Table of Contents
Introduction Thought Experiments: Science Fiction as a Window into Philosophical Puzzles 1Susan 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 19Eric Schwitzgebel and R. Scott Bakker
2 Are You in a Computer Simulation? 22Nick Bostrom
3 Plato’s Cave. Excerpt from The Republic 26Plato
4 Some Cartesian thought Experiments. Excerpt from The Meditations on First Philosophy 30René Descartes
5 The Matrix as Metaphysics 35David 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? 57Daniel C. Dennett
7 Personal Identity 69Eric Olson
8 Divided Minds and the Nature of Persons 91Derek Parfit
9 Who Am I? What Am I? 99Ray Kurzweil
10 Free Will and Determinism in the World of Minority Report 104Michael Huemer
11 Excerpt from “The Book of Life: A Thought Experiment” 114Alvin 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 119Isaac Asimov
13 A Brain Speaks 125Andy Clark
14 Cyborgs Unplugged 130Andy Clark
15 Superintelligence and Singularity 146Ray Kurzweil
16 The Singularity: A Philosophical Analysis 171David J. Chalmers
17 Alien Minds 225Susan 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 245George J. Annas
19 Mindscan: Transcending and Enhancing the Human Brain 260Susan Schneider
20 The Doomsday Argument 277John Leslie
21 The Last Question 279Isaac Asimov
22 Asimov’s “Three Laws of Robotics” and Machine Metaethics 290Susan Leigh Anderson
23 The Control Problem. Excerpts from Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies 308Nick 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 333Ray Bradbury
25 Time 343Theodore Sider
26 The Paradoxes of Time Travel 357David Lewis
27 The Quantum Physics of Time Travel 370David Deutsch and Michael Lockwood
28 Miracles and Wonders: Science Fiction as Epistemology 384Richard Hanley
Appendix: Philosophers Recommend Science Fiction 393Eric Schwitzgebel
Index 410