“Artificial Intelligence, Transhumanism, and Gods of Data”
- Datum: 4 februari 2025, kl. 10.00–12.00
- Plats: Engelska parken, 2-K1023
- Typ: Seminarium
- Föreläsare: Mikael Stenmark, Carl Öhman
- Arrangör: WASP-HS
- Kontaktperson: Yulia Razmetaeva
This seminar is arranged by researchers in the WASP-HS projects “The Artificial Public Servant”, “Artificial Intelligence, Democracy and Human Dignity”, Mikael Stenmark, Professor of Philosophy of Religion, Department of Theology, Uppsala University, and Carl Öhman, Assistant Professor, Department of Government, Uppsala University.
Date: 4th February 2025 (Tuesday)
Place: 2-K1023, Engelska parken.
Time: 10.00-12.00. Wrap lunch will be provided from 12.00 to 12.45.
For any questions, please, contact Yulia Razmetaeva (CRS, Uppsala University), yulia.razmetaeva@crs.uu.se
A Transhumanistic Worldview
Mikael Stenmark, Professor of Philosophy of Religion, Department of Theology, Uppsala University
Transhumanism started as an elite worldview but has reached a vast audience through popular films and books and has even been called the new religion or ideology of certain parts of the world, such as Silicon Valley in California. Its significance in today’s highly technological society is profound and certainly will be even more so in the future. In this talk, I will identify some key elements in this new emerging worldview and state some of its challenges. I will classify transhumanism as a secular worldview, although certain forms of religiosity may be compatible with it. At the core of transhumanism is the idea of re-evaluating the entire human situation as traditionally conceived. We should actively try to create transhumans and, eventually, posthumans. Transhumans (or Humanity 2.0) are transitional humans, moderately or majorly enhanced humans, whose capacities would be somewhere between those of unaugmented humans (or Humanity 1.0) and full-blown posthumans. To be transhuman is to be in a conscious transition to the next evolutionary phase of what counts as human; to be posthuman is to be a member of a new, consciously designed species. The transhumanist core value consists of the normative claim that by using biotechnology and AI, we should radically change, improve, or refine humanity, even to the extent that we create a new species, the posthuman. This is the idea of radical human enhancement.
Gods of Data: Religious Critique Applied to AI
Carl Öhman, Assistant Professor, Department of Government, Uppsala University
Abstract: Everyone agrees that artificial intelligence (AI) is dangerous. But how we perceive the nature of its dangers depends on the concepts and metaphors we use for it. So, what are AI models? ‘Synthetic minds’ that may escape their confines and destroy humanity? ‘Stochastic parrots’ that reify a racist and sexist past? Or perhaps ‘mirrors of code’ that distort reality? This project sets out to develop an alternative answer: They are gods. In a theological sense, gods refer to supernatural beings beyond time and space. This is nothing like any form of AI. In an anthropological sense, however, gods are rather to be seen as the personified authority of a group over time—a social mechanism that molds a collective of ancestors into a unified voice. And this is exactly what AI models have become—vast volumes of past data compressed into a single agency, a personification of our digital ancestors. Why is this analogy important? Because it allows us to review the dangers of AI in a completely new light. Specifically, it opens the door to religious critique—one of the richest traditions of Western thought—as a depository of critical perspectives applicable to AI. As indicated by a preliminary study, this approach holds exceptional promise. It allows us to move far beyond the ‘usual suspects’ that dominate the current debate. The goal of the proposed project is to pursue this promise; To mobilize the theoretical resources accumulated over centuries of religious critique and use them as a basis for new critical perspectives on the political, ethical and social dimensions of AI.