Artificial Intelligence

Five Reasons Why I Am A Techno-Optimist

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Digital Humanities, Ethics, Philosophy, Politics, Posthuman, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Technology, Technology and Human Values 1 Comment

Since I posted my list of tech book recommendations a few weeks ago, several people have asked me to explain why I describe myself as a “techno-optimist.” I get this question a lot, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to give a quick account (and defense) of my position. But, first, a few preliminary remarks about…

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Humanity: How To Tell Your Students They’re The End Of It

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Ethics, Philosophy, Politics, Posthuman, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Technology, Technology and Human Values 0 Comments

For the last couple of semesters, I’ve been trying to introduce my students, in as gentle and nonthreatening a manner as possible, to the idea that they may very well be the last of “humanity” as we know it.  This has not been a well-received speculative proposition. In my defense, I really make an effort…

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Artificial Intelligence: As Soon As It Is, It Isn’t

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Ethics, Philosophy, Politics, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Technology, Technology and Human Values 0 Comments

For many years now, the term “artificial intelligence” has sat uncomfortably with me. What we call “artificial intelligence” today refers to any number of operations, performed by machines, that are normally attributed to human minds.. These operations are many and varied– calculating, planning, problem-solving, learning, natural language processing, reasoning, et al– and we generally collect…

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Why We Need YOUR Help to #SaveTheInternet

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Democracy, Digital Humanities, Ethics, Philosophy, Politics, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Technology, Technology and Human Values 0 Comments

Did the image above give you a little bit of a dystopic shiver? It should. This Thursday, December 14, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai plans to roll back the Obama-era Title II regulations governing net neutrality. We can’t let that happen. You’ve no doubt heard the words “net neutrality” a lot in recent months (including on…

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