Nature & Nurture #152: Dr. Webb Keane - Technology, Morality, & Narrative

Dr. Webb Keane is the George Herbert Mead Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Michigan.  He is an expert in the anthropology of religion and ethics; semiotics and language; material culture; gifts, commodities, and money; and media. He is the author of Animals, Robots, Gods: Adventures in the Moral Imagination.

In this episode we discuss Webb’s central argument that ethical dilemmas posed by interactions with non-humans and near-humans, including animals and AI, share common themes reflected in narrative and mythology cross-culturally. We discuss these findings in relation to cultural anthropology, evolutionary psychology, AI and large language models, and video games. 

00:23 Exploring the Book's Themes

01:04 AI and Moral Imagination

04:51 Religious Language and AI

08:29 Human-AI Interaction

17:32 Moral Dimensions of Hunting

22:01 Animal Emotions and Morality

31:10 AI as a Moral Entity

34:45 The Fear of AI and Human Intentions

35:38 The Moral Implications of AI Decisions

38:34 Ethics and Social Interaction

41:04 Language and Perception

47:19 Cultural Differences in Language

52:48 The Intersection of Technology and Identity

59:46 Mythology and Technology in Popular Culture