Within a few decades autonomous robotic devices, computing machines, autonomous cars, drones and alike will be among us in numbers, forms and roles unimaginable only 20 or 30 years ago. How can we be sure that those machines will not under any circumstances harm us ? We need a verification criterion: a test that would verify the autonomous machine’s ‘moral’ aptitude, an aptitude to make ‘good’ rather than ‘bad’ choices. This paper discusses what such a test would consist of. We will call this test the ethical machine test or the Just Machine Test (JMT).  The Just Machine Test is not intended to prove that machines have reached the level of moral standing people have, or reached the level of autonomy that endows them with ‘moral personality’ and makes them responsible for what they do.

Due to the concentration on necessity and underestimation of creativity and especially of the political realm men have lost understanding of their world. The accent on satisfying biological needs and improving man’s environment through automated labour are expressions of that. Another example are the transhumanists’ efforts to improve man’s body. The efforts to perceive more, better, faster etc. without knowing why are just manifestations of endeavours deprived of sense.

This paper for presentation at the 4^th International Conference on the Philosophy of Information is based on what Wu Kun has described as the convergence of science and philosophy taking place under the impact of information science and philosophy. I address the question of the extent to which this trend may be considered a revolution in philosophy and whether it is it important and useful to so designate it. This is a preview of a joint paper by Professor Wu and the writer which will go more extensively into the nature of revolution and the philosophy of science as such.   

 A major goal of transhumanism is the transformation of human beings into posthuman ones by exploiting present and future technologies (cf., e.g., Bostrom 2005). Nanotechnology is considered as a promising candidate in this respect. Its objects of interest are molecular structures with their surface properties and their specific design as sensors and actuators in various environments including the human blood circulation, lung, brain, etc.

In the mythologies all over the world one encounters the idea of super-natural strength, invulnerability, eternal youth, invisibility, invincibility, and immortality. Some proponents of transhumanism dream of a future in which all this will come true. And there are leading experts in nanotechnology who formulate quite similar aims and objectives of their area: the obligatory victory over Alzheimer disease and Parkinson disease, cleansing of wounds, blood, lung, brain enhancement, soldiers who fight without fear, managers who need no sleep to be able to work 24 hours a day 7 days a week for their company, magic hoods, and much more (cf, e.g., Roco and Bainbridge 2003).

In the presentation, I will discuss the relation between transhumanism and nanotechnology and compile some reasons why old myths will not come true.

 References:

Nick Bostrom: A History of Transhumanist Thought. Journal of Evolution and Technology ‐ Vol. 14 Issue 1 ‐ April 2005

 Mihail C. Roco and William Sims Bainbridge (Eds.): Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance – Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information Technology and Cognitive Science, NSF/DOC-sponsored report, Kluwer Academic Publishers (currently Springer), Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 2003.

Philosophy of information is the philosophy of the information era, is the essence of the spirit of the information age. It is also a new generalization of the development of contemporary science and philosophy, is the crystallization of integration of philosophy and Science. The quintessence of Philosophy of information is to introduce the concept of information as one of the most basic concepts of philosophy, and its demonstration of the "ontological" status and universal character of information, Furthermore, a complete set of philosophical theories to grasp the world and transform the world. Therefore, " outlook of Philosophy " has been reflected, The field of existence can be Redistricted, the basic problems of philosophy are completely expressed, and the ontology of philosophy can be reconstructed. Finally, the research methods of traditional philosophy will be transformed by information methods, it is trying to put the material (quality), energy and information in the theoretical framework of Philosophy of information, seeking the unified information theory.

Information studies is still facing some fundamental isssues unsolved satisfactory. The variety of definitions for information is one of them. Some researchers think the universal definition of information, and therefore the unified theory of information, impossible.

This may be true if the efforts are made only by scientific researchers alone. However, the situation may change if the efforts will be made by the good collaboration between information scientists and information philosophers. 

This article will show that, by employing the proper methodology, one kind of the principle of philosophy, the problem of variety in information definition may find better solution.

However, with the rapid development and inspiring enlightenment of biological sociology, it is found that the animal world is also quite complex, and the expression of their behavior and emotion also can be seen as good and evil, which is not unique to human beings. So Mencius’ “four-mind of human nature” as the standard of distinguishing human and animal it could anew comprehend. this paper aims to deepen the cognition of Mencius’ “four-mind of human nature” through the two-dimension construction theory of information philosophy.

The information age presents us with a gambit: present information transparency to level the asymmetries of information, “democratizing” the opportunities for people to act according to more informed, autonomous decisions; or to control and manipulate our inherent human vulnerabilities to further skew power towards increasing asymmetrical positive feedback loops benefitting the few. This paper examines contrasting notions of the self vis-à-vis (un)consciously curated environments as humans increasingly live in advertising-saturated environments.1

The relationship between artificial and natural, human intelligence becomes currently an issue of the primary importance for the world. The threats of technological singularity in the form of ultraintelligent machines occupied many philosophers, but thus far nobody paid attention to the encroaching singularity of relatively low level automation which eliminates need for low skill labor force and threatens wide masses of human population. Economists predict that many occupations regarded as requiring high skills will become spurious too. The only solution for the optimal coexistence of the artificial and natural intelligence is in the reform of education. The solution does not require anything new as the liberal arts education promoted human intellectual development leading to the roles which machines least likely can assume.

The information society is a very popular topic and many researchers study on it from different perspectives. In this paper, the author will turn to information itself to discuss it. The concept and basic characteristics of information will be analyzed in this paper. The mechanism of information acting on human society will be discussed. Then, the challenge and solution method in the development of information society will be given in this paper. Lastly, the conclusion will be drawn.