The Challenge Creative Computers Present to the Good Life
Patrick Keenan
If it could one day become the case that computers were creative in the most robust sense of the word, i.e., computers showing real mastery of any creative domain (that is any problem-space in which creativity realizes its solution), be it in science or the arts, then this would represent a paradigm shift unlike anything before in human history and would compel us to rethink our fundamental philosophical conceptions of the good life and their practical applications in the real world. Present case studies of the effect of automation mistakenly imply that creative spaces are "off-limits" for computers, but this may not be the case. This thesis shows that creativity in computers is inevitable (or highly likely) and investigates some changes which could be made to public policy which account for this possibility, such as pushing the case for a citizen's dividend, a universal basic 'income' as a right, which frees up people to lead more meaningful lives -- lives which are full of work, but absent of labor (or the dependence on labor for survival). In the course of this thesis I will also look at Nietzschean and Arendtian conceptions of the individual, the role of technology as totalitarian, creativity as spontaneity and action, and the necessity of Utopian philosophy to reemerge with the individual and the miracle-making faculty of 'action' at its core.