Prosthetic Gods

Episode 47 - Are Chatbots Conscious? A Conversation with Henry Shevlin

Henry Shevlin, DeepMind's first in-house philosopher and associate director of Cambridge's Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, joins the show to sort through the hardest question in AI: are these systems conscious, and would we even know? Drawing on his background in animal cognition, Shevlin argues that the consciousness debate has never been settled by a single decisive test, in animals or in machines, but by the slow accumulation of behavioral and mechanistic evidence. 

From there, the conversation ranges across Ted Chiang's recent essay dismissing machine consciousness, the "just an X-ism" fallacy, what spiders can teach us about the difference between perceiving the world and caring about it, Anthropic's constitutional AI project, and the uncomfortable historical parallels raised by building minds engineered to serve us. Along the way: reward hacking, the "anthropomimetic turn" in AI design, and why philosophy is suddenly a growth industry at the frontier labs.

Show Notes:

“No, Artificial Intelligence Is Not Conscious” Ted Chiang

"Behaviourism's Revenge" Shevlin

"The House Elf Problem" Shevlin

"Contra Chiang" Shevlin 

Henry Shevlin’s website

 

As always, listeners can contact us at prostheticgods@gmail.com with questions, comments, and suggestions for future topics.

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Credits:

Hosted by James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits
Music & Production by Jake Burley

Episode 46 - Killer Robots

This week Nir and J discuss the evolving ethical, political, and strategic landscape of autonomous weapons systems, contrasting historical methods of remote warfare (such as landmines and guided missiles) with modern AI-driven autonomy. They debate the necessity of keeping a "human in the loop," weighing consequentialist arguments—such as sparing soldiers' lives, acting faster than human cognition, and potentially reducing collateral damage—against risks like cognitive deskilling, unpredictable AI behavior (illustrated by recent LLM security breaches), and complex accountability gaps. The conversation highlights how the geopolitical arms race, particularly with China, severely limits the practicality of international regulations or unilateral restraint. Ultimately, they question whether human moral judgment can or should be replicated by artificial consciences, concluding that technological determinism and military pressures will likely drive the adoption of fully autonomous systems regardless of ethical hesitations.

Iain M. Banks' Culture Series: The discussion concludes with a recommendation of Banks' sci-fi novels, which explore a post-scarcity, utopian society governed by hyper-intelligent, benevolent AIs—a fitting, if idealized, backdrop to modern debates on AI alignment, control, and human irrelevance.

Show Notes:

NYT on autonomous weapons

The Culture Series by Iain M. Banks 

“Defining Autonomy: Why Software, Not Drones, Will Decide the Next War” by Kateryna Bondar and Matt Mande  

“The Futility of Banning Killer Robots” by Rob Enderle 

“The Vulnerability of Autonomous Warfare Systems” by Burak Oktenli 

“By Algorithm or Order: Integrating Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems into Targeting” by Maj. Michael J. Brodka   

“Autonomous Ukraine: We Are in a New Era of Warfare” with Michael C. Horowitz and Erin D. Dumbacher 

“A legal perspective:  Autonomous weapon systems under international humanitarian law” by Neil Davison  

“The End of American Military Dominance? A Conversation” with Paul Scharre   

 

As always, listeners can contact us at prostheticgods@gmail.com with questions, comments, and suggestions for future topics.

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Credits:

Hosted by James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits
Music & Production by Jake Burley

Episode 45 - Right to Try

This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J discuss patient autonomy and the "right to try". The debate surrounding medical autonomy is intensifying as desperate patients use federal "Right-to-Try" laws and amateur biohackers bypass traditional regulations to create and access unapproved treatments. A booming gray market has emerged for unproven, compounded peptide shots, and RFK’s FDA wants to protect that access. These trends highlight a profound ethical tension between a patient's fundamental right to medical self-determination and the state's paternalistic duty to protect the clinical trial regime - which gives us the data necessary for informed consent - and to guard citizens from harm. Ultimately, regulators and bioethicists argue that without rigorous oversight, vulnerable individuals may fall victim to "snake oil" because true informed consent is impossible when a treatment's risks and efficacy remain largely unknown

Show Notes:

“No Evidence for Trump’s Right to Try Claim” Eugene Kiely

“Right–to-Try Does Not Undermine Clinical Trials” Niklas Anzinger

“Survey: Americans Overwhelmingly Back the Right to Try for Individualized Treatments” Goldwater Institute

“Final wish denied as Colorado ALS patient's access to experimental drug stalls”  Brian Maass, Colin McIntyre

“Peptides, Patient Autonomy, and the Limits of Medical Freedom” Chuck Dinerstein

“Survey Shows Peptide Misinformation, Misuse Rising in US” Ashish Rana

“What's behind the push to make peptide therapies more readily available” Will Stone

 

As always, listeners can contact us at prostheticgods@gmail.com with questions, comments, and suggestions for future topics.

