Life Extension

Today, we’ll be covering life extension technologies. What can we do to extend our lives? And should we want to do this in the first place?

Philosophy Reading

Your philosophy reading for today is a little dated, and a little long. So you can skim the science section (Section III). But do pay more careful attention to the intro and Sections I, II, and IV.

From Beyond Therapy by the President’s Council on Bioethics: Ageless Bodies.

After you’ve read that, and by way of contrast, you should view at least three of Bryan Johnson’s YouTube videos. You can pick whichever three you want!

Science Content

The science of life extension is multifaceted. This makes it a challenge to understand, as you need to have a thorough understanding of how human life operates normally to appreciate the hurdles that need to be overcome. We can talk about that.

For Tuesday, I’d like for you to explore a few things:

1. The section entitled “Research” in the Life Extension entry in Wikipedia.

2. Check out the Kurtzgesagt video “Why Age” and see if you can take some notes foor yourself that compares the information in Wikipedia to the topics addressed in the video.

Pope Francis on Climate Change

Today, we’ll discuss ethical and religious responses to climate change. Our guiding text will be Pope Francis very recent Apostolic Exhortation, Laudate Deum, released on October 4, 2023. To prep for class, read the whole document. It isn’t very long!

The Ethics of Climate Change

Oof. This is a big one. Of all the existential threats to civilization: nuclear war, bioterrorism, asteroid impact, etc., this is the slow-moving-train-crash that we happen to be right in the middle of. This session, we’re hoping to give you some insights into what climate change is, what we can do about it, and even a little of what we should do about it.

Required Science Viewing

I could assign some rather intense technical materials. I’m going to save that for in-class though, as it’s rather dense and would benefit from some guided presentation and dialogue. Instead, I’d like to you absorb some of what our dear friends at Kurzgesagt have to offer on the topic. As you watch the video, I’d like each of you to start asking yourselves questions. This is a good segue from our last conversation on whether we’re good or evil - is it possible for each individual to be moral and good, but end up in an unjust and evil world due to the systems in place in society? For instance:

1. Who is responsible for climate change? Me? Them? Big corporations? Inefficient governance?

2. What can I do to help mitigate this catastrophe? Is there a way out that doesn’t involve changing my personal behavior, expectations, or lifestyle?

3. What’s the balance between my responsibility to change personal behaviors (eating less/no meat, milk, or eggs, reducing my carbon footprint by driving less, etc.) and my responsibility to pressure governments (by voting) and corporations (by voting with purchases) to do the right thing?

Fiction Reading

Please read/listen to chapter 1 from Kim Stanley Robinson’s novel, The Ministry for the Future. Content warning: there is a great deal of death depicted.

Are we free? Determined? Or both?

The question of free will — what it is, and whether we have it — has been central to philosophy from the beginning. It is still a central question in philosophy. But now, we also have scientific resources to study it. For this class session, we’ll be covering both.

Required Philosophy Reading

William Jaworski, Free Will

This is an overview of the contemporary philosophical discussion of free will. It is a bit dense, but also fairly short. Read through it carefully ahead of class, and arrive ready to discuss it.

Required Science Material

Recent scientific developments are relevant to our understanding of free will. Probably the most important is a paper by Benjamin Libet from 1983. Here’s a video that explains the experiment:

And one more video that points out some challenges to Libet’s conclusions.

Community Partnership Visit

Today we will be visiting our community partner! Details will be provided in class.

What does it mean to be conscious?

It’s relatively easy to reflect on whether you yourself are conscious. How can you define it though? And what happens when your conscious state changes? Weird things happen and we can learn more about the subjective nature of consciousness by looking within ourselves and paying attention to what it is like to be us when things are not as they normally are.

Required Reading

Finish All Systems Red—that’s it!

Who are we?

That’s the question at the heart of the field of Philosophy of Mind and the study of consciousness. It has also been a central question in several of our fiction readings: especially “Exhalation” and Out of the Silent Planet. In class, however, we’ve only gestured at these debates in Philosophy of Mind. Today, we dive into them.

