NYU Center for Bioethics

As science, technology, and medicine advance, society will confront new ethical dilemmas at the nexus of public health policy and individual choice. The Master of Arts in Bioethics at the College of Global Public Health provides a strong philosophical foundation for navigating these urgent questions.

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Nervous Systems, Functionalism, and Artificial Minds with Peter Godfrey-Smith

October 4, 2023 @ 11:00 am - 12:30 pm

About the talk

Advances in AI have raised again the question of whether the biology of animal nervous systems matters to the mental characteristics of physical systems, especially consciousness. Godfrey-Smith will argue that nervous systems are indeed special, and a conscious artificial mind will probably have to be more brain-like than many people have supposed. He will criticize standard arguments for “substrate neutrality” and offer thoughts on which features of nervous systems are important. He’ll also look at empirical work in flies and other invertebrates, and discuss some ethical angles at the end.

About the speaker

Peter Godfrey-Smith is professor of history and philosophy of science at the University of Sydney, in Australia, after previously teaching at Stanford, Harvard, and the CUNY Graduate Center. He has written six books, including Other Minds, now published in over 20 languages. His most recent is Metazoa: Animal Life and the Birth of the Mind (both published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux).

This event is hosted by The NYU Mind, Ethics, and Policy Program, and co-sponsored by

  • NYU Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness
  • NYU Center for Bioethics

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Details

Date:
October 4, 2023
Time:
11:00 am - 12:30 pm

Organizer

The NYU Mind, Ethics, and Policy Program
Email
sofia.fogel@nyu.edu