Transhumanism as Modern-Day Necromancy
By: Philip Højme
Abstract: This essay seeks to engage critically with the transhumanist goal of achieving the technological possibility of transferring consciousness into a computer. The general aim of the critical impulse of this essay is to interpret the various techno-optimistic attempts at transcending the bodily condition of life as being a kind of modern-day necromancy. By alluding to the magical or ritual notion of necromancy, this essay will show how the rationale behind Transhumanism and mind-transfer are premised on a desire to overcome life itself by becoming immortal. Necromancy, whereby a sorcerer or practitioner suspends the dialectics of life and death, elevates the human to an inhuman position by attacking the very foundation of life itself – reviving the dead. This essay will juxtapose Transhumanism with necromancy by interpreting the goal to develop mind-transferring technologies in relation to texts that describe various technological means for practicing the art of necromancy or dark magic. By reinterpreting Transhumanism in this manner, this essay will show how the ritualistic, magical, or mythical foundations, that humanity had earlier called upon to overcome the fragility of their bodies have survived in the premises that underlining the modern-day endeavors to overcome the body via technological means.
Keywords: Death, Life, Necromancy, Technology, Transhumanism
Philip Højme (Hoejme) is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Graduate School for Social Research, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, at the Polish Academy of Sciences. Philip has previously published essays on Transhumanism (Scientia et Fides 2019), Democracy and riots (Itinerari 2021), Covid (Academia Letters 2021, Philosophies 2022), and bio-communism (in press). Philip's doctoral project is aimed at juxtaposing Critical Theory (Adorno) with third-wave feminism (Butler).
Smart Devices and the Capitalistic Subsumption of Knowledge: A New Function of Technology
By: Simone Murru
Abstract: Marx claimed that the primary function of technology in a capitalistic context is that of increasing the relative surplus value and, therefore, the rate of exploitation of the labor force. However, both in the Capital and in the Grundrisse he identifies a second, derived function: that of subsumption of knowledge to the capitalistic needs. Our thesis is that, even if smart technologies keep these two fundamental functions, they have brought to light a third function: a new form of subsumption of knowledge. We will see how the latter concerns not only the production process but also our daily life, and how it is based on data, the “raw material” of knowledge. Furthermore, we will argue that this new function of technology does not result from the degeneration of capitalism, but from its essential laws of motion: the need for this new form of knowledge subsumption has been always hidden in the structural uncertainty of the process of accumulation, which has never been peacefully accepted by the capitalists. Today, the latter has the instruments to partially reduce this uncertainty, and the anguish resulting from it.
Keywords: Marxism; the function of technology; smart technologies; capitalism; big data; subsumption of knowledge.
Simone Murru is currently a graduate student in Philosophy at the University of Pavia and at the IUSS Pavia School for Advanced Studies.
His research is centered on the relation between knowledge, technology, and society from a Marxist perspective. After having analyzed how informational asymmetries played a central role in the rise of the Mesopotamic bureaucracy and in the beginning of exploitation during the Uruk period, he is currently focusing on the history of capitalistic subsumption of knowledge. More specifically, he is studying the impact of new information and communication technologies on the traditional Marxian theory of technology and innovation.
Murru’s future works will be dedicated to contemporary surveillance, ever more based on big data extraction and management, and to how it can be analyzed by means of the fundamental Marxist categories as exploitation, alienation and labor.
Big Data in Contemporary Science: Methodological and Ethical Implications for Everyday Life
By: Edna Alves de Souza, José Artur Quilici-Gonzalez, and Maria Eunice Gonzalez
Abstract: To what extent have techniques for recording and analyzing massive amounts of data, also known as Big Data, influenced scientific methodology? This question guides the present interdisciplinary reflection concerning the contemporary digital culture, and its ethical implications. We investigate the concepts of causality and correlation, arguing that data, organized by mining, analysis, and modeling techniques, may show correlation, but not necessarily causation. While acknowledging current controversy concerning the relevance of Big Data analysis in the scientific methodology, here we argue that in contrast to causal associations, correlation is unable to reveal the reason for the occurrence of events, only signaling what could be happening in specific locations and situations. Nonetheless, the study of correlations can be of great help for decision-making in many areas of science, politics, and economics, among others. Considering the analytical methodology of Big Data resources, which favors the study of correlations, rather than causal analysis, we also discuss some ethical implications of the use of Big Data analytics in scientific methodology, which might reverberate in everyday life.
Keywords: Causality, Correlation, Data-mining, Scientific method, Digital culture, Ethics.
Edna Alves de Souza obtained the title of Doctor in Philosophy from the Faculty of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences of the University of São Paulo (FFLCH-USP) in 2014. She was a postdoctoral researcher in the Postgraduate Program in Philosophy, at the University of São Paulo State (UNESP), and she is currently a Lecturer at the Philosophy department of UNESP. She participated in the project “Understanding Opinion and Language Dynamics Using Massive Data”, which received financial support from FAPESP. Her main research interests concern the topics of scientific methodology, scientific realism, cognitive relativism, rationality, truth, information, complexity, and Big Data. Since 1999, she has been a member of the Academic Group for Cognitive Studies (GAEC-UNESP) and the Interdisciplinary Group of the Centre for Logic, Epistemology and History of Science (CLE-UNICAMP). She has articles and book chapters published in the areas of Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Technology, and Philosophy of Information.
