Featuring numerous updates and enhancements,Science Fiction and Philosophy, 2nd Edition, presents a collection of readings that utilize concepts developed from science fiction to explore a variety of classic and contemporary philosophical issues.

Uses science fiction to address a series of classic and contemporary philosophical issues, including many raised by recent scientific developmentsExplores questions relating to transhumanism, brain enhancement, time travel, the nature of the self, and the ethics of artificial intelligenceFeatures numerous updates to the popular and highly acclaimed first edition, including new chapters addressing the cutting-edge topic of the technological singularityDraws on a broad range of science fictions more familiar novels, films, and TV series, includingI, Robot,The Hunger Games,The Matrix,Star Trek,Blade Runner, andBrave New WorldProvides a gateway into classic philosophical puzzles and topics informed by the latest technology

Susan Schneider is a Philosophy Professor at the University of Connecticut and a Fellow with the American Council of Learned Societies. She is the author ofThe Language of Thought: a New Philosophical Direction (2011) and the co-author, with Max Velmans, ofThe Blackwell Companion to Consciousness (2006).

Introduction

Thought Experiments: Science Fiction as a Window into Philosophical Puzzles 1
Susan Schneider

Part I Could I Be in a Matrix or Computer Simulation?

Related Works:The Matrix; Avatar; Enders Game; The Hunger Games; Simulacron3; Ubik; Tron; Permutation City; Vanilla Sky; Total Recall17

1 Reinstalling Eden: Happiness on a Hard Drive 19
Eric Schwitzgebel and R. Scott Bakker

2 Are You in a Computer Simulation? 22
Nick Bostrom

3 Platos Cave. Excerpt fromThe Republic26
Plato

4 Some Cartesian thought Experiments. Excerpt fromThe Meditations on First Philosophy30
René Descartes

5The Matrixas Metaphysics 35
David J. Chalmers

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

Related Works:Moon; Software; Star Trek, The Next Generation: Second Chances; Mindscan; The Matrix; Diaspora; Blindsight; Permutation City; Kiln People; The Gods Themselves; Jerry Was a Man; Nine Lives; Minority Report55

6 Where Am I? 57
Daniel C. Dennett

7 Personal Identity 69
Eric Olson

8 Divided Minds and the Nature of Persons 91
Derek Parfit

9 Who Am I? What Am I? 99
Ray Kurzweil

10 Free Will and Determinism in the World ofMinority Report104
Michael Huemer

11 Excerpt from The Book of Life: A Thought Experiment 114
Alvin I. Goldman

Part III Mind: Natural, Artificial, Hybrid, and Superintelligent

Related Works:Transcendence; 2001: A Space Odyssey; Humans; Blade Runner; AI; Frankenstein; Accelerando; Terminator; I, Robot; Neuromancer; Last and First Men; His Masters Voice; The Fire Upon the Deep; Solaris; Stories of your Life117

12 Robot Dreams 119
Isaac Asimov

13 A Brain Speaks 125
Andy Clark

14 Cyborgs Unplugged 130
Andy Clark

15 Superintelligence and Singularity 146
Ray Kurzweil

16 The Singularity: A Philosophical Analysis 171
David J. Chalmers

17 Alien Minds 225
Susan Schneider

Part IV Ethical and Political Issues

Related Works:Brave New World; Enders Game; Johnny Mnemonic; Gattaca; I, Robot; Terminator; 2001: A Space Odyssey; Mindscan; Autofac; Neuromancer; Planet of the Apes; Children of Men; Nineteen EightyFour; Player Piano; For a Breath I Tarry; Diamond Age243

18 The Man on the Moon 245
George J. Annas

19Mindscan: Transcending and Enhancing the Human Brain 260
Susan Schneider

20 The Doomsday Argument 277
John Leslie

21 The Last Question 279
Isaac Asimov

22 Asimovs Three Laws of Robotics and Machine Metaethics 290
Susan Leigh Anderson

23 The Control Problem. Excerpts fromSuperintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies308
Nick Bostrom

Part V Space and Time

Related Works:Interstellar; Twelve Monkeys; SlaughterhouseFive; All You Zombies; The Time Machine; Back to the Future; Flatland: A Romance in Many Dimensions; Anathem331

24 A Sound of Thunder 333
Ray Bradbury

25 Time 343
Theodore Sider

26 The Paradoxes of Time Travel 357
David Lewis

27 The Quantum Physics of Time Travel 370
David Deutsch and Michael Lockwood

28 Miracles and Wonders: Science Fiction as Epistemology 384
Richard Hanley

Appendix: Philosophers Recommend Science Fiction 393
Eric Schwitzgebel

Index 410