The Paradoxes of Time Travel by David Lewis. The Quantum Physics of Time Travel by David Deutsch and Michael Lockwood. Science Fiction as Epistemology by Richard Hanley. Appendix Philosophers recommend Science Fiction by Eric Schwitzgebel.

These are the last 3 essays (+appendix) in this anthology edited by Susan Schneider which I have enjoyed reading since May 2021. The 3 essays on time are interesting but with some difficult concepts. The first essay discusses external time vs personal time, comparing how a time traveler’s time is different from time in the outside world when he/she time travels. In the quantum physics of time Deutsch and Lockwood explain how time works in the quantum realm as opposed to what we can see in what we call the real world which is governed by classical physics, which the authors describe as false. In science fiction of epistemology Hanley discusses the concept of miracle or the supernatural, and explains how they might not make sense using three examples: time travel, other dimensions and simulations. Miracles cease to be when we find an explanation for them.  The appendix is basically an amazing list of science fiction literature recommendations.

Mindscan: Transcending and Enhancing the Human Brain by Susan Schneider

I recently read Mindscan by Robert J. Sawyer, which is about a man who decides to upload his consciousness into an artificial body to avoid certain death. This essay, by Schneider, uses this story to explore about how the idea of uploading our minds would realistically (or not) help us become immortal. The essay starts discussing the topic of transhumanism and its philosophy. Transhumanists believe that humans can enhance all aspects of themselves (intelligence, illness free, etc.) using technology. But if we can improve (change) every aspect of ourselves, would we be still the same person? To explore this, Schneider discusses the psychological continuity theory “according to which the holding of some psychological relation is necessary or sufficient (or both) to persist” (In Personal Identity, Olson, 2010,). The psychological continuity theory is related to Kurzweil’s “Patternism”. Kurzweil (2005) states that “we are a pattern of matter and energy that persists overtime.” In the introduction of this book Schneider also explains that “this pattern is construed in computational terms: the pattern is the pattern of information-processing that your brain engages in  - the particular numerical values and nodes characterizing your neural network down to the last detail.”   

This essay raises important questions about the beliefs of transhumanists, particularly about the compatibility (or incompatibility) between “patternism” and transhuman “enhancement”. As the novel Mindscan shows, a person could make a “copy” of themselves and as a result both copies would share the same pattern. What then, could make any of them unique, an individual person? 

Super interesting and thought provoking read.

Alien Minds by Susan Schneider

Would Aliens be conscious? This is an important question but hard, if not impossible, one to answer. I guess this is part of what we need to know to be ready for first contact. Philosophers have been asking similar questions about Artificial Intelligence with no clear answer. The problem lies of course in that we don't know, yet, what consciousness is, and where it lies in our bodies (or somewhere else). 

One way to explore this topic is by speculating about the nature of aliens and draw parallels with our experience. Would it be more likely that aliens, if they are so technologically advanced to come here, have already evolved into postbiological beings? Some sort of Superintelligent Atificial Intelligence (SAI)? "Silicon is a better medium for thinking than carbon." However, could silicon-based superintelligent beings be conscious? 🤔 

Here on earth, scientists are already predicting a singularity in the coming decades. We will create superintelligent AI. Will they be conscious? 🤔 

And what about the scientists working on mind upload? That process in which you make digital copies of your brain/mind and upload them into a computer. Will that digital copy be YOU? Will it be conscious? Biological Naturalism states that "consciousness requires a biological substrate" so supporters of this movement would reject any silicon-based life form theory. Interesting read which raises more questions than answers.

Science Fiction and Philosophy. Edited by Susan Schneider. Part III Mind: Natural, Artificial, Hybrid, and Superintelligent.

I read the first half of this Part which comprises: 

1.Robot Dreams. A well-known short story by Isaac Asimov with Susan Calvin as protagonist. It explores the dangers sentience in robots may bring to humanity. 

2. A Brain Speaks by Andy Clark - a short story (?). It reads like a monologue by a Brain explaining how its Person, John, is unable to understand how his brain works and how alien it would seem if John could actually see or understand it. 

3. Cyborgs Unplugged by Andy Clark. The chapter starts by suggesting that rather than building artificial earth-like environments for space exploration we should look into the alteration of humans to cope with the demands of space. Clark starts this way to make a point of how our future lays in space and how to better adapt to it. The essay then discusses cybernetics (the study of self-regulating systems by control and communication), homeostatic systems (mechanisms which correct deviations in a system by dragging them back to original settings), and the cyborg (cyber organism) which contains "exogenous components extending the self-regulating control function of the organism in order to adapt it to new environments". Some examples of cybernetic implants are given, in animals and humans. The author reflects on how these technologies could be deeply and fluidly integrated with the organisms and the profound transformation in our lives, projects and live-styles. The case of cognitive systems is discussed in which integration is not as important as the “fluidity of information” between organism and machine. To exemplify this Clark presents the case of airline pilots piloting airplanes with computers which are able to make decisions. This situation could be thought of as humans becoming part of a temporal cyborg system in which the information flows from the computer to the pilot. Clark makes a case for a kind of cyborg which does not need implants or any alien technological device inside the body. Using tools from cybernetics he describes cyborgs using (electronic) tools outside the body, so integrated in their everyday life that they are "invisible in-use" making it difficult tell where the "person stops" and where the "smart world begins". In fact our brains need not extra effort to work this way because they are already doing it, for example by receiving inputs from body subsystems which operate unconsciously while holding a pen to write. In fact a lot of our activities are "invisible in-use" to the brain. This could be thought of as symbiotic relationships which “expand and alter the shape of the psychological process that make us who we are". Because of this Clark thinks that humans are "natural-born cyborgs". 

