is not true. It is important to explore whether artificial intelligent agents are really capable of having these “minds” to achieve consciousness, even when they are built of physical components, such as codes. Up to this point in evolution humans are the only ones to achieve consciousness, however recent progression in artificial intelligence provides the possibility to prove otherwise. Consciousness must be defined with the possibility of bringing forth different theories. Defining consciousness and the relationship between the mind and material body will not only teach us more about artificial intelligence, but more importantly about the human condition and implications on personhood. One example of this would be AlphaGo, an artificial intelligence program built by Google that beat the world champion, Lee Sedol, in the Chinese game of Go. The game is said to demand high-order thinking and intuition to master  it, both of which require a mind ,  as there are trillions of potential moves possible, with the most optimal

One of the hottest topics that modern science has been focusing on for a long time is the field of artificial intelligence, the study of intelligence in machines or, according to Minsky, “the science of making machines do things that would require intelligence if done by men”.(qtd in Copeland 1). Artificial Intelligence has a lot of applications and is used in many areas. “We often don’t notice it but AI is all around us. It is present in computer games, in the cruise control in our cars and the servers that route our email.” (BBC 1). Different goals have been set for the science of Artificial Intelligence, but according to Whitby the most mentioned idea about the goal of AI is provided by the Turing Test. This test is also called the

The purpose of this paper is to bring to light a fresh new perspective of Artificial Intelligence or simply (AI). There have been numerous endeavours to make artificial intelligence which is inclusive of frontiers such as neural network, evolution theory, and so forth, not forgetting that a number of current issues have found solutions in the application of these concepts, the case still remains that each theory only covers a certain isolated aspect of human intelligence. To date, he gap that stands between a human being and an artificial intelligence agent still remains unabridged. In this paper an extrapolated version of artificial intelligence shall be discussed which will be augmented by emotions and the plausibility of inheriting a neural architecture from one generation to the next in a bid to make artificial intelligence to compare to the natural behaviour and intelligence of human

Intense developmental stages in technology have brought us into a place we never thought we would be in, where instances of computers can function correspondingly to us humans. These machines can perform acts such as playing chess and sorting mail, which are actions that most of us have done before. Both William G. Lycan and John R. Serle assess this topic, using different thought experiments, but both introduce the term Artificial Intelligence. Both philosopher’s objectives are not to argue whether this is possible but how will we distinguish humans from computers.

Due to the ways that the media depicts futuristic dystopias, many fear the potential reality of a world conquered by entities of artificial intelligence. In their article “Let’s Stop Freaking Out About Artificial Intelligence”, Eric Schmidt and Sebastian Thrun argue that the continual effort towards developing artificial intelligence (AI) will provide assistance to humanity essential for building a better future. Although AI is currently limited to mindless tasks that don’t range past folding laundry and customer service, Schmidt and Thrun believe that the development of AI “Is truly a global effort, with global potential” (Schmidt and Thrun par. 10). As with many of the innovations that define humanity, AI has the capabilities to replace human

This paper addresses the controversies surrounding technological singularity, whether it is a possibility in the future or simply an overly ambitious/grandiloquent idea/fiction. The topic has been a household debate specially since the recent advances in Artificial Intelligence (i.e. Google’s prototype for driverless cars). On one hand, Artificial Intelligence (AI) enthusiasts and optimists suggest that technological singularity (TS) is inevitable, owing to the emulation of the human mind. They also credit the ‘exponential growth’ of progress in this field to be a key factor. While on the other hand, there are skeptics, that argue that this progress has its limits and will meet its end soon enough. They reason that emulating an extraordinarily

Erin Shoemaker B. Fullingim Composition 2 4 March 2018 The Argument from Consciousness Artificial intelligence is a way of defining intelligence of machines, in contrast to the intelligence of natural creatures like humans and animals. There are multiple theories explaining how machines and computers can think like humans. However, there are many logical objections to this, in which is still a question today. Not only that, if scientists can one day get computers to be as smart or smarter than humans, then what does that mean for the human race?

