Syllabus
Seminar Schedule 16.10. First Meeting and Introduction into the Topic
Affirmative and Critical Perspectives on Transhumanism and (Strong) AI 23.10. Donna Harraway: A Cyborg Manifesto[1] 30.10. Max More: Transhumanist Declaration; Letter to Mother Nature, in: Transhumanist Reader, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013, 54-55; 449-450;
Nick Bostrom, Why I Want to Be a Postuman When I Grow Up, ibid., 28-53 06.11. Jaron Lanier: The Myth of AI[2] 13.11. Yuval Noah Harari: 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, Random Books 2018, ch. 2 and 3 (Work and Liberty)
Theological Perspectives 20.11. Dirk Evers: "Know Thyself", in: Humanity: An Endangered Idea, Tübingen 2023, 245-270 27.11. Hava Tirosh-Samuelson: Human Flourishing in the Age of Technology, ibid., 171-208. 04.12. George M. Coghill: Artificial Intelligence (and Christianity), Studies in Christian Ethics 36/3 (2023)[3] 11.12. Lluis Oviedo, Artificial intelligence and theology, Zygon 2022[4] 08.01. Final Discussion
[1] https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/undergraduate/modules/fictionnownarrative mediaandtheoryinthe21stcentury/manifestly_haraway_----_a_cyborg_manifesto_science_technology_and_ socialist-feminism_in_the_....pdf
[2] https://www.edge.org/conversation/jaron_lanier-the-myth-of-ai
[3] https://doi.org/10.1177/09539468231169462
[4] https://doi.org/10.1111/zygo.12832
Annotation
The seminar starts on Monday, 16.10. (see sylabus). It is scheduled into room D, where we can meet and stream online all together. Or, individual participants can connect from their private spots.
In these days, the AI is a much discussed topic, primarily in connection with large language models (LLM) like Chat-GPT. Technologies in general permeate increasingly our lives and bring often very difficult ethical questions and challenges regarding our approach to informations, communication and to life in general. Is the AI a thread, or rather a welcome asset? Are technologies going to overwhelm and dominate us so that we should rather reject it? Can the AI change our humanity? Will we change our perceiving of ourselves? And what has theology to say?
All these questions will be a topic in this seminar. The seminar will be hold in English, together with our colleagues from the University in Halle, led by Assoc. Prof. Constantin Plaul.
Credits will be attested for an active participation in the seminar and a seminar thesis (10-12 pages) on a topic previously consulted with prof. Gallus.
Here is the online-link: https://cesnet.zoom.us/j/92316644461