Schneider, Susan, Ed. Science Fiction and Philosophy: From Time Travel to Superintelligence

Schneider, Susan, ed. Science Fiction and Philosophy: From Time Travel to Superintelligence. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. 350 pp. Cloth. ISBN 978-1-4051-4907-5. $19.95. Science Fiction and Philosophy: From Time Travel to Superintelligence works from the premise that sf and philosophy are not disparate fields of inquiry, but rather are both concerned with similar questions, possibilities, and hypotheses. This collection of essays and meditations--what Susan Schneider refers to as "philosophical thought experiments" (1)--highlights the degree to which both sf and philosophy contemplate reality, the body, free will, ethical issues, and the architecture of space and time. A combination of older philosophical texts, new essays, and short stories, the collection not only effectively raises questions about the intersection of these two fields, but also relates these questions to popular film and literature to illustrate their significance. The book is divided into five parts, with five to six essays in each part. Part 1 contemplates the possibility that our reality is a computer simulation and subsequently questions the nature of our existence, part 2 examines the philosophical and scientific aspects of "personhood," part 3 focuses on the brain as a kind of "central processing unit" of the body and considers intelligence on both biological and philosophical levels, part 4 offers ethical and political contexts to the issues raised in parts 1-3, and part 4 rounds out the collection with a meditation on one of sfs main concerns, time travel.