The Dissenter #825 Mark Coeckelbergh - Self-Improvement: Technologies of the Soul in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
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Dr. Mark Coeckelbergh is Professor of Philosophy of Media and Technology at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Vienna. He is member of the High Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence for the European Commission, the Rat für Robotik, as well as member of the Technical Expert Committee (TEC) for the Foundation for Responsible Robotics. His work is focused on the area of philosophy of technology, in particular the ethics of robotics and ICTs. He is the author of several books, including his most recent one, Self-Improvement: Technologies of the Soul in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.
In this episode, we focus on Self-Improvement. We start by talking about the philosophical history behind the culture of self-improvement. We discuss how we present ourselves on social media, and the idea of “authenticity”. We talk about spiritual narcissism, and the current popularity of stoicism. We discuss how we obsess with self-improvement, and ignore collective solutions and political and socioeconomic issues. We talk about self-improvement as a means of class signaling, and “technosolutionist” approaches involving transhumanism and self-enhancement. We discuss how neoliberalism ties to self-improvement ideas, and how obsessed we are with being productive. Finally, we talk about how we can reframe self-improvement, and a positive role for technology.
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