In early March—the Before Time—I sat in a packed auditorium at my school and listened to a philosopher talk about things utterly unrelated to, well, you know. The speaker, Susan Schneider, considered how artificial intelligence and other technologies might alter our bodies and minds, for good or ill. She also investigates these topics in her lively new book Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind. Recent events have distracted us from pondering technological enhancement, the Singularity and all that jazz, but these issues still matter, and Schneider has provocative takes on them. Schneider, who holds the Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology, has been busy lately. She recently became the William F. Dietrich Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Florida Atlantic University, with a joint appointment in the Brain Institute; she is also founding a center on the future of intelligence. She nonetheless found the time to answer a few questions. — John Horgan
An edited transcript of the interview follows.
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