Science Fiction and Philosophy (eBook)

Susan Schneider is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania, and a faculty member in Penn's Neuroethics program, its Institute for Research in Cognitive Science, and its Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. She is also a fellow with the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. She is the author of numerous pieces in philosophy of mind, neuroethics, and metaphysics, and has co-edited The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007) with Max Velmans.

Sources and Acknowledgments

Introduction

Thought Experiments: Science Fiction as a Window into
Philosophical Puzzles (Susan Schneider).

Part I: Could I be in a "Matrix" or Computer
Simulation? Related Works: The Matrix; Permutation City; The 13th
Floor; Vanilla Sky; Total Recall; Animatrix

1. Brain in a Vat (John Pollock).

2. Are You In a Computer Simulation (Nick Bostrom).

3. Excerpt from The Republic Plato

4. Excerpt from The Meditations on First Philosophy (René
Descartes).

5. The Matrix as Metaphysics (David J. Chalmers).

Part II: What Am I? Free Will and the Nature of Persons
Related Works: Software; Star Trek, The Next Generation: Second
Chances; Mindscan; The Matrix; Minority Report

6. Where Am I (Daniel C. Dennett).

7. Personal Identity (Eric Olson).

8. Divided Minds and the Nature of Persons (Derek Parfit).

9. Who Am I? What Am I (Ray Kurzweil).

10. Free Will and Determinism in the World of Minority Report
(Michael Huemer).

11. Excerpt from "The Book of Life: A Thought
Experiment" (Alvin I. Goldman).

Part III: Mind: Natural, Artificial, Hybrid, and
"Super" Related Works: 2001; Blade Runner; AI;
Frankenstein; Terminator; I, Robot

12. Robot Dreams (Isaac Asimov).

13. A Brain Speaks (Andy Clark).

14. The Mind as the Software of the Brain (Ned Block).

15. Cyborgs Unplugged (Andy Clark).

16. Consciousness in Human and Robot Minds (Daniel C.
Dennett).

17. Superintelligence and Singularity (Ray Kurzweil).

Part IV: Ethical and Political Issues Related Works: Brave
New World; Gattaca; Terminator; White Plague

18. The Man on the Moon (George J. Annas).

19. Mindscan: Transcending and Enhancing the Human (Brain Susan
Schneider).

20. The Doomsday Argument (John Leslie).

21. Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics" and
Machine Metaethics (Susan Leigh Anderson).

22. Ethical Issues in Advanced Artificial Intelligence (Nick
Bostrom).

Part V: Space and Time Related Works: Twelve Monkeys;
Slaughterhouse Five; The Time Machine; Back to the Future;
Flatland: A Romance in Many Dimensions

23. A Sound of Thunder (Ray Bradbury).

24. Time (Theodore Sider).

25. The Paradoxes of Time Travel (David Lewis).

26. The Quantum Physics of Time Travel (David Deutsch and
Michael Lockwood).

27. Miracles and Wonders: Science Fiction as Epistemology
(Richard Hanley).

Index

"Science Fiction and Philosophy brings two areas together
and into a dialogue: philosophy holds the fantasmatic enjoyment of
science fiction to account for its illusions and awesome
possibilities while science fiction reminds philosophy that all
reason and no play makes thought a very dull thing indeed.
Hopefully, this volume will find its way into the hands of those
who wish to discover something about the highly technological
world-view and horizon of meaning of our current epoch."
(Discover Magazine, November 2010)

"Science Fiction and Philosophy: From Time Travel to
Superintelligence (Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, 2009), Schneider
mines time travel, artificial intelligence, robot rights,
teleportation, and genetic modification to discuss the nature of
space and time, free will, transhumanism, the self, neuroethics,
and reality." (Discover, December 2010)

"Divided into five parts following themes arising from central
questions in metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics, it intimately
and intelligently ties works of art, which vividly bring to life
the aforementioned thought experiments, together with exceptionally
thought-provoking philosophical articles inspired and enlightened
by the storytelling. It is not, as some edited collections tend to
be, a disparate aggregate, but a successful marriage of art with
analytic philosophy. It supports not only Schneider's but an even
stronger argument: that a good science fiction story is very often
a philosophical argument in disguise. If science fiction and
philosophy give you pleasure, you may enjoy reading this hook
immensely." (Mind & Machines, Fall 2010)

"Looking over the pages one can see Schneider's attention
to detail ... .Schneider has obviously made her choices for
their accessibility and we should applaud her for this ... .The
collection stands as an important and provocative dialogue between
two very rich areas of contemporary cultures and societies.
Science Fiction and Philosophy gives us a chance to redeem
science fiction ... and take the questions it poses seriously
and with a critical gaze. This volume will be of interest to
audiences read in science fiction, philosophy of science,
philosophy of time, philosophy of mind, consciousness studies,
epistemology, robot ethics and bio-ethics and biotechnology and
general audiences alike." (Metapsychology)

"I've always said that science fiction is a lousy name for this
field; it's really philosophical fiction: phi-fi not sci-fi! This
book proves that with its penetrating analysis of the genre's
treatment of deep questions of reality, personhood, and
ethics."

-- Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of
Hominids

"Easily the best and most up-to-date book of its kind."

--Barry Dainton, University of Liverpool