New Course - Spring 2017

PHIL 89: Philosophy and Science Fiction

Tamsin Lorraine - MWF - 11:30-12:20

(Illustration by Andrew DeGraff for Oler’s Slate Review of Leckie’s Trilogy)
 

What is the nature of time and consciousness? How reliable is the chronology and reality we experience? Could we live forever or travel back in time to visit our younger selves? Upload our identities, become transhuman through technological enhancements, or connect into hive minds? Create sentient robots or communicate with aliens from outer space? We will explore some philosophical implications of various genres of science fiction—from classics like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and The Matrix to contemporary offerings like HBO’s current TV show Westworld—alongside theoretical work exploring similar issues in order to test the limits of what we think possible and encourage creative approaches to a changing world.