The Approaching Singularity: If further research into artificial intelligence may result in the extinction of the human race, should it be allowed to continue? A Brief History of Intellectual Discussion of Accelerating Change
(http://www.accelerationwatch.com/history_brief.html)
From Henry Adams to Vernor Vinge, this article looks at Singularity discussion through the ages. Existential Risks: Analyzing Human Extinction Scenarios and Related Hazards
http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0194.html?
Nick Bostrum assesses threats to human survival, including the threats posed by the singularity and super artificial intelligence. How to Avoid a Robot Takeover: Political and Ethical Choices in the Design and Introduction of Intelligent Artifacts
(http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/users/blayw/BlayAISB00.html)
Blay Whitby and Kane Oliver discuss the possibility of a “robot takeover” and the human choices that may affect its likelihood. Living in the Matrix: Is it possible that you are living in a computer-generated
dream world as depicted in the movie The Matrix? Are you living in a computer simulation?
(http://www.simulation-argument.com/simulation.html)
Nick Bostrum’s argument that we may be living in a computer simulation. What's So Bad about Living in the Matrix?
(http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/rl_cmp/new_phil_fr_pryor.html)
Article on the Matrix by James Pryor The Matrix Metaphor
(http://www.zenzibar.com/Articles/matrix.asp)
Political implications of the Matrix The Biblical Conception of the Person: Does
the Bible support the view that people have an immortal soul? Is Your Soul Immortal? What does the Bible say about the immortality...
(http://www.truechristian.org/are_you_a_t_c/soul.htm)
Interpretation of the Bible Animal Soul: Do animals have minds or souls? Animal Consciousness
(http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness-animal/)
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article Animal Intelligence
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A582275)
General BBC guide with overview of issues such as symbolic complexity, tool
use, etc. NATURE: Inside the Animal Mind
(http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/animalmind/)
Collection of articles and video clips to accompany PBS television special. Animal Cognition and Learning
(http://www.pigeon.psy.tufts.edu/psych26/)
Course web site with numerous links by Robert Cook (Tufts University) ANIMAL SOUL
(http://www.human-nature.com/rmyoung/papers/paper59h.html)
Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on animal soul Heaven without Bodies: Would eternal existence as an immaterial soul be desirable? Problems with Heaven
(http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/michael_martin/heaven.html)
Michael Martin looks at the incoherence of the concept of heaven In Heaven There Is No Pez
(http://www.i-cynic.com/weekly_31.asp)
Rick Bayan on existence as an immaterial soul. Bodies, Minds, and Death:
Do those in a permanent vegetative state have minds? If not, should they
be declared dead? Care of PVS Patients
(http://www.op.org/domcentral/study/kor/pvscare.htm)
Catholic view of those in a permanent vegetative state An alternative conceptual
structure for the resolution of end-of-life
(http://homepage.eircom.net/%7Eroche/PVSThesis/index.html)
Thesis on the problems associated with those in a permanent vegetative state Mental
Relay Stations: Is the brain nothing more that a mental relay station sending
and receiving signals from the mind? How does your soul fit into your brain?
(http://www.abarnett.demon.co.uk/atheism/brain.html)
Article by Adrian Barnett identifying problems with the traditional doctrine
of the soul The Brain vs. the Soul
(http://www.rnw.nl/science/html/brain2000215.html)
Article by Dan Falk on the problems neurophysiology raises for the traditional
doctrine of the soul The Ultimate Lie Detector: If mental states are brain states, then we should be able to read people's minds by scanning their brains. If such machines are developed, should we use them in courts of law?Brain Fingerprinting Laboratories
(http://www.brainwavescience.com/)
Site devoted to the brain fingerprinting technology pioneered by Dr. Farwell.Brain Fingerprints Under Scrutiny
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3495433.stm)
BBC news article on the use of brain fingerprinting.Brain Scans Make for More Accurate Lie Detectors
(http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4197049)
NPR report on the use of brain scans as lie detectors.Don't Even Think About Lying
(http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.01/lying.html)
Steve Silberman's first person report from Wired.com on having his brain scanned.Intelligent Robots: Should intelligent robots be given the same rights as humans? The Rights of Robots: Technology, Culture and Law in the 21st Century
(http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0265.html)
Phil McNally looks at the issue of robot rights. A Jurisprudence of Artilects: Blueprint for a Synthetic Citizen
(http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0270.html)
Frank W. Sudia 's article considers robot rights in light of the fact that robot intelligence may significantly exceed our own. The Rights of Your Robots: Exclusion and Includion in History and Future
| (http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0266.html)
Sohail Inayatullah on robot rights in the grand historical context of the “progressive expansion of rights.” Speciesism:
If you found that a loved one was not made out of flesh and blood, would
you love them less? What
Robots Can and Can't Be
(http://psycprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/archive/00000418/)
Book summary by Selmer Bringsjord (Rensselear Polytechnic Institute) arguing
that robots cannot be persons Robot Servants
(http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/future/robots.html)
Article by John McCarthy (Stanford University) on the effects of using
robots as servants Neural Prostheses: Would you replace damaged brain cells with
computer chips? Neural Prosthesis Program
(http://www.ninds.nih.gov/npp/)
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Computerized Resurrection: If the
program running on your brain was run on another computer sometime after you
died, would you be resurrected? Modern Cosmology, God, and the Resurrection of the Dead
(http://www.math.tulane.edu/~tipler/tipler/tipler3.html)
Theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg (University of Munich) defends Tipler's view
of resurrection The
Physics of Immortality
(http://www.santafe.edu/~johnson/reviews.tipler.html)
Review of Tipler’s The Physics of Immortality by George Johnson
for the
New York Times Virtual Immortality for Everyone Alive Today
(http://www.globalideasbank.org/creend/CRE-40.HTML)
Review of Tipler’s The Physics of Immortality by John Wren-Lewis The
Physics of Immortality
(http://www.disinfo.com/archive/pages/dossier/id100/pg1/)
A collection of links to reviews of Tipler's book maintained by Disinformation The Internet Evolution: Could the Internet – consisting of billions of networked computers – actually evolve into a conscious mind? The Soul of the Ultimate Machine
http://www.racematters.org/selfawarecomputer.htm
Larry Smarr on the emerging planetary supercomputer. Artificial Intelligence in the World Wide Web
(http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0137.html)
David Stork on the Internet as a platform for intelligence. The Evolution of Spam-Consciousness
(http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2006/05/25/the-evolution-of-spam-consciousness/)
Tim Boucher's take on the Internet's attempts to communicate with us. Is Data a Person: Can a robot that has no feelings or emotions be considered a person? The Science of Star Trek
( http://ssdoo.gsfc.nasa.gov/education/just_for_fun/startrek.html )
David Allen Batchelor (NASA) explores the feasibility of many devices used on Star Trek Synesthesia: Does the existence of Synesthesia support the claim that functionalism can't account for conscious experience? Evidence against functionalism from neuroimaging of the alien colour effect in synaesthesia
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=retrieve&dopt=abstract&list_uids=16683506
Abstract of a study on Synaesthesia that lays out the case against functionalism. Synesthesia in the Media
http://astrid.9cy.com/synaesthesia/media.html
Links to articles dealing with synesthesia. The Synesthetic Experience
(http://web.mit.edu/synesthesia/www/)
Factual information, individual anecdotes, and interactive activities which simulate synesthesia. Synesthesia: Phenomenology And Neuropsychology
(http://psyche.cs.monash.edu.au/v2/psyche-2-10-cytowic.html)
A review of current knowledge on synesthesia. The Loebner Prize: Is the Loebner Prize a good implementation of the Turing test? Lessons from a Restricted Turing Test
(http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/shieber/Biblio/Papers/loebner-rev-html/loebner-rev-html.html)
An anti-Loebner article arguing that “the competition has no clear purpose, that its design prevents any useful outcome, and that such a competition is inappropriate given the current level of technology.” In Response
(http://loebner.net/Prizef/In-response.html)
Hugh Loebner himself responds to the criticism. A Wager on the Turing Test: The Rules
(http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0373.html)
An explanation of the rules for a non-Loebner version of the Turing Test. Chatbots
http://simonlaven.com/
Links to many different chatbots on the internet. Total Turing Test: Is passing the Total Turing Test either necessary or sufficient for being intelligent and thus having a mind? Other Bodies, Other Minds: A Machine Incarnation of an Old Philosophical Problem
(http://cogprints.org/1578/00/harnad91.otherminds.html)
Stevan Harnad on his Total Turing Test and its relation to the Mind/Body Problem. The Age of Intelligent Machines: Can Machines Think?
(http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0099.html)
Daniel Dennett on the problem of machine intelligence. Can a robot that has no feelings or emotions be considered a person? The Science of Star Trek
(http://ssdoo.gsfc.nasa.gov/education/just_for_fun/startrek.html)
David Allen Batchelor (NASA) explores the feasibility of many devices used
on Star Trek Devout Robots: Should
a robot that passed the Turing test and asked to be baptized be baptized? Will Man-made Robots Rise Up and Demand Their Rights
(http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/tt/2000/sep13/robots.html)
Article by Rodney Brooks (Director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory) Rethinking Deep Blue:
Why a computer can't reproduce a mind
(http://www.arn.org/docs/odesign/od182/blue182.htm)
Article by Erik Larson The Rights of Robots
(http://www.metafuture.org/Articles/TheRightsofRobots.htm)
Article by Phil McNally and Sohail Inayatullah (World Futures Studies Federation) Zombies on the Web
(http://www.u.arizona.edu/~chalmers/zombies.html)
Collection of zombie links compiled by David Chalmers (University of Arizona) Conversations
with Zombies
(http://www.imprint.co.uk/Moody_zombies.html)
Article by Todd Moody (St. Joseph's University) arguing that zombies could
not do everything we do You Can't Argue with a Zombie
(http://www.well.com/user/jaron/zombie.html)
Article by Jaron Lanier (founder of virtual reality) arguing that it is
possible to distinguish a zombie from a real person Zombies
(http://host.uniroma3.it/progetti/kant/field/zombies.htm)
Article by Tom Polger (Duke University) from the Field Guide to the Philosophy
of Mind Seeing Color for the First Time: Does the real-world case of Kevin bolster Jackson 's claim that qualia are not physical properties? Qualia: The Knowledge Argument
(http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qualia-knowledge/)
Extensive entry on the Knowledge Argument in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Vision in a Complete Achromat: A Personal Account
(http://consc.net/misc/achromat.html)
A personal account of life as an achromat. Pan-en-theism: Is it plausible to believe that we are living
inside God’s
brain? Science and the
Future of Theology--Critical Issues
(http://www.ctinquiry.org/publications/peacocke.htm)
Article by Arthur Peacocke (Oxford University) describing the relationship
between science and theology God in Relation to Nature
(http://www.ctinquiry.org/publications/polkinghorne.htm)
Article by John Polkinghorne (Queens College) criticizing Peacocke's panentheism Placebos:
Does the effectiveness of placebos lend credence to the claim that the mind
has a downward causal effect on the body? How Could Conscious Experience Affect Brains?
(http://cogprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/archive/00002750/01/JCSVelmans2001.final.htm)
Article by Max Velmans (University of London) outlining a model for understanding
mental causation | 