Call for Abstracts: Chapter Contributions to an Edited Volume on Intelligence and Sustainability Call for Abstracts: Chapter Contributions to an Edited Volume on Intelligence and Sustainability

DESCRIPTION
 
We are facing a future in which humans must grapple with both the prospect and reality of newfound non-human intelligence. There is reason to hope that technological or scientific breakthroughs made possible through new forms of intelligence will help us to solve the complicated problems we have created through unsustainable practices. As a result, intelligence and sustainability have a central role to play in forecasting human futures and discerning human obligations. The complex relationship between intelligence and sustainability deserves close philosophical scrutiny. What it means to be intelligent, what it means to be human, what it means to be an other, what true sustainability looks like, and how we should interact with known and unknown others with whom we may be connected are all questions worth exploring. Whether we achieve artificial general intelligence in our own technology, continue to expand the capabilities of machine learning programs, succeed in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, find artificial intelligence in extraterrestrial technology, or find ourselves in the company of new intelligence through some other means, we would do well to be prepared for a future wherein we share intellectual, cultural, or environmental space with others whose capabilities outmatch or outpace ours. A viable future must be built on the sustainability of systems of which we are but one part. Discerning the value of these systems and of the connections within them requires crucial conceptual analyses of key ideas and relations, demands critical explorations of bias, involves considerations of social and environmental justice, and generates expansive ethical debates. This volume focuses on humans’ relations to current and potential scientific and technological advances and offers guidance as humanity prepares to accelerate into a shared future.