How to Avoid a Robotic Apocalypse: A Consideration on the Future Developments of AI, Emergent Consciousness, and the Frankenstein Effect

Abstract

One of the greatest compliments I've ever received came from a gentleman who approached me after I had delivered a paper in Vancouver, British Columbia. He said: "You're from the future, aren't you?" He was responding to the manner in which I had considered logical entailments of how future episodes may play out. Although I was trained as a philosopher of science, the majority of my work for the last two decades has been interdisciplinary and collaborative with other fields in the social and physical sciences. As a pioneer in my field - sometimes referred to as experimental philosophy - I often employ the use of thought experiments or "what if?" scenarios to imagine possible future worlds. Thought experiments have been around for thousands of years; from Plato's allegory of the cave (Figure 1), to Rene Descartes' malin genie (Figure 2), to Hilary Putnam's brains in vats (Figure 3).