What is the relationship between developments in science, technological progress and changes in human values? Do new technologies imply changes in values or do changes in values drive the development of new technology? Focusing specifically on the current developments in artificial intelligence, how should we understand the way that the pace of technological development could precipitate changes in values. 

To answer these questions, this course will first introduce the current pressing issues with AI, ethics and social change: alignment, job displacement, our relationship with the idea of human intelligence and uniqueness. We will then look at the building blocks of value, what a worldview is and why we think the way that we do about value. We all have strong opinions on the state of the world and how technology is changing the world, but isn’t it strange that people in this culture are so similar with those values? We will then look at ownership of values and beliefs, where they come from and the possibility of intentionally creating new ones. While it may seem like no one can know where we are going, it may not be as much of a black box as you might imagine. We will look at theory lag and how philosophical thinking on the intersection of virtual and “real” content affects us and finally how even our conception of self is currently (and rapidly!) changing.