Twelfth in an ongoing series about the places where science and religion meet. The previous episode is here; the next episode is here. In 1989, Star Trek: The Next Generation, the second major iteration of the durable televised Star Trek science fiction franchise, introduced a terrifying new villain called the Borg. An unhallowed melding of a humanlike life form with Continue Reading …
Saints & Simulators 11: #GoodAI
Eleventh in an ongoing series about the places where science and religion meet. The previous episode is here. For many of the people who find Bostrom’s logic persuasive, the underlying reason is a concept called the “technological singularity.” Named by mathematician John von Neumann after the physicists’ term “singularity,” meaning the collapse of time and space into a Continue Reading …
Saints & Simulators 9: #ChaosAndEmergence
Ninth in an ongoing series about the places where science and religion meet. The previous episode is here. The paired opposite to reductionism is called emergentism, and in recent years it has begun to gain an increasing number of advocates. In summary, it means that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Unexpected behaviors and properties can emerge, even from simple Continue Reading …
Saints & Simulators 8: #ArtificiallyIntelligent
Eighth in an ongoing series about the places where science and religion meet. The previous episode is here. At this point we have delayed the crux of the matter long enough. At root, Bostrom’s argument hinges on a single controversial question: Is it possible to truly create or simulate a person? Is there any point, with any level of technology, no matter how advanced, at Continue Reading …
Saints & Simulators 7: #GoingBayesian
Seventh in an ongoing series about the places where science and religion meet. The previous episode is here. We left off last week with the question of how much weight we should give to Nick Bostrom’s argument that we are not only possibly simulated, but likely to be so. This argument, or at least our representation of it, rests on two key claims: first, that our descendants Continue Reading …
Saints & Simulators 6: #AllYouZombies
Sixth in an ongoing series about the places where science and religion meet. The previous episode is here. The sensory aspect of creating a convincing virtual-reality video game seems like a surmountable technical challenge, and the insertion of the real-world player into the game-world avoids the hard problem of consciousness. But video-game worlds are typically Continue Reading …
Saints & Simulators 5: #3MinuteUniverse
Fifth in an ongoing series about the places where science and religion meet. The previous episode is here. The technological ability to emulate a convincing world is plausible in the not-so-distant future. We additionally know that the motivation to create one already exists, given the huge popularity of video games, and the amount of money and effort put into making them. Continue Reading …
Saints & Simulators 4: #AloneInTheCyberverse
Fourth in a series about the intersection between religion and technology. The previous essay is here. Although it may not be immediately obvious, a consequential, load-bearing part of Bostrom’s argument that we are likely to exist within a simulation, is the question of motivation. Solving the why of whether we might be simulated is at least as important as the how. It Continue Reading …
Saints & Simulators 3: #WhatIsSimulation
Third in a series about the intersection between religion and technology. The previous essay is here. The word "simulation" means an imitation, something that duplicates aspects of something else; from the Latin root similis, to be “like” something. In computer science, it means the re-creation of a physical object or system in the form of computer-generated data. One of the Continue Reading …
Saints & Simulators 2: The #SimulationArgument
Second in a series on the nexus between religion and technology. The previous essay is here. In the year 1999, just on the cusp of a new millennium, the then Wachowski Brothers released what would become one of the most influential, imitated, and widely discussed movies of its times. The Matrix was a stylishly paranoid thriller about a future world that looked just like Continue Reading …
Saints and Simulators: Did Bostrom Prove the Existence of God?
This post is the introduction to a new series here on the Partially Examined Life blog: "Saints and Simulators," a look at cutting-edge modern technology, and its implications for both religion and philosophy. We'll be both beginning and ending the series with a deliberately provocative question: Did Nick Bostrom, professor of philosophy at Oxford University, provide the first Continue Reading …
Not School: Heidegger’s “The Question Concerning Technology”
Featuring Dylan Casey, Daniel Cole, Philip Cherny, and Paul Harris. Recorded December 15, 2013. Here's the Philosophy of Technology group. Continue Reading …