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Credits:

Hosted by James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits
Music & Production by Jake Burley

Episode 44 - Magnificent Humanity

This week, J and Nir talk to Father Michael Baggot about Pope Leo XIV’s recent encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, which outlines Catholic positions on AI and other emerging technologies. Father Michael Baggot is an Associate Professor of Bioethics at the Vatican’s Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome, a member of the Scholarly Advisory Board for Magisterium AI, and the chief editor of Enhancement Fit for Humanity: Perspectives on Emerging Technologies.

Show Notes:

MAGNIFICA HUMANITAS 

“Pope Leo’s First Encyclical Is a Game Changer,” The Nation 

“Pope Leo XIV Against the Market’s Techno-Dehumanization,” Jacobin 

“Pope Leo Isn’t Standing Athwart the Singularity” New York Times 

 

 

As always, listeners can contact us at prostheticgods@gmail.com with questions, comments, and suggestions for future topics.

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Credits:

Hosted by James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits
Music & Production by Jake Burley

Episode 43 - Brain-Computer Interfaces

This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J discuss the ethics of brain-computer interfaces. What role do they play in the futurist imagination, and what is the reality of their current use? How quickly will they be available for consumer use, and what ethical issues do they pose?

Show Notes:

The Philosophy of Brain-Computer Interfaces Conference - UMass Boston - June 5-6, 2026 

“Long-term independent use of an intracortical brain–computer interface for speech and cursor control” Nature Medicine

“Brain-computer interface trials are taking off” MIT Technology Review

“Brain Implant Lets Man With Severe Paralysis Speak in His Own Voice Again” ScienceAlert

“How Scientists Are Growing Computers From Human Brain Cells” SingularityHub

“China Prepares Tianjin as a Center for Brain-Computer Technology” VOI

An introduction to Neal Asher's Polity Universe books 

 

 

As always, listeners can contact us at prostheticgods@gmail.com with questions, comments, and suggestions for future topics.

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Credits:

Hosted by James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits
Music & Production by Jake Burley

Live from Cambridge: Existential Risk

In this special live episode, recorded before an audience at Long Now Boston, Nir and J dig into existential risk. J takes seriously the prospect of catastrophic AI outcomes even absent consciousness or agency in any rich sense, while Nir worries less about civilization-ending scenarios than about a quieter, lowercase existential threat: the erosion of what makes us distinctively human. 

Show Notes:

Find out more about our hosts, Long Now Boston, here!

 

The Hollow Men by T.S. Elliot

Enshitification by Cory Doctorow

The Apology by Plato

Cyborgs and Space by Manfred E. Clynes and Nathan S. Kline

 

 

As always, listeners can contact us at prostheticgods@gmail.com with questions, comments, and suggestions for future topics.

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Credits:

Hosted by James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits
Music & Production by Jake Burley

Episode 42 - Who Really Needs Ozempic Anyway?

This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J discuss the tradeoffs of GLP1 drugs. Their use has reversed the obesity epidemic and has proven to have myriad medical and psychological benefits. But they also come with risks, and are seen as a technofix replacing the need for diets. Are GLP1s another step to the posthuman body, and is that a good or bad thing?

Errata: The first GLP1s were approved by the FDA in 2005, semaglutide/Ozempic in 2017, and oral orforglipron/Foundayo was approved in April 2026. More than two thirds of American adults are overweight or obese by BMI, and 40% are obese.

Show Notes:

GLP-1s Are a Lot Weirder Than Anyone Thought | The Ezra Klein Show  

Ethical Considerations in the Use of Weight Loss Medications 

The Ethics of Ozempic and Wegovy

WHO issues global guideline on the use of GLP-1 medicines in treating obesity  

Review of 64 studies finds GLP1s effective for weight loss for almost all groups 

Obesity rate declining in US

Hard Fork Podcast

Rest is History Podcast

 

As always, listeners can contact us at prostheticgods@gmail.com with questions, comments, and suggestions for future topics.

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Credits:

Hosted by James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits
Music & Production by Jake Burley

Episode 41 - Disgust

This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J discuss the role of disgust in morality. Neuroscience suggests that feelings of disgust underlie many moral judgments, especially in the treatment of sexuality. Conservatives have long defended disgust as a source of moral intuition, while liberals seek to minimize it. Can we suppress disgust? Should we?

Show Notes:

Hiding from Humanity: Disgust, Shame, and the Law by Martha Nussbaum 

“The Wisdom of Repugnance,” by Leon Kass 

The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt 

“Daedalus, or, Science and the Future,” JBS Haldane

What We Are Seeking, Cameron Reed

Wolfendon Report of the Committee on Homosexual Offenses and Prostitution

Jeremy Bentham’s Auto-Icon

 

As always, listeners can contact us at prostheticgods@gmail.com with questions, comments, and suggestions for future topics.

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Credits:

Hosted by James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits
Music & Production by Jake Burley