The Nature of Reality
8. Life on a Holodeck: What Star Trek Can Teach Us about the True Nature of Reality
By Dara Fogel
Pop Culture Resources:
-Star Trek Basics (wiki)
-Explanation of what a holodeck is
-Fun article on whether Holodecks might one day be real
-“Protons be Free” holonovel
Philosophical Resources:
-Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
-Descartes’ Meditations (all six, full text)
-Quick (1000 word) essays explaining Descartes’ meditations 1-3
-Quick (1000 word) essays explaining Descartes’ meditations 4-6
-Nick Bostrom’s Original Simulation Argument paper
-Marcus Arvan’s (new Peer-to-Peer) Simulation Hypothesis
Physics Resources:
-Double slit experiment article
-Double slit experiment video
AI/Ethics
9. Astral Bodies and Cartesian Souls: Mind-Body Dualism in Doctor Strange
By Dean A. Kowalski
Pop Culture Resources:
-Doctor Strange synopsis
Philosophical Resources:
-Descartes’ Meditations (all six, full text)
-Quick (1000 word) essays explaining Descartes’ meditations 1-3
-Quick (1000 word) essays explaining Descartes’ meditations 4-6
–Descartes’ Mind-body Distinction (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Mind and Body
10. Mind and Body in Zion
By Matt Lawrence
Pop Culture Resources:
-The Matrix (original Movie) summary
Philosophical Resources:
-Descartes’ Mind-body Distinction (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
-Descartes’ Meditations (all six, full text)
-Quick (1000 word) essays explaining Descartes’ meditations 1-3
-Quick (1000 word) essays explaining Descartes’ meditations 4-6
-Video: Patricia Churchland, “What is eliminative materialism?”
-Searle’s “The Problem of Consciousness”
-A Primer on Eliminative Materialism (wikipedia)
-A Primer on Functionalism (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Personal Identity
11. Amnesia, Personal Identity, and the Many Lives of Wolverine
By Jason Southworth
Pop Culture Resources:
-New X-Men summary
Philosophical Resources:
-Helpful Overview of Locke on Personal Identity (Michael Green)
-Video overview of the problem of personal identity (Smart by Design)
-Overview of the problem of personal identity (internet encyclopedia of philosophy)
-Outline of Parfit’s arguments on personal identity (Clare Batty)
Freedom and Determinism
12. The Consolation of Bilbo: Providence and Free Will in Middle-Earth
By Grant Sterling
Pop Culture Resources:
-The Hobbit: Sparknotes plot summary
Philosophical Resources:
-Useful overview: The problem of divine foreknowledge and its (attempted) solutions
-Video: “Determinism vs. Free Will” (Crash Course Philosophy)
-Video: “Compatibilism” (Crash Course Philosophy)
-David Kyle Johnson, “God, Fatalism, and Temporal Ontology”
![Amazon.com: Inception [DVD] [2010]: Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt: Movies & TV](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/912AErFSBHL._SL1500_.jpg)
13. Inception and Free Will: Are they Compatible?
By John R. Fitzpatrick and David Kyle Johnson
Pop Culture Resources:
-Inception plot summary
-Video: Inception Should Have Won Best Picture (Johnson @ Google)
Philosophical Resources:
-Locke on Freedom (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
-Stephen Cave, “There’s No Such Thing as Free Will But we’re better off believing in it anyway.” (The Atlantic)
-Wiki Overview of Frankfurt-Style Counterexamples
-Quick Overview of Frankfurt’s Views on Free Will (Richard Holton)
-Objections to Frankfurt-Style Cases (Stanford Encyclopedia)
-Adam Bear, “What Neuroscience Says about Free Will” (Scientific American)
-Nadine Elzein, “Frankfurt-Style Counterexamples and the Importance of Alternate Possibilities.”
Consciousness and Artificial Intelligence
14. Turing’s Dream and Searle’s Nightmare in Westworld
By Lucia Carrillo González
Pop Culture Resources:
-Westworld: Season 1 Recap (with video clips)
Philosophical Resources:
-What is a Turing Machine (Cambridge)
-What is The Turing Test? (With Video) (Tech Target)
-Andrew Hodges, “Alan Turing and the Turing Test” (a history and explanation)
-Turing’s “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” (in which he proposed the imagination game, which came to be known as “The Turing Test.”)
-A Nice Overview, by David Anderson, of Searle’s “Chinese Room Argument”
-Searle’s original “The Chinese Room” argument
-Copeland’s Critique of Searle’s Chinese Room thought experiment: “The Curious Case of the Chinese Gym”
15. What’s it Like to Be a Host?
By Bradley Richards
Pop Culture Resources:
-Westworld: Season 1 Recap (with video clips)
Philosophical Resources:
-A Nice Overview, by David Anderson, of Searle’s “Chinese Room Argument”
-Searle’s original “The Chinese Room” argument
-Copeland’s Critique of Searle’s Chinese Room thought experiment: “The Curious Case of the Chinese Gym”
-Nagel, “What Is It Like To Be A Bat?”
-David Chalmers’ TED Talk on Consciousness
-Chalmers, “Consciousness and its Place in Nature”
Time Travel
16. Time Travel in The Avengers
By David Kyle Johnson
Pop Culture Resources:
-Summary of Avengers Endgame
Philosophical Resources:
-Video: MIT’s Agustín Rayo explains the Grandfather Paradox
-David Lewis, “The Paradoxes of Time Travel.”
-A illustrated explanation of Lewisian Time travel
-Nuel Belnap, “Branching Time-Spaces.”
-Time Travel (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
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