Science Fiction and Philosophy. From Time Travel to Superintelligence. Edited by Susan Schneider. Introduction and Part 1. 🧠🧠🧠🧠

Essays on philosophical concepts using elements from Science fiction literature and films. I read the Introduction and Part 1 which includes 1 short story, 2 essays and 2 extracts from classic Philosophy works. 

Introduction: excellent. Clarifies some of the concepts to be explored throughout the book and provides some examples from literature and films. 

1. Reinstalling Eden: Happiness on a hard drive by Eric Schwitzgebel and R. Scott Bakker. Loved it. It's about a researcher who creates a virtual woman and then a partner for her. As they develop a relationship the researcher starts using more computing resources to provided a better world for them. But when should he stop? 

2. Are you in a Computer Simulation? by Nick Bostrom. Four pages of dense text with Bostrom trying to convince the reader why we might be living in a simulation. And yes, we might 🤔 I liked one point Bostrom makes: If we are in a simulation, Afterlife might be possible. We can be recreated in another simulation or maybe we can be brought to the real world. 

3. Plato's Cave. Excerpt from the Republic. Not my cup of tea. 

4. Some Cartesian thought experiments. Descartes: do our minds exist outside space-time? 🤔 

5. The Matrix as Metaphysics by David J. Chalmers. My favourite chapter in Part 1. Discussing ideas about humans living in a simulation or a matrix. The author explains the Matrix Hypothesis (are we in a Matrix?), Envatment (brain in a vat) and the Skeptical Hypothesis (which explains how some beliefs, if true, would falsify every other beliefs we have). The aim of the essay is to explain why, for Chalmers, Matrix Hypothesis and Envatment are not skeptical Hypothesis but Metaphysical Hypothesis (concerned with the fundamental nature of reality).

Superintelligence. Paths, Dangers, Strategies by Nick Bostrom

This book is about the different ways humanity can achieve Superintelligence. Yes, one way is by creating AI, and there are many ways or methods for doing that. Other ways involve making copies of human brains, making many minds work together, and enhancing human brains through different methods. The book also discusses possible future scenarios for when Superintelligence is about to be created. how would that happen? what would happen to humans? And many more.

I enjoyed the first third of the book, read the first half and left the rest for when I am hungry for more AI stuff again. This wasn't a book to read in one go.

Topics I enjoyed reading about: Whole brain emulation (Uploading), Biologial cognition (enhance function of biological brains either by improving nutrition, drugs, manipulation of genetics or cyborgization), Forms of Superintelligence (Speed Superintelligence, Collective Superintelligence, Quality Superintelligence), Cognitive superpowers, Oracles (question answering systems), Genies (command-executing systems) and Sovereigns (systems with open ended mandates to pursuit very long-range objectives.)