Our discussion will also lead into another important, relevant, and timely topic: the distinction between science and pseudoscience.

Philosophy Readings

There are two readings for today. It is a textbook chapter written by Vukov. As you read, pay special attention to the discussions of substance dualism and physicalism. That’s where we will be focusing our attention in class.

The second is a classic essay in Philosophy of Mind, Thomas Nagel’s “What is it like to be a bat?” As you read, think about the central point of the article, and what theories of mind and consciousness it is challenging. Note, too, that while Nagel is not a substance dualist, he also finds physicalism and unsatisfying.

Science Readings

This is an odd one as it’s a bit of explanatory material from Dr. Susan Blackmore’s book, Consciousness: A very short introduction. All you have to do is read chapter 1! OR, if you prefer, you could simply listen to Dr. Blackmore propose several consciousness-related questions in this video!

We’ll also be covering some pseudoscience!

In class we’ll be workshopping some red flags to watch for when assessing whether someone is attempting to pull a fast one and present things as scientific, when they are not!

Fiction Reading

Start All Systems Red, by Martha Wells. It is a short book, so we’re covering it all in one week!

The Experience Machine

Philosophy Content

For today, simply read this summary of Robert Nozick’s discussion of the Experience Machine. Note that the link will take you to an “interactive essay,” so make sure you click around to familiarize yourself with all the content.

After you’ve worked through the interactive essay, read the full discussion here. NOTE: you only need to read the first excerpt, which is only one and a half pages!

The Philosophy of Virtual Reality

This week we’ll be taking a tour of virtual reality, simulations, and the psychological effects that influence digital communications.

Philosophy Content

For this week, we’re going to explore David Chalmers’s recent philosophical work on virtual reality. He wrote a book called Realty+, and we’d like you to read over the introduction and first chapter that can be found here from Dr. Chalmers’ website (or posted in the class readings).

Fiction Content

This part is easy! All we’d like you to do for a science fiction hook is to watch the first Matrix movie from way back in 1999! It’s available on a wide array of streaming services, but let us know if you have any trouble accessing!

Philosophy Content

This week’s content is a bit more, well, Catholic than some of the other content we are having you read. But Joe is a Catholic, so it shouldn't be too surprising! You should view the video below, which offers a helpful outline of Just War Theory, a theory coming out of the Catholic intellectual tradition that attempts to provide conditions in which war is justified. In class, we’ll use the theory to think about the ethics of Bioterrorism, and also to reflect on Just War Theory itself.

Science Content

There are two short readings for this week.

• Please take a close read of this short section of Chapter 1 from John Leslie’s The End of the World.

• and also take a look through this site, with a succinct (and more modern take) on the potential risks that the miracle of CRISPR/Cas9 has made possible.

OPTIONAL - (though super informative!): Below is a podcast from the Future of Life Institute with an interview of biosecurity researcher at King’s College.

Fiction Reading

Aim to finish Oryx and Crake before class on Thursday!

Genetic Engineering

Science Content

You can genetically engineer organisms for fun and profit!

1. Below, you’ll find a video that’s a general overview of a tool that’s used for most modern genetic engineering: CRISPR/Cas9. Please watch this and take notes!

2. Please also take a gander at the second video below, which is his announcement that he performed the first genetic modification of humans using this technology.

Philosophy Content

Our philosophy content this week will focus on the ethics of human enhancement. That’s obviously a relevant topic in the context of genetic engineering. But it is also relevant to other topics we’ll be discussing this semester.

On Thursday, you’ll be introduced to a group that is in really (as in REALLY) into human enhancement: the Transhumanists.

Before class, you should read “What is Transhumanism” and “Transhumanist Values,” both by Nick Bostrom. The essays are short, and a wild read.

If you have some extra time (haha), you can also read the New Yorker’s profile of Nick Bostrum. The one is completely optional.

Fiction Content

The goal for this week is for you to get through roughly half of Margaret Atwood’s novel, Oryx and Crake!

