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Untimely Meds The Most Radical Podcast on the InternetIn times of uncertainty, the only medication is untimely meditations Author: Jeremy B. Sheeler
Conversations attempting to get to the bottom of what the hell is going on today - beyond the news cycle, beyond the '"takes," beyond the so-called culture war. This show is radical (from the Latin radicalis, meaning roots) because what is sought is the origin of things, the foundations of the worldor at least our world. For in times of uncertainty, the only medication is untimely meditations. untimelymeds.substack.com Language: en Genres: Philosophy, Society & Culture Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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4 | The Image of AI ft. Eva Brann
Sunday, 28 April, 2024
This week I am once again joined by St. John’s College tutor emeritus Eva Brann. With us also is Siobhán Petersen, a fellow alum of the St. John’s Graduate Institute. Ms. Petersen is currently teaching a class on the Philosophy of AI at the Johns Hopkins Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Together we search for the essence of the mind of the machine—its relationship to our own and to the world. Is it an analogy or analogue, image or idea, artifact or artificer? Through the gateway of Book X of Plato’s Republic, we dive into the cave beneath the cave—a world of images of images of images—that AI threatens to create to see what of truth is reflected there. With the release of Chat GPT3 a year and half ago, the public was thrust into a new world that we (myself included) seem to understand little about. Our imaginations have been set ablaze with the possibilities of what could be accomplished with the increased power of machines that appear to be able to think and create for us. What new secrets of the universe might we unlock; what new tools and toys might we invent; in what ways might we even enhance human being; or alternatively, what new tragedies might we bring upon ourselves? The possibilities at the moment seem limitless—which, in my opinion, is always a dangerous proposition. By developing this revolutionary technology publicly, we seem to be performing a massive social experiment at scale, with little social control of how this new technology is to be implemented—and thus with little idea of what the outcome will be. What better book to utilize, then, for delving into such a discussion than Plato’s Republic—a work, that is at least nominally, about how to create the perfect society through the proper social and political mechanisms? Although a closer reading reveals that it is in fact a warning against such attempts, there really is no greater work in the Western tradition for stimulating such questions. And of course there is the greater fact that, as in Alfred North Whitehead’s formulation, all philosophy is simply “a series of footnotes to Plato.” So why settle for pale imitations, when you can get it straight from the source? (Plato, The Republic, 598b-d) Get full access to Untimely Meds at untimelymeds.substack.com/subscribe