The article directly argues the positives and negatives of artificial intelligence, with many references to pop culture through film. The article focuses on films where artificial intelligence threatens to take over or harm humankind and focuses on these films’ relations to the play, Rossum’s Universal Robots, by Czech writer, Karel Capek. The article is a good source for arguing for and against the information that most people know about artificial intelligence, which is basically what most people have seen on TV or in movies. The article is a good source for someone looking to incorporate the common pop culture opinions of robotics and artificial

most Americans, but as of this book (2012) there is no such thing. Lastly the author

In today’s society, artificial intelligence appears a daunting and frightening area, however this idea was embraced by Turing. He was a pioneer of imitation, that is, the imitation of the human mind in a machine. The perspectives of Turing with regards to artificial intelligence were new and original, nobody had questioned whether or not a machine can think or likened one to the human mind. It is important to remember that artificial intelligence is only an attempt at recreating the human machine, as Turing put it, which is the mind. In 1942, Turing was quoted saying: “We do not wish to penalise the machine for its inability to shine in beauty competitions, nor to penalise a man for losing in a race against an aeroplane” which demonstrates one of Turing’s key perspectives. Man and machine are going to be different, an attempt at copying the human mind, will not yield a human, but a machine, reinforcing the fact that artificial intelligence is only an attempt to imitate the mind. A paper, written by Turing, outlines an “imitation test,” a test which contrasts the power of the human mind to that of a machine. This test was developed by Turing in order to help the public grasp the concept of an artificial intelligence: it precedes as follows. A participant is asked to take part in two conversations, one of which is with a machine, the other with a human. Now imagine if the participant was unable to decide which was the machine and which was human. Turing

In Minds, Brains, and Programs, John Searle provided various counterarguments to the proposition that strong artificial intelligence is similar to human cognition and that machines are able to have similar cognitive experiences as humans, such as having intentions, as long as it has the right program. The purpose of this article was to demonstrate opposing approaches, which outlined that the theory of strong AI is flawed. The author did this by providing examples of how to disqualify the support for the theoretical perspective that machines, even though they have the appropriate programming, still cannot understand as humans do. Through various explanations and replies to the arguments, Searle makes his point and give examples of the promises.

The progress man has made in the field of technology is becoming exponentially greater. Each decade sees more progress than the century preceding it, than that century did of the millennium preceding it. As our innovation drives us towards greater results, the time at which robots may take on human-like intelligence comes ever closer. Philosophers and engineers alike have been grappling with questions related to that time for the last half-century. Yet as we march forward in this brave new world, other, much more intricate questions, such as those surrounding the ability of robots to complete tasks which require intelligence, the ability and right of robots to feel emotion, and the ethical concerns surrounding robots which are both

The philosophical question of whether machines are able to think has been a central question, debated by philosophers for many centuries. There have been various positions and beliefs of many different prolific philosophers. But more specifically by Rene Descartes who, rejects the idea that machines can in fact think, and Alan Turing who proposed a behavioural test, which dealt with the question whether or not machines were able to think. John Searle’s Chinese Room argument also has a strong position upon this question. In this paper, I will argue that Searle’s argument is sufficient because information-processing machines do not have intentionality, therefore do not think.

Artificial Intelligence is a topic within the public media that has existed for decades, but is now a concern due to the reality of human advancement and innovation in the field of science and technology. Many people believe that computers will become self-aware or sentient and view humanity as a disposable resource and gain supremacy. Reasoning that research on the technology should halt and not become more advance. Whereas others believe they will help catapult research and the economy forward, supporting the operations and innovations the technology offers. The complicated and divided solutions to the debate aren’t obvious, but there are more benefits to improving artificial intelligence than there is stopping it. Therefore, the negative effects people believe will occur can be resolved.