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Blindsight
It raises interesting questions as to the *ends* of intelligence, the relationship between intelligence and consciousness or sentience, and the place of humanity in a universe where sentient, conscious beings no longer have a monopoly on intelligence. -
The Burnout Society
While this work does not address AI by name, it is a great entry point into Han's thinking. He is arguably one of the most influential, popular, and important current philosophers, writers, and social critics. AND, he is alive and actively writing and contributing to current thought.
Rather than living in a punishment society and panopticon as described in Foucault's work, Han expertly focuses the lens to reveal an excess positivity (as in the addition of things not the quality of something as a positive or negative experience), false freedom, false transparency, and how all this contributes to being an ""achievement society"". We are achievement subjects in our own individual projects of self, that digital capitalism, big tech and big data, and neoliberalism have reinforced, in particular through the internet, giving up of our data to big tech companies, and social media. He goes on to build on this idea in other important works that I would suggest be a part of this collection: ""The Crisis of Narration"", ""Psychopolitics"", and ""Infocracy"".
We are taking in more information than we can actually handle, which he has talked about or framed as also being in an ""Information Society"" rather than a ""Knowledge/Widsom Society."" We ""sell"" our stories and data rather than connect with people communally, via ritual ,via third spaces, via group projects and community organizations or places of worship, and instead must produce, achieve, and prove ourselves not just to others but ourselves. In this way, Han would suggest that AI, part of big data and the internet and this Information Age, enhancing productivity, and infiltrating our lives and the information presented to us, creates a false freedom that actually exploits it. Everything is tracked, and could be use to control and manipulate us.
He suggests the antidotes are to not participate in these systems or technologies to the extent that we can, to slow down, to be present with activities like gardening, community interaction, walking, contemplative time, and an active ""inactivity/passivity"" whereby we stop trying to ceaselessly respond to everyone and live rather than survive. Again, while Han does not write about AI specifically, he talks about the systems, structures, and phenomena beyond AI that threaten human flourishing and are already damaging it. AI talks about efficiency but also removes meaning whereby we might have less friction to find that book, article, or record we were looking for, the mystery or journey in trying to get something done that then gives us spontaneity and a real story and experience. In just getting anything you want delivered to your home, via suggested products from big tech and AI, or sponsored Ads on a social media platform, one does not have to venture into the world and actually connect with people and search to find something. This begs the question, is this living, much less, human flourishing? -
Gattaca
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. -
All Things Are Full of Gods: The Mysteries of Mind and Life
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. -
What’s in a Name? Experimental Evidence of Gender Bias in Recommendation Letters Generated by ChatGPT
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. -
Using Artificial Intelligence for Bible Translation and Interpretation
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. -
Braving the Future: Christian Faith in a World of Limitless Tech
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. -
SimChurch: Being the Church in the Virtual World
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. -
Can you see the seer? An Advaita Vedānta approach to Consciousness
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). -
The Great Gatsby
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.