Page 340 - Data Science Algorithms in a Week

In: Artificial Intelligence ISBN: 978-1-53612-677-8
Editors: L. Rabelo, S. Bhide and E. Gutierrez © 2018 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 14

EXPLORATIONS OF THE ‘TRANSHUMAN’ DIMENSION

OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE


Bert Olivier
Department of Philosophy, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa

ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the implications of what may be called the ‘transhuman’
dimension of artificial intelligence (AI), which is here understood as that which goes
beyond the human, to the point of being wholly different from it. In short, insofar as
intelligence is a function of artificially intelligent beings, these are recognised as being
ontologically distinct from humans as embodied, affective, intelligent beings. When such
distinctness is examined more closely, the differences between AI and being-human
appear more clearly. The examination in question involves contemporary AI-research,
which here includes the work of David Gelernter, Sherry Turkle and Christopher
Johnson, as well as fictional projections of possible AI development, based on what
already exists today. Different imagined scenarios regarding the development of AI,
including the feature film, Her (Jonze 2013) and the novel, Idoru (Gibson 1996), which
involves virtual reality in relation to artificial intelligence, are examined.

Keywords: affection, android, artificial intelligence, embodiment, human, mind,
robotics, transhuman

 Corresponding Author Email: OlivierG1@ufs.ac.za