If there's one thing AI has in common with all new technology, it's that a lot of people are scared of it. When it comes to AI and education, horror stories abound of students using ChatGPT to write their essays, and a possible future where teachers are replaced by bots. But according to this week's guest, there's much to be excited about.
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Is it time to get rid of legal gender status?
Most of us have Male or Female registered on our birth certificates - but what does this certification mean, in terms of its effect on our lives? There are many other things about us that have at least as much significance as our gender - our sexuality, our ethnicity - but only gender has legal status. This week we're talking about the pros and cons of uncoupling gender from the law.
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Who's responsible for extreme beliefs?
It's easy to say that people who hold extreme antisocial beliefs should be held responsible for those beliefs. But in fact, many extremists operate within what philosophers call impoverished epistemic environments - epistemic "bubbles" and echo chambers whose inhabitants might be ignorant of the truth, or subject to manipulation. But does that mean responsibility for extreme beliefs therefore lies with the wider public? And if so, what are we to do about it?
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Is a blobfish beautiful or ugly? Science, aesthetics and the natural world
The 2019 bushfires that devastated the east coast of Australia had one upside: the smoke in the atmosphere made for some stunning sunsets. But is a beautiful sunset caused by bushfire smoke really beautiful? Or consider the blobfish: crowned the world's ugliest animal in 2013 by the Ugly Animal Preservation Society, the blobfish is actually a miracle of evolution, perfectly adapted to its deep-sea environment. But does that feature make it attractive? This week we're looking at how the aesthetic appreciation of nature and scientific knowledge can be at odds with each other.
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Who's responsible for solving the world's problems—me, or The System?
When it comes to global problems like climate change, it can be easy to feel as though your own individual efforts to stop it are too small to make a difference. But then when you consider the big players whose efforts could make a difference—the corporations, the political parties—making them do the right thing just seems too daunting and complicated a task. What to do when individual efforts seem too small to matter, but structural change seems too big to effect? This week, the authors of a new book talk about taking a middle path.
The simplest questions often have the most complex answers. The Philosopher's Zone is your guide through the strange thickets of logic, metaphysics and ethics.
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