The Fifth Head of Cerberus dramatizes the fragility and constructedness of identity in a way that feels urgent in the age of AI. Through stories of cloning, memory, and colonial domination, Wolfe forces us to confront how the self may not be some sort of indivisible essence but something that is shaped, copied, and manufactured.
As AI begins to challenge our assumptions about consciousness, creativity, and authenticity, Wolfe’s work is obviously relevant. It suggests that flourishing may not come from rigidly defending the boundaries of traditional ideas on humanity, rather we need to cultivate a new understanding grounded in humility. We need to gain a new sense of humility in acknowledging that human consciousness and creativity are not sovereign or absolute, but part of a larger ecology of intelligences, whether AI or institutional.
The Fifth Head of Cerberus reminds us that human flourishing in the age of AI may depend less on superiority or mastery, and more on our willingness to reimagine what it means to be human: as a shared, ongoing project of recognition, responsibility, and renewal.
AI makes consideration of a post-scarcity society far more than theoretical. If automation can take care of humanity’s necessities then the ennui and boundless leisure time that many of the characters in Gatsby grapple with will become fixtures of most people’s lives. Understanding Fitzgerald’s portrayal of the perils of hedonistic lifestyles can inform human understanding of the risks that could prevent flourishing as a result of endless leisure time.
I want to nominate this work because it should be a critical part of the discussion between AI and Consciousness, especially as understood from the Vedantic perspective. AI provokes fascinating questions about the nature of knowledge and consciousness, and the Vedantic perspective provides fascinating insight the oneness of all beings, insight into the limited body-mind consciousness in the relative world and the absolute consciousness; and illumines human flourishing by leading humanity to turn within to understand the non-difference between the relative (self) and the absolute (Self).
Estes is one of the few theologians with optimism for AI. This book emphasizes how technologically enhancements can benefit even the church. This work was recently cited in an article in The Atlantic for pioneering engagement among evangelicals.
Estes is one of the few theologians who has a positive take on the ability of AI to increase human flourishing. Some positive voices are needed for your canon also.
Several chapters focus on how humans understand AI, and how AI affects the way we read and interpret the Bible. The rest of the chapters address AI and the changes coming to promote the Bible in thousands of new languages.
This was an empirical study that aimed to characterize evidence of gender bias in ChatGPT. Understanding social biases in generative AI is key to understanding of human flourishing in the age of AI.
Hart's "All Things are Full of Gods" addresses the nature of soul, consciousness, and the human as being participating in Being. The book is structured as a socratic dialogue between the gods Eros, Hermes, Psyche, and Hephaestus. Across multiple days they debate the naturalistic-mechanistic view of the world, exhausting all of its philosophical ramifications — and finding again and again the elusive consciousness and being that elude capture in their grip. Relevant to the subject at hand, Hart devotes sizeable portions of his text to an investigation of how we come to conceptualize ourselves as the machines we create, in the process losing sight of what ultimately and definitively distinguishes us from them.
It anticipates a dystopic future in which human beings will be measured by their talents in order to predict their future and reproduction of the human species will be controlled on the basis of each human being's DNA potential. The picture shows what we fail to grasp if we try to measure reality and anticipate what individuals can do, achieve, and strive for.
