Post-Human Futures: Human Enhancement, Artificial Intelligence and Social Theory (The Future of the Human)

"This volume engages with posthumanist and transhumanist approaches to present an original exploration of the question of how humankind will fare in the face of artificial intelligence. With emerging technologies now widely assumed to be calling into question assumptions about human beings and their place within the world, and computational innovations of machine learning leading some to claim we are coming ever closer to the long-sought artificial general intelligence, it defends humanity with the argument that technological 'advances' introduced artificially into some humans do not annul their fundamental human qualities. Against the challenge presented by the possibility that advanced artificial intelligence will be fully capable of original thinking, creative self-development and moral judgement, and therefore have claims to legal rights, the authors advance a form of 'essentialism' that justifies providing a 'decent minimum life' for all persons. As such, while the future of the human is in question, the authors show how dispensing with either the category itself or the underlying reality, is a less plausible solution than is often assumed"-- Provided by publisher This volume engages with post-humanist and transhumanist approaches to present an original exploration of the question of how humankind will fare in the face of artificial intelligence. With emerging technologies now widely assumed to be calling into question assumptions about human beings and their place within the world, and computational innovations of machine learning leading some to claim we are coming ever closer to the long-sought artificial general intelligence, it defends humanity with the argument that technological ‘advances’ introduced artificially into some humans do not annul their fundamental human qualities. Against the challenge presented by the possibility that advanced artificial intelligence will be fully capable of original thinking, creative self-development and moral judgement and therefore have claims to legal rights, the authors advance a form of ‘essentialism’ that justifies providing a ‘decent minimum life’ for all persons. As such, while the future of the human is in question, the authors show how dispensing with either the category itself or the underlying reality is a less plausible solution than is often assumed. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Contents 6 List of illustrations 8 List of contributors 9 Introduction: conceptualizing post-human futures 12 1 Being human (or what?) in the digital matrix land: the construction of the humanted 34 2 Being human as an option: how to rescue personal ontology from transhumanism, and (above all) why bother 59 3 Perplexity logs: on routinized certainty work and social consequences of seeking advice from an artificial intelligence 80 4 Artificial intelligence and the challenge of social care in aging societies: who or what will care for us in the future? 103 5 Why should enhanced and unenhanced humans care for each other? 128 6 Can humans and AI robots be friends? 143 7 Humanity’s end: where will we be in a million years? 164 Index 183 This volume defends the notion of humankind in the face of artificial intelligence. Responding to anti-humanist challenges to traditional arguments establishing human worth in nature, it defends humanity with the argument that technological ‘advances’ introduced artificially into some humans do not annul their fundamental human qualities.