Epstein Secrets

mpo- rary philosophers Daniel Dennett [Den91] and Douglas Hofstadter [Hof79, Hof96], in Benjamin Whorf’s [W

ha Bach, Institute of Cogni- tive Science, University of Osnabruck, Germany; Robert Coop, University of Tennessee; Rod Furlan, Singularity Institute; Matthias Scheutz, Indiana University; J. Storrs Hall, Foresight Institute; Alexei Samsonovich, George Mason University; Matt Schlesinger, Southern Illinois University

xplain. In his “Parable of the Sentient Puddle,” Douglas Adams describes a puddle that wakes up in the mor

are with us natural conscious agents our vulnerability or our mortality. I once posed a challenge to students in a seminar at Tufts I co-taught with Matthias Scheutz on artificial agents and autonomy: Give me the specs for a robot that could sign a binding contract with you—not as a surrogate for some human owner

xplain. In his “Parable of the Sentient Puddle,” Douglas Adams describes a puddle that wakes up in the mor

are with us natural conscious agents our vulnerability or our mortality. I once posed a challenge to students in a seminar at Tufts I co-taught with Matthias Scheutz on artificial agents and autonomy: Give me the specs for a robot that could sign a binding contract with you—not as a surrogate for some human owner