Aliens and Ethical Relativism

Out of the Silent Planet raises some important questions about how we should think about alien systems of morality: when can we praise them? When can we criticize them? But, of course, even without worrying about aliens, we can ask a similar question: when, if ever, is it fair to criticize someone else’s system of morality? Or, for that matter, our own?

To prepare for class:

First, if you haven’t finished Out of the Silent Planet yet, do so.

Second, read The Challenge of Cultural Relativism. Content warning: the reading includes discussions of several sensitive topics. The discussion of these topics is not gratuitous, as part of the point of the reading is to reflect on various cultural practices, and when (or whether) it is okay for us to criticize them. But, of course, feel free to skip any passages if you find them difficult to read.

The Scientific and Philosophical Possibilities of Intelligent Extraterrestrial Life

This week, we dive into a new topic: the possibility of intelligent extraterrestrial life, and what scientific, religious, and philosophical perspectives might have to say about this possibility.

Fiction Reading

For this week, here are things to be working on when it comes to your fiction reading.

• Keep working through reading/listening to Out of the Silent Planet (content warning - there are some stressful moments in the book where the protagonist considers self-harm).

Philosophy Content

There’s just one philosophy reading for today. It is by, well…Joe. Yeah, professors who assign their own material are the worst.

As you read, keep this question in mind:

• For each of the theories of personhood described in the article, which would count intelligent extraterrestrial life as people? Should intelligent extraterrestrials count as people?

Here’s the article: “Personhood and Natural Kinds,” by Joe Vukov.

Science Content

The potential for life outside of Earth is biologically exciting and finding evidence of extraterrestrial life would be

For the first video - and it might seem to be a little out of left field - think about this:

1. What things on Earth can we, as humans, productively consume and metabolize? What things are edible?

2. Why is this the case? What are the biological elements/properties at play that determine this compatibility?

3. (and this is a tough one) What would the implications be if we were to discover extraterrestrial flora and fauna that was compatible with our digestive processes? What hypotheses might be able to explain why that might be the case?

For the second video, the presenter provides a lovely overview of the famous Drake equation. It’s a rough estimate of the likelihood that there’s intelligent, technological life elsewhere in our section of the galaxy (not the universe, just the Milky Way), with whom we might be able to communicate. Here’s what I’d like you to do with this video: draw out the Drake equation for yourself as practice and see if you’re able to explain what each of the different components are (or you can cheat and use the interactive calculator linked here).

This [optional] episode of the Drabblecast is not required. I thought it was an interesting story though, as it really highlighted that we make quite a few assumptions about what other minds might be like (e.g. that other minds will be like our own!) that might not be justified.

Elder Care, Robots, and AI

Today, we turn from general questions about the use of AI in health care to a very specific issue: the use of AI and robots to care elders.

Required Prep Materials

First, read Robots Rise to Meet the Challenge of Caring for Old People, published recently in Nature.

Then, read Hille Haker’s Piece in Nexus about elder care and social robots. It will provide helpful background to thinking about the use of AI in caring for elders.

Finally, read this summary of a recent WHO report on the use of AI in elder care.

Artificial Intelligence and Health Care Ethics

Science Content

This week, we’ll be talking about the relationship between medical sciences and ai.

• Please read this commentary linked here on the web OR alternatively in the course site readings here entitled: Parsing Molecules for Drug Discovery.

• Next, check out this commentary on very recent work, using ai to design DNA sequences to perform functions in ways we were not previously able. This is available on the web here OR on the class website readings section as: AI predicts the effectiveness and evolution of gene promoter sequences.

As you read through these, you should be aware that I’ll likely ask you, not about the gritty details of the experiments, rather, I want to know your thoughts about what the future prospects for these types of approaches - what other good could they do (and where could things go wrong).

These are pieces on high-powered biosciences research and contain lots of jargon. If you get stuck or it’s confusing, I would strongly encourage you to use chatGPT and wikipedia to help out.

