Upcoming Duke Philosophy Colloquium

[Nancy Pfeiffer]

Hello Everyone,

 

Our next Colloquium will be on Friday, March 21, 2025. The speaker is Eric Schwitzgebel, Professor of Philosophy, University of California, Riverside. His title and abstract follows:

 

Title: The Copernican Argument for Alien Consciousness; the Mimicry Argument Against Robot Consciousness 

 

Abstract: On broadly Copernican grounds, we are entitled to default assume that apparently behaviorally sophisticated extraterrestrial entities (“aliens”) would be conscious.  Otherwise, we humans would be inexplicably, implausibly lucky to have consciousness, while similarly behaviorally sophisticated entities elsewhere would be mere shells, devoid of consciousness.  However, this Copernican default assumption is canceled in the case of behaviorally sophisticated entities designed to mimic superficial features associated with consciousness (“consciousness mimics”), and in particular a broad class of current, near-future, and hypothetical robots.  These considerations jointly defeat an otherwise potentially attractive parity principle, according to which we should apply the same types of behavioral or cognitive tests to aliens and robots, attributing or denying consciousness similarly to the extent they perform similarly. 

 

Bio: Eric Schwitzgebel is a professor of philosophy at University of California, Riverside, specializing in philosophy of mind, moral psychology, and AI ethics. His most recent book is The Weirdness of the World. 

 

The Colloquium schedule is as follows: 

 

12:30 pm                        Grad student lunch with speaker 

2:00-2:45 pm                Coffee & Cookies in the Philosophy Lounge 

2:45-3:00 pm                Colloquium Set-up 

3:00-5:00 pm                Colloquium, West Duke Building, Room 202 

5:00-6:00 pm                Reception in the Philosophy Lounge 

 

We look forward to seeing you there! 

 

Duke Philosophy Department