Prosthetic Gods

Episode 27 - Mars This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J. discuss the prospects for colonizing Mars and space in general. Why do people want to try? How feasible are space colonization schemes?  Show Notes: SpaceX Mars Colonization “Plan” The second major European open-source LLM is OUT, and it has been announced as multilingual and fully compliant with the EU AI Act. Meta launches AI-powered smart glasses   As always, listeners can contact us at prostheticgods@gmail.com with questions, comments, and suggestions for future topics. Credits: Hosted by James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits Music & Production by Jake Burley

Episode 26 - Technology & Religion On this week’s Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J. discuss the role and history of technology in religious practice. Are emerging technologies just another means of interfacing with religion, or do they challenge the underpinnings of earnest engagement with religious belief?  Show Notes: Philosophy Prof. John Kaag Links AI with Famous Writers and Thinkers for 'Talking' E-Books Pray.com's AI Bible   As always, listeners can contact us at prostheticgods@gmail.com with questions, comments, and suggestions for future topics. Credits: Hosted by James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits Music & Production by Jake Burley

Episode 25 - Technoprogressivism On this week’s Prosthetic Gods Nir and J. talk about J’s advocacy of “technoprogressivism.” What is it, and what is it supposed to accomplish? How is it different from techno-utopianism or other leftist ideologies? Show Notes: “Outlines of an historical view of the progress of the human mind” Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat de Condorcet, 1796 “Technoprogressivism” Wikipedia “The Technoprogressive Agenda After Fascism” J. Hughes, 2025 “EcoSocialism and the Technoprogressive Perspective” J. Hughes, 2021 “The Technoprogressive Declaration” 2014 “Beware the AI Experimentation Trap” Harvard Business Review  “Clanker” as an anti-robot slur The GenAI Divide: State of AI in Business 2025   As always, listeners can contact us at prostheticgods@gmail.com with questions, comments, and suggestions for future topics. Credits: Hosted by James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits Music & Production by Jake Burley

Episode 24 - Longtermism This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J. discuss the philosophical theory of longtermism, that we should take the interests of hypothetical future people as seriously as existing people. Plus! Listeners can contact us at prostheticgods@gmail.com! Reach out with questions, topics you want to hear more about, or just to say hi. As Nir says, "All complaints go somewhere else." 😂 Show Notes: An Introduction to Longtermism Are Children The Future?: Longtermism, Pronatalism, and Epistemic Discounting - J. Hughes The toxic ideology of longtermism - Alice Crary Longtermist Political Philosophy: An Agenda for Future Research - Jacob Barrett and Andreas T. Schmidt   Credits: Hosted by James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits Music & Production by Jake Burley

Episode 23 - Trump's AI Action Plan This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J. discuss the recent AI Action Plan released by the Trump administration, what it proposes, and whether it will be implemented.  Show Notes Winning the Race: America’s AI Action Plan The real winners from Trump’s ‘AI action plan’? Tech companies The Trumpification of AI: What Could Go Wrong? China calls for global AI cooperation days after Trump administration unveils low-regulation strategy Credits: Hosted by James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits Produced by Jake Burley Music by Jake Burley

Episode 22 - AI and the Future of Higher Education This week on Prosthetic Gods, J and Nir discuss how AI will impact the demand for higher education, the structure of higher education institutions, and the way we teach and learn. Show Notes J. Hughes “The Deskilling of Teaching and the Case for Intelligent Tutoring Systems” (2021)  https://jeet.ieet.org/index.php/home/article/view/90 IEET White Paper - Emerging Technologies & Higher Education  Grok Rolls Out Pornographic Anime Companion, Lands Department of Defense Contract Grok as ‘MechaHitler’ could be making content considered violent extremism   AI study in Africa exploring LLMs’ potential in health diagnoses AI to crack ‘undruggable’ proteins, opening door to new treatments  Credits: Hosted by James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits Produced by Jake Burley Music by Jake Burley

Episode 21 - The Future of Work & The Value of Leisure This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J discuss whether we are witnessing a decline in work, and if so, can that be a good thing?   Credits: Hosted by James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits Produced by Jake Burley Music by Jake Burley

Episode 20 - Is Writing Like Hip-Hop? Stephen Marche on Writing with AI This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J. speak with Stephen Marche, author of most recently The Next Civil War and Death of an Author. He has begun to write about his collaborative process using AI tools, comparing it to the advent of hip-hop and sampling. Show Notes: https://www.stephenmarche.com/  Stephen Marche. “The Future of Writing Is a Lot Like Hip-Hop” The Atlantic May 9, 2023. Credits: Hosted by James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits Produced by Jake Burley Music by Jake Burley

Episode 19 - Will AI Kill Creativity? This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J wrestle with creativity in the age of generative AI. Are there aesthetic or moral reasons to avoid AI art? Can copyright law protect artists from being displaced by AI slop?  Show Notes: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction AlphaEvolve: A Gemini-powered coding agent for designing advanced algorithms ChatGPT’s viral Studio Ghibli-style images highlight AI copyright concerns Trump fires top US copyright official ChatGPT, DALL-E 2 and the collapse of the creative process   Credits: Hosted by James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits Produced by Jake Burley Music by Jake Burley

Episode 18 - De-extinction This week Nir and J discuss the hottest topic in fantasy ecoscience, the genetic resurrection of extinct species. In particular we are discussing the work of Colossal, a firm working on modern versions of the mammoth, dire wolf, thylacine and dodo. Show Notes: The Direwolf is Back Amazon in White House crosshairs over report of displaying tariff costs Credits: Hosted by James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits Produced by Jake Burley Music by Jake Burley

