Susan Schneider 
Science Fiction and Philosophy 
From Time Travel to Superintelligence

A timely volume that uses science fiction as a springboard to meaningful philosophical discussions, especially at points of contact between science fiction and new scientific developments.

* Raises questions and examines timely themes concerning the nature of the mind, time travel, artificial intelligence, neural enhancement, free will, the nature of persons, transhumanism, virtual reality, and neuroethics

* Draws on a broad range of books, films and television series, including The Matrix, Star Trek, Blade Runner, Frankenstein, Brave New World, The Time Machine, and Back to the Future

* Considers the classic philosophical puzzles that appeal to the general reader, while also exploring new topics of interest to the more seasoned academic

Table of Content

Sources and Acknowledgments

Introduction

Thought Experiments: Science Fiction as a Window into
Philosophical Puzzles (Susan Schneider).

Part I: Could I be in a ‘Matrix’ or Computer
Simulation? Related Works: The Matrix; Permutation City; The 13th
Floor; Vanilla Sky; Total Recall; Animatrix

1. Brain in a Vat (John Pollock).

2. Are You In a Computer Simulation (Nick Bostrom).

3. Excerpt from The Republic Plato

4. Excerpt from The Meditations on First Philosophy (René
Descartes).

5. The Matrix as Metaphysics (David J. Chalmers).

Part II: What Am I? Free Will and the Nature of Persons
Related Works: Software; Star Trek, The Next Generation: Second
Chances; Mindscan; The Matrix; Minority Report

6. Where Am I (Daniel C. Dennett).

7. Personal Identity (Eric Olson).

8. Divided Minds and the Nature of Persons (Derek Parfit).

9. Who Am I? What Am I (Ray Kurzweil).

10. Free Will and Determinism in the World of Minority Report
(Michael Huemer).

11. Excerpt from ‘The Book of Life: A Thought
Experiment’ (Alvin I. Goldman).

Part III: Mind: Natural, Artificial, Hybrid, and
‘Super’ Related Works: 2001; Blade Runner; AI;
Frankenstein; Terminator; I, Robot

12. Robot Dreams (Isaac Asimov).

13. A Brain Speaks (Andy Clark).

14. The Mind as the Software of the Brain (Ned Block).

15. Cyborgs Unplugged (Andy Clark).

16. Consciousness in Human and Robot Minds (Daniel C.
Dennett).

17. Superintelligence and Singularity (Ray Kurzweil).

Part IV: Ethical and Political Issues Related Works: Brave
New World; Gattaca; Terminator; White Plague

18. The Man on the Moon (George J. Annas).

19. Mindscan: Transcending and Enhancing the Human (Brain Susan
Schneider).

20. The Doomsday Argument (John Leslie).

21. Asimov’s ‘Three Laws of Robotics’ and
Machine Metaethics (Susan Leigh Anderson).

22. Ethical Issues in Advanced Artificial Intelligence (Nick
Bostrom).

Part V: Space and Time Related Works: Twelve Monkeys;
Slaughterhouse Five; The Time Machine; Back to the Future;
Flatland: A Romance in Many Dimensions

23. A Sound of Thunder (Ray Bradbury).

24. Time (Theodore Sider).

25. The Paradoxes of Time Travel (David Lewis).

26. The Quantum Physics of Time Travel (David Deutsch and
Michael Lockwood).

27. Miracles and Wonders: Science Fiction as Epistemology
(Richard Hanley).

Index

About the author

Susan Schneider is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania, and a faculty member in Penn’s Neuroethics program, its Institute for Research in Cognitive Science, and its Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. She is also a fellow with the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. She is the author of numerous pieces in philosophy of mind, neuroethics, and metaphysics, and has co-edited The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007) with Max Velmans.