Virtuality: Philosophical and Experimental Approaches 3700-AL-VPEA-OG

The leading question of the seminar is resolutely anthropocentric: to what extent is it theoretically and practically possible and worthwhile to discriminate between virtual and non-virtual human life?

We will explore this question with the help of authors who reflected specifically on AI (such as Christian, Chalmers, and Harari); philosophers who predated the digital revolution (such as Bergson, Merleau-Ponty, and Deleuze); filmmakers (such as Jonze, Clapin, and Ree). We will also seek help from a psychologist (Gibson) and a theologian of AI (O’Gieblyn). Our reflection will oscillate between, on the one hand, a broad conceptualization trying to encompass metaphysics, ethics, philosophy of the mind and perception psychology, and on the other hand, a very concrete, practical experimentation with computer-generated virtual environments and interactions.

The readings of the seminar will be composed of approachable philosophical essays as well as literary and cinematographic works. They will be introduced through short lectures, to provide the basis for philosophical considerations and historical contextualization. The readings will be assigned in advance and equipped with indications regarding the issues to be considered while preparing for the seminar discussion. The in-class discussion will be conducted in English and will be closely related to the assigned readings and films viewings. Students will have the option of doing their written work in English or Polish.

Starting in the seventh week of the semester students will be invited to work on their individual (or team) Experimental Projects. The results of the Experimental Projects will be shared among participants of the seminar for peer review.

The course has three main goals:
• To train students’ interpretative skills through reading philosophical texts and viewing movies devoted to philosophical conceptualizations of virtuality.
• To foster a constructive exchange of ideas in an academic setting.
• To promote the students’ original conceptualization of fundamental questions pertaining to the topic of the course.
• To encourage controlled experiments with AI aiming at exploring its ethical, psychological and metaphysical implications.
The goal of this class is not to promote any particular philosophical or ideological agenda.

Plan of the course:

[UNIT 1] Virtual World
• February 17: Alexander Weinstein, “The Cartographers” (2016)
• February 24: Brian Christian, The Most Human Human. What Artificial Intelligence Teaches Us About Being Alive (2011)
• March 3: Yuval Harari, Nexus (2024)

[UNIT 2] Virtuality Value
• March 10: Brian Christian, The Alignment Problem. Machine Learning and Human Values (2020)
• March 17: David J. Chalmers, Reality +. Virtual Worlds and Problems of Philosophy (2022)
• March 24: Benjamin Ree, The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (2024)

 March 31: Experimental Projects: Brainstorming

[UNIT 3] Virtual Perception
• April 7: Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception (1945)
• April 14: James J. Gibson, The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception (1979)
• April 28: Jérémy Clapin, I Lost My Body (2019); Experimental Projects: Proposals

[UNIT 4] Virtual Vitality
• May 5: Henri Bergson, Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness (1889)
• May 12: Gilles Deleuze, Difference and Repetition (1968)
• May 19: Spike Jonze, Her (2013);
Experimental Projects: Reports on Progress
• May 26: Meghan O’Gieblyn, God in the Machine (2019)

 June 2: Experimental Projects: Projects Presentations

Course Materials: They will be available on the Moodle page of the course. To get access to this webpage, please contact Prof. Miernowski immediately after registering at jmiernow@wisc.edu

Type of course

general courses

Prerequisites (description)

The only prerequisite is to be able to do the readings in English. The written work will be done either in English or Polish, according to the individual choice of the student (students are also welcome to do their written work in French if they wish to do so). Unless they receive my specific instructions within the framework of a research project, students are not allowed to submit material generated by ChatGPT or any other Large Language Model. They can use ChatGPT for editorial purposes of the work they wrote themselves, on the condition however that they specify in writing the extent of ChatGPT use and provide the prompt as well as the original version of their work they submitted to ChatGPT.

Learning outcomes

MA Student:
K_W02 knows how to use terms used in humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences
K_W04 knows how to use methods of analysis and interpretation of scholarly texts
K_W06 knows how to use various methods of analysis and interpretation of cultural texts and artworks

MA Student:
K_U02 knows how to select and apply specific research tools to analyse artworks, scholarly publications, and visual materials
K_U05 knows how to use interdisciplinary research methods to analyse various cultural phenomena
K_U06 knows how to participate in academic conferences, symposiums, and debates
K_U07 knows how to complete an academic writing assignment using digital solutions and respecting the principles of protection of intellectual property
K_U08 knows how to analyse scholarly publications in the area of humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences in Polish and a foreign language
K_U09 has a good command of a foreign language at the upper-intermediate level
K_U10 knows how to outline and deliver a speech for target audiences
K_U11 understands and knows how to implement the principles of teamwork

MA Student:
K_K03 is competent to carry out a self-appointed task using appropriate solutions and methods
K_K05 is empathetic and respects the cultural diversity of a community
K_K06 respects the cultural and natural heritage of a community
K_K07 respects the cultural and natural diversity of a community

Assessment criteria

In order to be successful in this class you should:
- read and annotate carefully all the required readings and work on all the required lectures
- participate actively in all the in-class discussions
- strive to develop your own personal interpretation of readings and your own conceptualization of problems under discussion
- respect the deadlines of all the assignments in this course.

