TURING FOR MOVIE LOVERS

The British mathematician, computer scientist and philosopher Alan Turing (1912 -1954) is not only the inventor of the programmable computer, but also one of the pioneers of artificial intelligence. He also invented the imitation game, a test of a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behavior equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human. This so-called Turing test plays a prominent role in several recent science fiction movies, such as Her (2013), Ex machina (2015), and Uncanny (2015). In his lecture Jos de Mul will discuss what these movies tell us about the present hopes and fears that surround artificial intelligence and robots.
Jos de Mul studied philosophy, art history and social sciences at the universities of Amsterdam, Utrecht and Nijmegen. At present he is full professor Philosophy of Man and Culture at the Faculty of Philosophy, Erasmus University Rotterdam. His research is on the interface of philosophical anthropology, aesthetics, philosophy of technology and history of 19th and 20th century German philosophy. His English publications include: Romantic Desire in (Post)Modern Art and Philosophy (State University of New York Press, 1999), The Tragedy of Finitude. Dilthey’s Hermeneutics of Life (Yale University Press, 2004), Cyberspace Odyssey. Towards a Virtual Ontology and Anthropology (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010), and Destiny Domesticated. The Rebirth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Technology (State University of New York Press, 2014). See for an extended CV and full list of publications: www.demul.nl/en