God in the Machine What Robots Teach Us About Humanity and God

by Foerst, Anne

• ISBN13: 9780452286955
• ISBN10: 0452286956
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-11-29
• Publisher: Plume

Summary

A provocative look at the theological implications of artificial intelligence from the founder of MIT’s God and Computers ProjectGet ready to meet two remarkable characters, Cog and Kismet. They both enjoy working with others, they’re very attentive, have excellent learning skills, and, according to their colleagues, they’re very charming. And they’re both robots.From Hollywood to the halls of NASA, robots loom large in the popular imagination. But what feelings do these lifelike machines really provoke in us? In God in the Machine, Dr. Anne Foerst draws on her expertise as both a theologian and computer scientist to address the profound questions that robots such as Cog and Kismet raise for us all: How do we define human” versus person”? What does it mean to have a soul? And what do robots teach us about our relationship with God? A fine book; a straightforward, engaging style, crammed with fascinating insights and written so that both laymen in artificial intelligence and those in theology can understand.” —Harvey Cox, author of When Jesus Came to Harvard

Author Biography

Dr. Anne Foerst is a former research scientist at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT, where she also founded and directed the God and Computers Project. The only robotics theologian in the country, her work has captured much media attention, including coverage in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and Science. She is currently a visiting professor of theology and computer science at St. Bonaventure University.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1
Re-creating Ourselves	p. 11
Embodied Science	p. 42
Embodied Intelligence	p. 77
Embodied Community	p. 112
The Community of Human and Nonhuman Persons	p. 153
Bibliography	p. 191
Index	p. 197
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