4. Superintelligence and Singularity by Ray Kurzweil. Actually this is the first chapter of Kurzweil’s famous book The Singularity is Near: When Humans transcend biology. Here Kurzweil explains how according to him, the evolution of technology grows in an exponential fashion rather than linear. This means that the more our technology progresses the faster it evolves. See for example how in the 19th and first part of the 20th century science and technology generation lasted more than one human lifetime whereas now several generations of science and technology could happen within one human generation. A point of interest within the exponential curve is the knee of the curve, where imperceptive growth turns to explosive growth. The knee of the curve will certainly reached when we achieve a technological singularity. Kurzweil emphasises crucial role the exponential nature of technological development has for forecasting or speculating on the (short or far) future. The chapter follows by dividing earth’s (and human) progress in 6 epochs: 

1. Physics and Chemistry: atoms to form molecules and so on. 

2. Biology and DNA: DNA appears and with it life. 

3. Brains: creation of information processing mechanisms. 

4. Technology: from simple mechanisms to super computers. 

5. The Merger of Human Technology with Human Intelligence: kicked by the Singularity. It will “enable our human-machine civilisation to transcend the human brain’s limitations of a mere hundred trillion extremely slow connections.” 6. The Universe Wakes Up: human (biological and technological) intelligence will spread to the rest of the universe.

Science Fiction and Philosophy - Part II - edited by Susan Schneider

Part II What am I? Free Will and the Nature of Persons

6. Where Am I? by Daniel C Dennett – this is an excellent short story with Dennett himself as protagonist. Dennett accepts a job which requires him to get a surgical procedure to remove his brain from his body, put it in a vat and install radio connections between brain and body. Once he is following his assignment his brain-body connection fails. Sometime after that he is “revived” in a new body and is told that there is a computer copy of his brain which is synchronized. Throughout the story Dennett reflects on where he is. Is he were his brain is or where his body is? Where is he when he changes body? Or when he learns that there is a copy of his brain? Excellent, thought provoking.

7. Personal Identity by Eric Olson – this was a dense, difficult to read article of pure philosophy (of which I could only grasp it’s surface) . Olson is an expert in Philosophy of Mind and in this chapter he tries to answer several questions: What is to be a person? At what point in one’s develop from a fertilized egg there comes to be a person? What evidence bears on the question of whether the person here now is the one who was here yesterday? What it takes for us to persist through time? I learn a couple of concepts: first-person memory and psychological continuity, which try to explain the factors which make one person be the same person in a different time… cannot say much more, the text is complicated and got tangled in my brain.

8. Divided Minds and the Nature of Persons by Derek Parfit - The chapter starts describing real split-brain cases. That is, when people have their two  brain hemispheres disconnected. Such people can have two separate and different experiences with either hemisphere at the same time. Does this mean that there's two streams of consciousness? Are there two people there? Parfit then discusses two theories about what persons are: the Ego Theory - the Ego or Subject of Experiences which unifies someone's consciousness at all time. The soul or spirit which exists apart from our physical existence.  The Bundle Theory - persons do not exist. Instead we are a bundle of Experiences tied up by causal relations. Hard to understand but maybe connecting this definition to Buddhism may help. Parfit says Buddha was the first Bundle theorist....

There is another case described about someone teletransporting to another planet.  The process starts with the person being scanned, body and brain, and the cells being destroyed at the same time. The information is sent to the other planet where a replicator makes an organic copy. Has that person travelled?  Is the person in the other planet the same person or a replica? What if the original body isn't destroyed in the process? The discussion continues with Parfit proving that the Bundle Theory is real. I got lost in most if this discussion but I guess I got the message.

9. Who am I? What Am I? by Ray Kurzweil – a much more accessible read than the previous two. Here Kurzweil builds a case to support his view on who and what Am I. He says that we are "patterns that persist in time" patterns that evolve in time an can "influence the course of the evolution" of their own pattern. Kurzweil uses the case of cryonics where people are preserved in freezing conditions so in the future they can be rebuilt with new material thus making a copy (or not?). Kurzweil also explains that under normal circumstances our bodies replace the particles that comprise us on a monthly,  weekly and even daily basis. So if we are completely different from what I was a month ago how come Am I the same person? Finally Kurzweil discusses the concept of Consciousness as something subjective, immaterial coming from by our objective brains. He believes that ultimately humans will come to accept that non-biological entities can be conscious as Consciousness isn't organic but subjective.

10. Free Will and Determinism in the World of Minority Report by Michael Huemer – uses the Minority Report movie (not the short story by Philip K. Dick) as an example to discuss free will and determinism. If our futures are predetermined then we don’t have free will. Therefore we cannot be held responsible for anything we do. Huemer says that Free Will requires: alternate possibilities and self-control. If we lack one of them we don’t have free will. He contrasts various views on determinism and how those deny free will. He finally presents a deduction which proves free will (got a bit lost here) and concludes that the abolishment of the Precrime system in Minority Report was right but for the wrong reasons.

11. Excerpt from “The Book of Life: A Thought Experiment” by Alvin I. Goldman – a one page story following Goldman in a library where he finds a book about his own life.

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).