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PHIL 143.001 – AI and the Future of Humanity: Philosophical Issues about Technology and Human Survival

Instructor: Graham Clay. This course meets TR 8:00 – 9:15 a.m. in GA 007.

The challenges and opportunities presented by advanced forms of technology have many dimensions: ethical, political, practical, metaphysical, and epistemological. In this course, we will focus primarily on the technologies that fall under the heading of “artificial intelligence” (AI), and we will seek to answer a range of questions, including:

  • Should we care about whether humanity survives into the far future?
  • Do we have moral obligations towards AI?
  • How should we use AI?
  • How should we regulate AI development?
  • Is virtual reality genuinely real and does it matter?
  • Could you survive the death of your body by uploading your mind to a virtual world?
  • How could we minimize the existential risk of AI to humanity?

While we seek answers to these questions, you will be developing the skills and intellectual virtues to continue to hone your answers through the rest of your life. Throughout, we will make heavy use of AI in the classroom and at home.