The Robot's Rebellion: Finding Meaning in the Age of Darwin

Keith E. Stanovich

University of Chicago Press, Oct 15, 2005 - Philosophy - 358 pages

The idea that we might be robots is no longer the stuff of science fiction; decades of research in evolutionary biology and cognitive science have led many esteemed scientists to the conclusion that, according to the precepts of universal Darwinism, humans are merely the hosts for two replicators (genes and memes) that have no interest in us except as conduits for replication. Richard Dawkins, for example, jolted us into realizing that we are just survival mechanisms for our own genes, sophisticated robots in service of huge colonies of replicators to whom concepts of rationality, intelligence, agency, and even the human soul are irrelevant.

Accepting and now forcefully responding to this decentering and disturbing idea, Keith Stanovich here provides the tools for the "robot's rebellion," a program of cognitive reform necessary to advance human interests over the limited interest of the replicators and define our own autonomous goals as individual human beings. He shows how concepts of rational thinking from cognitive science interact with the logic of evolution to create opportunities for humans to structure their behavior to serve their own ends. These evaluative activities of the brain, he argues, fulfill the need that we have to ascribe significance to human life.

We may well be robots, but we are the only robots who have discovered that fact. Only by recognizing ourselves as such, argues Stanovich, can we begin to construct a concept of self based on what is truly singular about humans: that they gain control of their lives in a way unique among life forms on Earth—through rational self-determination.

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User Review  - Yiggy - LibraryThing

Stanovich's book is based around the presumption that our body is built by replicators and our minds are flooded with them (genes and memes respectively) and that these replicators don't always ...

Contents

• Staring into the Darwinian Abyss: 3
• A Brain at War with Itself: 31
• The Robots Secret Weapon: 81
• The Biases of the Autonomous Brain Characteristics of the ShortLeash Mind that Sometimes Cause Us Grief: 95
• How Evolutionary Psychology Goes Wrong: 131
• Dysrationalia Why So Many Smart People Do So Many Dumb Things: 149
• From the Clutches of the Genes into the Clutches of the Memes: 173
• A Soul without Mystery Finding Meaning in the Age of Darwin: 207
• Notes: 277
• References: 305
• Author Index: 345
• Subject Index: 355

Popular passages

Page 103 - Imagine that the US is preparing for the outbreak of an unusual Asian disease, which is expected to kill 600 people. Two alternative programs to combat the disease have been proposed. Assume that the exact scientific estimates of the consequences of the programs are as follows: If Program A is adopted, 200 people will be saved.‎

Page 85 - Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.'2 Now, this appears to be a paradoxical and strange position to adopt.‎

Page 69 - Linda is 31 years old, single, outspoken, and very bright. She majored in philosophy. As a student, she was deeply concerned with issues of discrimination and social justice, and also participated in anti-nuclear demonstrations.‎

Page 68 - When a nimble Burman tripped me up on the football field and the referee (another Burman) looked the other way, the crowd yelled with hideous laughter. This happened more than once. In the end the sneering yellow faces of young men that met me everywhere, the insults hooted after me when I was at a safe distance, got badly on my nerves. The young Buddhist priests were the worst of all. There were several thousands of them in the town and none of them seemed to have anything to do except stand on...‎

Page 226 - strong evaluation',2 that is, they involve discriminations of right or wrong, better or worse, higher or lower, which are not rendered valid by our own desires, inclinations, or choices, but rather stand independent of these and offer standards by which they can be judged.‎

Page 68 - All I knew was that I was stuck between my hatred of the empire I served and my rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make my job impossible.‎

Page 268 - Let us understand, once for all, that the ethical progress of society depends, not on imitating the cosmic process, still less in running away from it, but in combating it.‎

Page 176 - When you plant a fertile meme in my mind you literally parasitize my brain, turning it into a vehicle for the meme's propagation in just the way that a virus may parasitize the genetic mechanism of a host cell. And this isn't just a way of talking — the meme for, say, 'belief in life after death...‎

Page 9 - Now they swarm in huge colonies, safe inside gigantic lumbering robots, sealed off from the outside world, communicating with it by tortuous indirect routes, manipulating it by remote control. They are in you and in me; they created us, body and mind; and their preservation is the ultimate rationale for our existence.‎

About the author

Keith E. Stanovich holds the Canada Research Chair in Applied Cognitive Science at the University of Toronto. A fellow of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society, he is the author of Who Is Rational of Individual Differences in Reasoning and How To Think Straight about Psychology, now in its seventh edition.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Robot's Rebellion: Finding Meaning in the Age of Darwin
• Author: Keith E. Stanovich
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2005
• ISBN: 0226771253, 9780226771250
• Length: 358 pages
• Subjects: Philosophy / General; Philosophy / Movements / Humanism; Science / Cognitive Science; Science / Philosophy & Social Aspects