Episode 17 - Designer Babies This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J discuss the ethics of parents being able to choose the genetic characteristics of their children. Is “germinal choice” good for parents, children, society?  Show Notes: He Jiankui and Gene-Edited Babies Sandel Michael J. 2007. The Case Against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering. Cambrige: Harvard University Press De-extinction of Direwolves    Credits: Hosted by James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits Produced by Jake Burley Music by Jake Burley

Episode 16 - Cognitive Offloading  This week on Prosthetic Gods Nir and J discuss the problem, and opportunity, of “cognitive off-loading,” our tendency to forget knowledge and skills once we have reliable digital tools. Is it possible to educate ourselves and our students to use these tools in ways that enrich and extend their cognitive skills and productivity? Along the way, we discuss Ted Chiang’s short story “The Truth of Fact The Truth of Feeling,” which compares the transition to literacy to the adoption of 24/7 lifelogging. Show Notes: Gong & Yang 2024. “Google effects on memory: a meta-analytical review of the media effects of intensive Internet search behavior.”   Nosta 2025. “Cognitive offloading with AI boosts performance but may hinder deeper learning”  Ted Chiang “The Truth of Fact The Truth of Feeling” “Emboldened by Trump, A.I. Companies Lobby for Fewer Rules” NYT     Credits: Hosted by James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits Produced by Jake Burley Music by Jake Burley

Episode 15 - Machines of Loving Grace  In this episode of Prosthetic Gods Nir and J. discuss Dario Amodei’s essay “Machines of Loving Grace,” which lays out the best case scenario for AI’s impact on health, economics and world peace. Links: Dario Amodei “Machines of Loving Grace: How AI Could Transform the World for the Better” October 2024 Richard Brautigan “All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace”  Marc Andreesen “The Techno-Optimist Manifesto”   Credits: Hosted by James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits Produced by Jake Burley Music by Jake Burley

Episode 14 - Damien Walter on Science Fiction and Philosophy This week on Prosthetic Gods Nir and J. are joined by Damien G. Walter, a writer and a storyteller who has written for The Guardian, the BBC, Wired, The Independent, Aeon, and others. He teaches The Rhetoric of Story and Writing the 21st-Century Myth to over 35,000 students worldwide, and is the host of the Science Fiction Podcast.  We discuss the interaction between the “New Mythos” of science fiction and philosophy.   Find out more about Damien Walter through the links below: Website Youtube Substack   Credits: Hosted by James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits Produced by Jake Burley Music by Jake Burley

Episode 13 - Griefbots Griefbots (also called deathbots, AI ghosts, AI clones, death avatars, and postmortem avatars) are large language models built on available information about the  deceased, such as social media, letters, photos, diaries, and videos. Nir and J debate whether they are just another way to commemorate our loved ones or a violation of human dignity.   Links: Dario Amodei, CEO Anthropic. Machines of Loving Grace: How AI Could Transform the World for the Better (October 2024)    Credits: Hosted by James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits Produced by Jake Burley Music by Jake Burley

Episode 12 - Life-Hacking, or The Examined Life? This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J discuss the pros and cons of life-tracking or “self-quantification,” with tools like health watches, and the “life-hacking” that these tools encourage, from dieting and exercise to sleep and meditation. How do we know when we are being distracted and made miserable by all this self-knowledge, and when it is helpful? Could AI life coaches, tracking every vital, help us live happier, longer lives?  Links: Self-Absorption in the Digital Era: A Review of "Self-Improvement Technologies of the Soul in the Age of Artificial Intelligence" by Mark Coeckelbergh  “Know Thyself, Improve Thyself: Personalized LLMs for Self-Knowledge and Moral Enhancement,” Julian Savulescu Trump administration directs federal health agencies to pause communications Stargate AI Iniatitive, Spurned by Musk, Trumped by Chinese DeepSeek Breakthroughs China’s cheap, open AI model DeepSeek thrills scientists Why everyone in AI is freaking out about DeepSeek OpenAI Unveils A.I. Agent That Can Use Websites on Its Own Credits: Hosted by James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits Produced by Jake Burley Music by Jake Burley

Episode 11 - Death On this week’s Prosthetic Gods Nir and J. discuss the ethics of life extension and anti-aging therapies. Is there a benefit to involuntary death? Would getting very old necessarily be boring or depressing? How can we ensure that everyone benefits?  Links: Zuckerberg removes fact-checking from Facebook Bezos imposes ban on criticism of Trump/Musk at WashPo Sam Altman moves up the timelines for AGI and ASI Journal abstracts written by asking LLMs to summarize papers are perceived as more authentic, clear and compelling than those created solely by academics.   Credits: Hosted by James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits Produced by Jake Burley Music by Jake Burley

Episode 10 - Can We Do Anything that Computers Can’t? J and Nir talk to Tal Hassner, formerly of Amazon and Meta, about Deep Fakes, AGI, and whether there is such a thing as a tech-proof job. Links: Find out more about Tal here: https://talhassner.github.io/home/  Credits: Hosted by James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits Produced by Jake Burley Music by Jake Burley      

Episode 9 - Facial Recognition Nir and J. talk about facial recognition. Topics covered include considerations of bias, the role of privacy, and whether facial recognition is substantially different from other identification technologies.  Links: “Halt the use of facial-recognition technology until it is regulated" by Kate Crawford On Liberty by John Stuart Mills  The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution by C.P. Snow Credits: Hosted by James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits Produced by Jake Burley Music by Jake Burley

Episode 8 - Tech Policy Under Trump 2 Nir and J. talk about the prospects for tech policy under Trump's second term. They discuss the new administration's attitudes toward content moderation, what the next four years mean for Artificial Intelligence, and Elon Musk's potential influence on tech policy moving forward.  Credits: Hosted by James Hughes and Nir Eisikovits Produced by Jake Burley Music by Jake Burley