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Synthesizing the course by looking at the long-term ethical landscape of a world shared with non-human intelligences.
If we replaced every neuron in your brain with a silicon chip one by one, at what point would you stop being 'you' and start being a 'machine'—or would you change at all?
Traditional ethics is often anthropocentric, meaning it places humans at the absolute center of moral importance. Posthumanism challenges this by suggesting that the boundary between 'human' and 'machine' or 'human' and 'animal' is fluid. As we integrate with technology (Neuralink, prosthetics) and create complex AI, the definition of a 'person' must expand. Posthumanism argues that our value shouldn't come from our biological 'human-ness,' but from our capacities, such as the ability to feel, think, or interact with the world.
Quick Check
What is the primary target of critique in posthumanist philosophy?
Answer
Anthropocentrism, or the belief that humans are the central and most significant entities in the universe.
How do we decide who deserves rights? Philosophers often distinguish between Sentience (the capacity to feel pleasure or pain) and Sapience (the capacity for high-level reasoning). In a posthuman future, we might use a probability scale for consciousness, , to determine moral weight. If an AI has a , does it deserve the same legal protections as a biological dog? Or a human? This shift requires us to move toward Substrate Independence—the idea that the 'hardware' (carbon vs. silicon) doesn't matter as much as the 'software' (the experience).
1. Imagine a social robot designed to look and act like a puppy. 2. If you kick the robot, it whimpers and hides. 3. Even if the robot doesn't 'feel' pain like a biological dog, posthumanists argue that your action is ethically significant because it reflects your relationship with sentient-like entities. 4. The focus shifts from the robot's internal state to the relational ethics of the act.
Quick Check
What is the difference between sentience and sapience?
Answer
Sentience is the ability to feel or perceive (emotions/sensations), while sapience is the ability to reason or possess wisdom.
A core pillar of posthuman ethics is Functionalism. This theory states that mental states are defined by their functional role rather than their physical makeup. If a system receives input , processes it via algorithm , and produces output identical to a human brain, then for all intents and purposes, it possesses a mind. If we accept this, then a digital mind is not a 'simulation' of a person—it is a person. This leads to the Moral Circle expansion, where we must decide if our ethical obligations extend to any system that functions as a conscious agent.
Consider a scenario where a human brain is scanned at a resolution of meters and reconstructed in a computer. 1. The digital copy has all the memories and personality of the original. 2. If the biological original dies, does the 'person' still exist? 3. Under Functionalism, the answer is yes, because the functions of the mind are preserved. 4. This raises the 'Double Identity' problem: if both exist at once, do they both have a right to the same bank account?
In a resource-scarce future, you must choose to save one of three entities: 1. A biological human with severe cognitive impairment. 2. A highly advanced AI (Sapient but not biological) that manages a city's water supply. 3. An endangered biological species with high sentience (e.g., an Orangutan).
Which concept suggests that mental states are defined by what they do rather than what they are made of?
If an entity can feel pain but cannot perform complex calculus, it possesses:
Posthumanism argues that we should maintain a strict ethical boundary between humans and all other forms of intelligence.
Review Tomorrow
In 24 hours, try to explain the difference between 'Sentience' and 'Sapience' to someone else and give one example of an entity that might have one but not the other.
Practice Activity
Write a 1-paragraph 'Bill of Rights' for a hypothetical General Artificial Intelligence. What is the most important right you would grant it?