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The Talos Principle: Philosophical and Religious Anthropology

Issue: Vol 20 No. 3 (2017) Special Issue: Artificial Intelligence and Religion. Guest Editor: Beth Singler

Journal: Implicit Religion

Subject Areas: Religious Studies

DOI: 10.1558/imre.35899

Abstract:

For phenomenology the questions “What is man?” and “Who are Others?” are one and the same. While these might seem questions of decisive importance to either social science, more broadly, or religious studies, specifically, the purpose of this paper is to consider that how these questions are answered determines the “world” we live in. And depending on how “we” constitute this “world” determines what does or does not get counted as “religion”. From this arises the question whether AI and robots are included in this “we”. In this paper I will explore how robots and AI would be included in this consensus by looking at the way the video game The Talos Principle (2014) explores questions of philosophical anthropology. 

Author: Jonathan Tuckett

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