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

Instructor: Aaron Thieme. This course meets MWF 10:10 – 11:00 a.m. in MU 105.

This course focuses on a variety of issues concerning technology and humanity’s future. Some of these issues are normative. For instance, should we desire personal immortality? Should we care about whether humanity survives into the far future? Do we have moral obligations towards artificial intelligence? Other issues are metaphysical: is virtual reality genuinely real? Can computers be conscious? Still other issues are practical: how could we minimize existential risk to humanity?