Prosthetic Gods
Welcome to “Prosthetic Gods,” the podcast where bioethicist James Hughes and philosopher Nir Eisikovits engage in spirited debates on the ethics and politics of emerging technologies. Hughes, a pro-technology transhumanist, and Eisikovits, with his Luddite stance, explore topics from brain-computer interfaces to artificial intelligence. Tune in and explore the promise and perils of technological advancements with us!
Episodes
This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J discuss the tradeoffs of GLP1 drugs. Their use has reversed the obesity epidemic and has proven to have myriad medical and psychological benefits. But they also come with risks, and are seen as a technofix replacing the need for diets. Are GLP1s another step to the posthuman body, and is that a good or bad thing?
Errata: The first GLP1s were appro...
This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J discuss the role of disgust in morality. Neuroscience suggests that feelings of disgust underlie many moral judgments, especially in the treatment of sexuality. Conservatives have long defended disgust as a source of moral intuition, while liberals seek to minimize it. Can we suppress disgust? Should we?
Show Notes:Dr. Nicholas Christakis is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University and the Director of the Human Nature Lab. His research sits at the intersection of the social, biological, and computational sciences, exploring how our evolutionary biology and social network structures shape human behavior, health, and society. His groundbreaking work on "s...
In this special live episode of Prosthetic Gods, we bring you a night of big ideas recorded on April 2nd at the Music Hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Presented as part of the University of New Hampshire's Sidore Lecture Series, "Artificial Intelligence and Human Values" gathered three le...
This week on Prosthetic Gods we are talking to Sven Nyholm about his new book The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence. If our thinking relies on external media, where do we stop and the AIs start? What is the moral status of LLMs? Are they sentient? Are AI relationships any good? And should we raise robots like children?
Sven Nyholm is Professor of the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence a...
This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J talk about the distinctive ethical issues raised by the humanoid robots coming to homes and workplaces. Their presence and human-like form elicit unique responses compared to those of non-embodied AI. The appearance of a robot can manipulate human empathy and consent; robotic caregiving could be used as a pretext to dismantle the social safety net, and robot lover...
This week on Prosthetic Gods, J and Nir are talking to Alan Rozenshtein, professor of Law at the University of Minnesota, senior editor of Lawfare, fellow at Brookings, and former attorney at the Justice Department specializing in national defense. We talked about the legal and political implications of the Trump administration’s conflict with...
This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir is interrogating an essay by J. on Buddhism, enhancement, and the self. They discuss the appeal of Buddhism for teenage Hughes, and how Buddhism reconciles a radical deconstruction of the self with moral commitment and principles.
Show Notes:Buddhism and Our Posthuman Future - J. Hughes
Cyborg Buddha - A conversation with transhumanist James Hughes
This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J are discussing the hit Apple TV show Pluribus. Created by Vince Gilligan, the show runner of Breaking Bad, the show explores a world taken over by a very nice hive mind that wants to give you anything you want. Would you take advantage of the perks, appreciate that the hive reduced humanity’s suffering, or fight like hell to give us all back our miserable individuality?
...This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J. discuss the simulation hypothesis, the idea that we may actually be living in the Matrix. We discuss its religious and philosophical precedents, Bostrom’s classic argument, and the contemporary physics that some think supports the idea.
Show Notes:Are we living in a computer simulation? I don’t know. Probably.
This week on Prosthetic Gods, J and Nir discuss “moral enhancement,” the use of drugs and devices to promote moral sentiments, cognition, and behavior. Is it any different from drinking coffee instead of alcohol when you go to work? What might the unintended consequences be of making ourselves more compassionate? Is happiness a virtue?
Show Notes:Should you be able to marry your chatbot? Should it be allowed to own property? In this episode of Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J discuss the proposed law in Ohio banning AI personhood. Listen before you make any rash decisions!
Show Notes:This week on Prosthetic Gods Nir and J. chat with astronomer Avi Loeb about the mysteries of our interstellar visitor, 3I/Atlas. Is there a systemic bias in astronomy against the possibility of non-natural explanations for odd astronomical objects? What is the relationship of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence in our galaxy, in our solar system, and in our...
This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J discuss the Netflix movie House of Dynamite, a nuclear war drama by Kathryn Bigelow.
Show Notes:
“The age of AI-powered cyberattacks is here”
Meet Project Suncatcher, a research moonshot to scale machine learning compute in space.
Anomalies of 3I/ATLAS, Organized by Likelihood by Avi Loeb
Peter Thiel's fund offloaded Nvidia stake in third quarter, filing show...
This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J chat with Jose Marichal, professor of political science at California Lutheran University, and author of You Must Become an Algorithmic Problem. He is, according to a chatbot, a critical-democratic institutionalist who focuses on everyday algorithmic power and citizen agency.
Find out more about Dr. Marichal and his work via his websi...
This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J. speak with Yuval Levin, one of the most insightful and influential conservative thinkers in America today. As the Director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute and the Editor-in-Chief of National Affairs, Levin's work consistently anchors contemporary political debates in deep institutiona...
This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J. discuss the prospects for colonizing Mars and space in general. Why do people want to try? How feasible are space colonization schemes?
Show Notes:SpaceX Mars Colonization “Plan”
Meta launches AI-powered smart glasses
On this week’s Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J. discuss the role and history of technology in religious practice. Are emerging technologies just another means of interfacing with religion, or do they challenge the underpinnings of earnest engagement with religious belief?
Show Notes:Philosophy Prof. John Kaag Links AI with Famous Writers and Thinkers for 'Talking' E-Books
On this week’s Prosthetic Gods Nir and J. talk about J’s advocacy of “technoprogressivism.” What is it, and what is it supposed to accomplish? How is it different from techno-utopianism or other leftist ideologies?
Show Notes:This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J. discuss the philosophical theory of longtermism, that we should take the interests of hypothetical future people as seriously as existing people.
Plus! Listeners can contact us at prostheticgods@gmail.com! Reach out with questions, topics you want to hear more about, or just to say hi. As Nir says, "All complaints go somewhere else." 😂
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