Prosthetic Gods

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

Episode 40 - Nicholas Christakis - Technology and Contagion

Dr. Nicholas Christakis is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University and the Director of the Human Nature Lab. His research sits at the intersection of the social, biological, and computational sciences, exploring how our evolutionary biology and social network structures shape human behavior, health, and society. His groundbreaking work on "social contagion," demonstrates how everything from obesity and smoking to happiness and cooperative behavior spreads through human networks. Most recently, his work has focused on the emergence of "hybrid systems" of humans and machines, examining both the Burkean risks of how AI might degrade our interpersonal social graces and the technoprogressive potential of using "dumb bots" to optimize human coordination.

 

Show Notes:

The Human Nature Lab at Yale University
An overview of Dr. Christakis's current research on social networks, computational social science, and the biology of social interactions.

Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society, by Nicholas Christakis.
His 2019 book detailing how evolution has biologically pre-wired humans for a "good society" based on love, friendship, and cooperation.

Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives, by Nicholas Christakis
His 2009 book exploring the "three degrees of influence" rule and how social contagion dictates our behavior.

Dr. Christakis on Bluesky - @nachristakis.bsky.social

For the Love of Science Vlog  

 

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 Portsmouth: Artificial Intelligence and Human Values

In this special live episode of Prosthetic Gods, we bring you a night of big ideas recorded on April 2nd at the Music Hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Presented as part of the University of New Hampshire's Sidore Lecture Series, "Artificial Intelligence and Human Values" gathered three leading thinkers to explore what AI means for how we live, think, and relate to one another.

The evening opens with short, TED-style talks from Kay Mathieson (Northeastern University), Henry Shevlin (Cambridge University), and Harvey Lederman (UT Austin), each offering a distinct lens on the philosophical, ethical, and cognitive stakes of AI. Nir and J then take the stage to lead a wide-ranging live discussion with all three speakers and with questions and reflections from the Portsmouth audience.

Show Notes:

Artificial Intelligence and Human Values: A Public Conversation

 

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 39 - Sven Nyholm on the Ethics of AI

This week on Prosthetic Gods we are talking to Sven Nyholm about his new book The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence. If our thinking relies on external media, where do we stop and the AIs start? What is the moral status of LLMs? Are they sentient? Are AI relationships any good? And should we raise robots like children?

 

Sven Nyholm is Professor of the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence at LMU Munich and a Principal Investigator for AI Ethics at the Munich Center for Machine Learning. His books include Humans and Robots: Ethics, Agency, and Anthropomorphism and This Is Technology Ethics: An Introduction, and his latest, The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, ranges from alignment and moral responsibility to artificial consciousness and the existential stakes of humanity's wager on AI.

 

Show Notes:

Sven Nyholm at Researchgate and PhilPapers

“How AI Robs Us of Meaning” Sven Nyholm 

The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence by Sven Nyholm

 

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 38 - Humanoid Robots

This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J talk about the distinctive ethical issues raised by the humanoid robots coming to homes and workplaces. Their presence and human-like form elicit unique responses compared to those of non-embodied AI. The appearance of a robot can manipulate human empathy and consent; robotic caregiving could be used as a pretext to dismantle the social safety net, and robot lovers could deepen loneliness.

Show Notes:

Moravec’s paradox 

“Can AI Robots Help Older Adults Live in Their Homes Longer?” By Lee Pruitt

“China Could Dominate the Physical AI Future”  by Eric Schmidt and Selina Xu

“Humanoid Robots to Reach Nearly US$30 Billion by 2036” by Shihao Fu

Humans (2015-2018, 3 seasons) 

Battlestar Gallactica (2004-2009, 5 seasons)

 

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 37 - Anthropic's Conflict with the Pentagon: A Conversation with Alan Rozenshtein

This week on Prosthetic Gods, J and Nir are talking to Alan Rozenshtein, professor of Law at the University of Minnesota, senior editor of Lawfare, fellow at Brookings, and former attorney at the Justice Department specializing in national defense. We talked about the legal and political implications of the Trump administration’s conflict with Anthropic over the military and surveillance uses of Claude.

Show Notes:

Alan Rozenshtein’s website

Scaling Laws podcast

"Congress—Not the Pentagon or Anthropic—Should Set Military AI Rules" by Alan Rozenshtein

"Lawfare Daily: The Pentagon Designates Anthropic as a Supply Chain Risk" podcast with Benjamin Wittes 

"Scaling Laws: The Pentagon Goes to War With Anthropic" podcast with Kevin Frazier

“The Most Disruptive Company in the World” by Harry Booth and Billy Perrigo

 

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 36 - Buddhism and the Self

This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir is interrogating an essay by J. on Buddhism, enhancement, and the self. They discuss the appeal of Buddhism for teenage Hughes, and how Buddhism reconciles a radical deconstruction of the self with moral commitment and principles.

Show Notes:

Buddhism and Our Posthuman Future - J. Hughes

Cyborg Buddha - A conversation with transhumanist James Hughes

Personal Immortality in Transhumanism and Ancient Indian Philosophy - Adam Buben

Hume on personal identity 

The Machine Stops - E. M. Forster, 1909 

 

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

Episode 35 - Pluribus

This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J are discussing the hit Apple TV show Pluribus. Created by Vince Gilligan, the show runner of Breaking Bad, the show explores a world taken over by a very nice hive mind that wants to give you anything you want. Would you take advantage of the perks, appreciate that the hive reduced humanity’s suffering, or fight like hell to give us all back our miserable individuality?

Show Notes:

“In Apple TV’s ‘Pluribus,’ the biggest ethical dilemmas ‘are our fault,’ a philosopher says” Cody Mello-Klein 

“The Benign Zombies of Pluribus” Jonathan Moreno

“The Fable of the Bees” Bernard Mandeville/ (1714) 

Dostoevsky - Notes from the Underground

“The Revolutionary Spirit of Star Wars Andor” Jessie Gender 

“The revolutionary politics of Andor” Jorge Cotte 

 

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