José Artur Quilici-Gonzalez holds a degree in Electronic Engineering, a PhD in Microelectronics, and is currently Assistant Professor of Digital Systems and Data Mining at the Federal University of ABC (Brazil). A topic of interest to Quilici-Gonzalez is the great impact that Big Data is having on the method of scientific research. Traditionally, faced with a problem, the researcher formulates a hypothesis and starts experiments to confirm or reject the hypothesis. Now, with the resources of Big Data, the researcher can start the work by seeking correlations among available data. These correlations may be used as research hypotheses. The use of Big Data brings the risk of spurious correlations, but the traditional way of doing research has the risk of "confirmation bias", where the researcher guides the work based on prior beliefs. With due consideration of these two types of problems, a major innovation of scientific research starting with correlations is that this form of research can be fully automated, with little or no human involvement.
Maria Eunice Gonzalez has a BSc in Physics and an MSc in Logic and Philosophy of Science. Her PhD thesis “A Cognitive Approach to Visual Perception” was completed in 1989 at the University of Essex, UK. She is a lecturer at the Philosophy Department of UNESP, and a member of both the Research Group on Cognitive Studies, at UNESP, and the group on self-organization, at UNICAMP. She is one of the Latin American representatives of the International Complex Systems Society. Her main interest is in the interdisciplinary analysis of philosophical, ethical, and political issues related to the influence of Big Data and ubiquitous computing resources in autonomous decision-making processes. She is also interested in the semiotic foundations of Information and its role in directing individual and collective actions. She claims that the indiscriminate use of ubiquitous computing in decision-making processes seems to be beyond the reach of clear ethical control; however, the complex systems perspective may help us to foresee possible long-term positive and negative consequences of human choices, in areas where autonomous actions can be directly affected by informational technologies. From 2017 to 2021, she coordinated the Brazilian team of the Trans-Atlantic Project: Understanding Opinion and Language Dynamics Using Massive Data (http://bv.fapesp.br/pt/auxilios/98097/compreendendo-a-dinamica-da-opiniao-e-da-linguagem-utilizando-big-data/).
What the West Can Learn from China: The Pros and Cons of Artificial Intelligence
by: Pankaj Singh, University of Petroleum and Energy, Dehradun, India
Abstract: As a catch-all term for the most recent revolutionary leap in human civilization, artificial intelligence has gained widespread acceptance. It is employed in almost every aspect of life. However, any revolution must have an impact on the society in which it occurs. The most current developments in the field of artificial intelligence are discussed and analyzed in this paper. The paper also investigates the impact of these advances on human society. It touches on both the positive and negative elements of AI's effect on society. It also makes predictions about what artificial intelligence may bring in the future. It goes into great depth about China's amazing advances in artificial intelligence. It delves deeper into what it implies for the Chinese people. Finally, it talks more about how the west can learn from the AI story of China giving an overview of how AI could be used and misused in a number of different fields.
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Data; Ethics; Self-driving Cars; Machine Learning
Pankaj Singh is an Assistant Professor at the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies in Dehradun, India. His doctorate work centers on the Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Cognitive Science, and Philosophy of Science from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India. Over his academic career, Mr. Singh has also written on philosophical subjects that include pop culture, Indian Philosophy, management studies, and critical thinking among others.
Human-robots Interaction: A Philosophical Framework for Social and Political Assessment
by: Valeria Martino, Ph.D., University of Turin
Abstract:
The European Parliament’s Resolution of 16 February 2017 about Robotics, paragraph 50 deals with the possibility of joint actions made by human beings and robots. Dealing with joint actions, however, entails speaking of sharing goals, values, norms, plans, etc. and, as a consequence, it seems to assume only people being involved. The paper is intended to explore what it means to attribute joint actions to human-robot interaction. It starts from the description of a general account of joint actions as interpersonal actions and takes into consideration the possibility for the human-robot couple to be the subject of such a kind of action. In order to better explain this point, the paper takes the interaction with a social robot as PARO as an example. In this way, we can elucidate to what extent and in which sense such an interaction can be defined as social and, thus, give birth to genuine joint actions. Indeed, such an analysis seems necessary in order to deal with the possibility of attributing responsibility to robots – i.e., another important point highlighted by the Resolution itself, which wonders if it is necessary to create a specific legal status for robots, i.e., that of ‘electronic person’. Indeed, sociality and responsibility seem to be very related concepts; is it possible to attribute the latter to someone who can only simulate the first? A theoretical framework seems necessary in order to understand social and political implications of some assumptions we risk to take for granted.
Keywords: Joint action; Human-robot interaction; Sociality; Responsibility.
Valeria Martino is a Post-Doc Fellow at the University of Turin. She has been a member of Labont (Laboratory for Ontology) in Turin since 2017. She obtained her PhD in Theoretical Philosophy at FINO Consortium (Northwestern Italian Philosophy Consortium), Italy with a thesis entitled Online groups: a holist, documental, and realistic theory. Her research interests lie in social ontology, with a focus on groups and the relationship between group and individuals. She has an MA degree in Philosophy at the University of Turin (Italy) and a BA degree in Philosophy on Aristotle and Hobbes at the University of Pisa (Italy).