Transvision 2010 Robert Geraci

TRANSVISION 2010  MILANO 22-23-24 OTTOBRE  MUSEO DELLA SCIENZA....
 
Robert Geraci studies the power of religion in contemporary culture, particularly with regard to the interaction between religion and technology. Other interests include the history of science, anthropology of science, contemporary art, literature, Christian history, and economics. His past research focused upon the relationship between artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and religion (primarily the Singularity, mind uploading, & sentient machines, but also Shinto and Buddhist ideas as they relate to the development of Japanese robotics). He is the author of Apocalyptic AI: Visions of Heaven in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality.
 
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Apocalyptic AI

 

Immagina uno studioso di religione che cominci ad appassionarsi dll'universo dei network, del mondo immateriale, della robotica e dell'intelligenza artificiale. E che indaghi i rapporti tra il nostro pensiero speculativo e le mille frontiere che la tecnologia ci sta facendo superare.
Il risultato -a metà tra analisi dello scenario e science fiction- potrebbe assomigliare a Apocalyptic AI: Visions of Heaven in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality, un libro di Robert Geraci, pubblicato nientemeno che dalla Oxford University Press. Qui trovi la scheda.
 - da leggere con curiosità

http://www.bookcafe.net/blog/blog.cfm?id=1221

 

Description

 

Apocalyptic AI, the hope that we might one day upload our minds into machines or cyberspace and live forever, is a surprisingly wide-spread and influential idea, affecting everything from the world view of online gamers to government research funding and philosophical thought. In Apocalyptic AI, Robert Geraci offers the first serious account of this "cyber-theology" and the people who promote it.

Drawing on interviews with roboticists and AI researchers and with devotees of the online game Second Life, among others, Geraci illuminates the ideas of such advocates of Apocalyptic AI as Hans Moravec and Ray Kurzweil. He reveals that the rhetoric of Apocalyptic AI is strikingly similar to that of the apocalyptic traditions of Judaism and Christianity. In both systems, the believer is trapped in a dualistic universe and expects a resolution in which he or she will be translated to a transcendent new world and live forever in a glorified new body. Equally important, Geraci shows how this worldview shapes our culture. For instance, Apocalyptic AI has influenced funding agencies such as the National Science Foundation, helping to prioritize robotics and AI research. It has become the ideology of choice for online gamers, such as those involved in Second Life; it has had a profound impact on the study of the mind; and it has inspired scientists and theologians alike to wonder about the super robots of the future. Should we think of robots as persons? What kind of morality would intelligent robots espouse?

Apocalyptic AI has become a powerful force in modern culture. In this superb volume, Robert Geraci shines a light on this belief system, revealing what it is and how it is changing society.

Features

• Integrates religion, science, technology, and social dynamics into a single worldview

Reviews

"What happens when a religious studies scholar enters the digital dream worlds of Artificial Intelligence? Robert Geraci shows us deities and devils in the details of some of the most ambitious predictions about our computational future. His cyberspace odyssey reveals that the transcendent aspirations of transhumanists are rooted in the earth of human history and culture."

--Stefan Helmreich, author of Silicon Second Nature: Culturing Artificial Life in a Digital World

"In this book Robert Geraci highlights how the apocalyptic world view found in Western religions today also appears in the unlikely fields of robotics, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality. Clearly written, rooted in extensive interviews, this book provides new insights into what motivates scientists to try to create computers with human traits and capacities."

--Noreen Herzfeld, author of In Our Image: Artificial Intelligence and the Human Spirit
"Robert Geraci's thoughtful examination of technology-based quests for transcendence offers a serious look at apocalyptic scenarios that, while remaining for now in the realm of science fiction, nonetheless claim significant cultural influence. I don't know when we will see robots with human-like intelligence, but our longing for them, and what that says about us, is what Geraci's book helps us understand.

--David S. Touretzky, Research Professor of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
 
http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/ReligionTheology/SociologyofReligion/?view=usa&ci=9780195393026