Prosthetic Gods
Episodes
Nicholas Christakis - Technology and Contagion
22 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 40 - Nicholas Christakis - Technology and Contagion Dr. Nicholas Christakis is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale Un...
Live from Portsmouth: Artificial Intelligence and Human Values
17 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Live from Portsmouth: Artificial Intelligence and Human Values In this special live episode of Prosthetic Gods, we bring you a night of big ideas reco...
Sven Nyholm on Ethics of AI
09 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 39 - Sven Nyholm on the Ethics of AI This week on Prosthetic Gods we are talking to Sven Nyholm about his new book The Ethics of Artificial In...
Humanoid Robots
25 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 38 - Humanoid Robots This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J talk about the distinctive ethical issues raised by the humanoid robots coming to...
Anthropic's Conflict with the Pentagon: A Conversation with Alan Rozenshtein
13 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 37 - Anthropic's Conflict with the Pentagon: A Conversation with Alan Rozenshtein This week on Prosthetic Gods, J and Nir are talking to Alan ...
Buddhism and the Self
18 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 36 - Buddhism and the Self This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir is interrogating an essay by J. on Buddhism, enhancement, and the self. They disc...
Pluribus
04 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 34 - Pluribus This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J are discussing the hit Apple TV show Pluribus. Created by Vince Gilligan, the show runne...
Simulations
22 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 33 - Simulations This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J. discuss the simulation hypothesis, the idea that we may actually be living in the Ma...
Moral Enhancement
09 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 32 - Moral Enhancement This week on Prosthetic Gods, J and Nir discuss “moral enhancement,” the use of drugs and devices to promote moral ...
Shoulda Put a Ring On It
23 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 31 - Shoulda Put a Ring On It In this episode of Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J discuss the proposed law in Ohio to ban recognition of AI personho...
3I/Atlas, Aliens and Open Minds: A Chat with Avi Loeb
13 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week on Prosthetic Gods Nir and J. chat with astronomer Avi Loeb about the mysteries of our interstellar visitor, 3I/Atlas. Is there a systemic b...
Nuclear Nightmares
26 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 30 - Nuclear Nightmares This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J discuss the Netflix movie House of Dynamite, a nuclear war drama by Kathryn Bi...
Algorithms and Democracy with Jose Marichal
12 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 29 - Algorithms and Democracy with Jose Marichal This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J chat with Jose Marichal, professor of political scien...
Yuval Levin on Conservatism and Technology
29 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 28 - Yuval Levin on Conservatism and Technology This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J. speak with Yuval Levin, one of the most insightful an...
Mission: Mars
15 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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? ...
Technology and Religion
01 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 26 - Technology & Religion On this week’s Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J. discuss the role and history of technology in religious practice. ...
Technoprogressivism
10 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 25 - Technoprogressivism On this week’s Prosthetic Gods Nir and J. talk about J’s advocacy of “technoprogressivism.” What is it, and w...
Longtermism
20 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 24 - Longtermism This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J. discuss the philosophical theory of longtermism, that we should take the interests o...
Trump's AI Action Plan
06 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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, w...
AI and the Future of Higher Education
23 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 Future of Work & The Value of Leisure
09 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Is Writing Like Hip-Hop? Stephen Marche on Writing with AI
04 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 o...
Will AI Kill Creativity?
21 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 aestheti...
De-extinction
05 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 18 - De-extinction This week Nir and J discuss the hottest topic in fantasy ecoscience, the genetic resurrection of extinct species. In parti...
Designer Babies
21 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 17 - Designer Babies This week on Prosthetic Gods, Nir and J discuss the ethics of parents being able to choose the genetic characteristics o...
Cognitive Offloading
31 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 16 - Cognitive Offloading This week on Prosthetic Gods Nir and J discuss the problem, and opportunity, of “cognitive off-loading,” our ...
Machines of Loving Grace
17 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 15 - Machines of Loving Grace In this episode of Prosthetic Gods Nir and J. discuss Dario Amodei’s essay “Machines of Loving Grace,” ...
Damien Walter on Science Fiction and Philosophy
03 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 st...
Griefbots
18 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 13 - Griefbots Griefbots (also called deathbots, AI ghosts, AI clones, death avatars, and postmortem avatars) are large language models built ...
Life-Hacking, or The Examined Life?
27 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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-quantif...
Do You Want to Live Forever?
13 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 in...
Can We Do Anything that Computers Can’t?
25 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Facial Recognition
03 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 9 - Facial Recognition Nir and J. talk about facial recognition. Topics covered include considerations of bias, the role of privacy, and wheth...
Tech Policy Under Trump 2
18 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 administrati...
Supersoldiers
04 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 7 - Supersoldiers Nir and J. discuss ethical issues surrounding so-called super soldiers and human augmentation in warfare. Additional Resou...
Moral Machines
21 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 6 - Moral Machines In this episode, Nir and J. discuss whether machines can be moral. What does it take for something to be a moral patient or...
Artificial General Intelligence
07 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Prosthetic Gods: Artificial General Intelligence In this episode of Prosthetic Gods, J. Hughes and Nir Eisikovits dive into artificial general intelli...
AI Clones
16 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
AI Clones This week Drs. Nir and J. discuss the concept of AI clones with postdoctoral fellow Cody Turner, and in particular the short podcast serie...
Bad Knowledge
03 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Can There Be Bad Knowledge? In medical ethics there are debates about when people should be encouraged to get tested for diseases or conditions for wh...
Digital Democracy
16 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Taiwan’s Experiments with E-democracy: Can AI be good for democracy? Taiwan has been experimenting with digital democracy for a decade. In this week...
Would You Want a Chatbot Therapist?
29 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
ieet.org/white-papers www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/experimentations/202407/what-if-artificial-intelligence-replaces-human-therapists www.npr.org/tr...