Course Code: PHIL 250
Academic Year: 2024-2025
Could you be living in a computer simulation? Could humans create an artificial being that is intelligent and self-aware? Is artificial intelligence dangerous? Would it be possible to travel back in time, meet your soulmate, and realize you have become your own grandparent? If you could build a just society from the stuff of imagination, what would it look like? In this course, we will examine these mind-bending questions and more through the works of renowned science fiction writers. Students will unravel, dissect, and critique the assumptions and arguments hidden within science fiction short stories and films. In so doing, they will investigate what it means to be human, the nature of knowledge, reality, and morality, and our responsibilities surrounding our technological creations.