The final grade of the course is composed of:

- 50% for the semester-long Experimental Project;

- 30% for quizzes written during the semester. The quizzes will have the form of “take home exams”: the students will have up to 48 hours to complete each quiz and they will be allowed to use any notes or library sources they wish (all sources must be acknowledged). 3 out of 4 best grades for the quizzes will count toward the final grade.

- 20% for the preparation of readings and film viewings, as demonstrated by the assiduity and the quality of participation in the discussions in class.

Bibliography

[selective]:
- Alizart, Marc, Informatique céleste, Paris, Puf, 2017.
- Andler, Daniel, Intelligence artificielle, intelligence humaine : la double énigme, Paris, Gallimard, 2023.
- Bender, Emily, et als, “On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big?,” FAccT ’21, March 3–10, 2021, Virtual Event, Canada, ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-8309-7/21/03. https://doi.org/10.1145/3442188.3445922
- Brooker, Charlie, Be Right Back, 2013.
- Chabot, Pascal, ChatBot le Robot. Drame philosophique en quatre questions et cinq actes, Paris, Puf, 2016.
- Chalmers, David, Reality +. Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy, Norton, New York, 2022.
- Chalmers, David, The Conscious Mind. In Search of Fundamental Theory, Oxford University Press, 1996.
- Changeux, Jean-Pierre, and Paul Ricoeur, What Makes Us Think? Princeton, Princeton UP, 2000 [1998].
- Christian, Brian, The Alignment Problem. Machine Learning and Human Values, New York, W. W. Norton, 2020.
- Christian, Brian, The Most Human Human. What Artificial Intelligence Teaches Us About Being Alive? New York, Anchor Books, 2011.
- Coleman, Flynn, A Human Algorithm. How Artificial Intelligence Is Redefining Who We Are, Berkeley, CA, Couterpoint, 2019.
- Deleuze, Gilles, Différence et Répétition, Paris, PUF, 1968.
- Deleuze, Gilles, Logique du sens, Paris, Éditions de Minuit, 1969.
- Devlin, Kate, Turned On: Science, Sex and Robots, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018.
- Ferraris, Maurizio, Âme et iPad, Montréal, Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 2014 [2011 for the Italian original]
- Ferraris, Maurizio, Where Are You? An Ontology of the Cell Phone, New York, Fordham UP, 2014 [original Italian edition 2009].
- Garland, Alex, Ex Machina, 2015.
- Gibson, James, J., The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception, Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1979.
- Harari, Yuval Noah, Nexus. A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI, New York, Random House, 2024.
- Jonze, Spike, Her, 2013.
- Jonze, Spike, I’m here, 2010.
- Ludlow, Peter et als (ed.), There is Something About Mary. Essays on Phenomenal Consciousness and Frank Jackson’s Knowledge Argument, Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 2004.
- Harrison, Jordan, Marjorie Prime, New York, Theatre Communication Group, 2016.
- Malabou, Catherine, Métaphormphoses de l’intelligence. Que faire de leur cerveau bleu?, Paris, PUF, 2017.
- Massimini, Marcello and Giulio Tononi, Sizing Up Consciousness. Towards an Objective Measure of the Capacity for Experience, Oxford, Oxford Universiy Press, 2013.
- Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, Phénoménologie de la perception, Paris, Gallimard, 1945.
- Metzinger, Thomas, The Ego Tunnel. The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self, New York, 2009.
- Minsky, Marvin, The Emotion Machine. Commonsense Thinking, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of the Human Mind, New York, London, Toronto, Simon and Schuster, 2007.
- Moravec, Hans, Robot. Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind, New York-Oxford, Oxford UP, 1999.
- Nass, Clifford, and Corina Yen, The Man Who Lied to His Laptop, New York, Penguin, 2012.
- O’Gieblyn, Meghan, God, Human, Animal, Machine. Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning, New York, Doubleday, 2021.
- O’Neill, Kevin, Internet Afterlife. Virtual Salvation in the 21st Century, Santa Barbara-Denver, Praeger, 2016.
- Parmentier, Marc, Archives du virtuel, Paris, Vrin, 2023.
- Parsons, Thomas D., Cyberpsychology of the Brain. The Interaction of Neuroscience and Affective Computing, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2017.
- Picard, Rosalind W., Affective Computing, Cambridge, Massachusetts, The MIT Press, 1997.
- Riva, Massimo, Shadow Plays. Virtual Realities in an Analogue World, Stanford U. Press, 2022. https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=31488
- Seynowski, Terrence J., The Deep Learning Revolution, Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 2018.
- Simondon, Gilbert, Du Mode d’existence des objets techniques, Paris, Aubier, 1958 and 2012.
- Soni, Jimmy and Rob Goodman, A Mind at Play. How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age, Simon and Shuster, New York, 2017.
- Thompson, Erica, Escape from Model Land. How Mathematical Models Can Lead Us Astray and What We Can Do About It, Basic Books, New York, 2022.
- Turing, A. M., “Computing Machinery and Intelligence,” Mind, 236 (59), p. 433-460.

Additional information

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