Philosophy Content

We’ve already reviewed ethical basics (remember Kant and Utilitarianism and Virtue Ethics?). For the philosophy part of class today, we’ll be reviewing the basics of a specific application of ethics: Bioethics. Roughly, bioethics is the study of ethical issues raised by the sciences and especially in medicine. Having a basic understanding of the field will be crucial to many of the issues we’ll be discussing this semester.

To prepare for class, simply view the video below.

Can Machines Have Minds?

Artificial intelligence can do many of the things you and I can do. It can create art, write an essay, and find the best route to a restaurant. But a question remains: are artificial intelligences genuinely intelligent? Can machines have minds? That’s the question we’ll be taking up in class today. We’ll study on of the leading theories in philosophy of mind—a theory called functionalism—according to which machines can have minds. But we’ll also learn about a crucial objection to this theory.

Required Viewing

Before class, please view the video linked below.

Required Reading

Before today’s class session, you should also read “Appleseeds to Apples: Catholicism and the Next ChatGPT.” You can find the interview in the print volume of Nexus, and also online.

Assignment

In class today, we’ll be assigning your first reflection paper. The reflection will be due on September 19.

How does evolution work in natural systems?

Today, we’ll discuss and use artificial intelligences. In order to do this we should take a look at the underpinnings of how these systems are built and what the links are to biology.

Required Science Content

Required Fiction Content

Before class, please read the short story, Exhalation, by Ted Chiang.

What does a good life look like? Which actions are right?

Those are the basic questions that ethicists have been asking for thousands of years. But let’s be honest: it isn’t just the ethicists asking these questions. We ALL ask them at some time or another. And more than likely, we’ve sometimes been stumped when trying to figure them out.

Today, we’ll be introducing the most influential ways that ethicists have sought to answer questions about living a good life. But we won’t stop there. In class, we’ll be evaluating (and even criticizing) the answers ethicists have given about living a good life. And then, for the rest of the semester, we’ll be using their frameworks to navigate tricky ethical questions about a wide variety of issues.

Philosophy Content

Before diving into your philosophy content for the day, you’ll be reading your first piece of science fiction for the class (!!!). It is a classic piece by Ursula Le Guin: The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.

As a different take on the above story, N. K. jemisin has a piece, The Ones Who Stay and Fight, that is a subltly different take on the theme with some poignant relevance to modern society.

After you’ve read Le Guin’s story, you can turn to the philosophy reading for the day. We’ll start with Immanuel Kant. Kant has been hugely important and influential to the way all of us think about ethics today, even if you have never heard of him. Kant is a notoriously difficult philosopher to read. Rather than having you read Kant himself, we’ll let Hank walk you through his way of thinking about ethics. View the video below for a crash course on Kant.

After you have finished the video, please read Utilitarianism, by John Stuart Mill. A few notes before you dive in: first, note that this is philosophy, and philosophy can be difficult to read. So if you don’t understanding everything the first time through, don’t worry—we’re not expecting you to understand everything. Second, note that this is an ‘interactive reading,’ a reading that includes dropdowns, etc. Not all of your readings will be interactive, but some of them will be.

Welcome to Philosophy and Biology for the Future!

For our first session, we’ll be diving right in. After introducing ourselves and the course, Michael will offer a crash course in science, and Joe will do the same for philosophy. We’ll also talk a bit about why we’re using science fiction texts to help guide us through the semester.

Philosophy Content

You have probably taken at least one philosophy course already. This course won’t be like the other(s) you’ve taken. But it will be helpful to revisit the basics. Check out the video below, where Hank Green will introduce—or reintroduce you—to the field.

Science Content

• Read How to Read a Scientific Paper

On Fairy-Stories

You know Tolkien. He wrote Lord of the Rings. And some other great stuff, too. This semester, we won’t be reading Lord of the Rings, but we will take a look at his defense of imaginative literature: “On Fairy-Stories.” This assignment is optional, but we’d encourage you to take a look.

You can read the essay here.

Or listen to it below.