Read Bill Joy’s article “Why The Future Doesn’t Need Us”

Answer these questions in your journal: (answers need to be full sentences)

1. When did Joy become concerned?

2. What did Kurzweil invent?

3. Who is John Searle?

4. Who is the author of the quotation “I am as fond as anyone of my body, but…”?

5. What can self replicate?

6. What are the new WMD?

7. What is a luddite?

8. What does dystopian mean?

9. Who was the “Unabomber”?

10. What are the three laws of robotics according to Isaac Asimov?

11. What is “ice-nine” from Kurt Vonnegut’s “Cat’s Cradle”?

Essay topic: Choose one and write a five-paragraph essay

How many of Bill Joy’s concerns about the future have come true recently, what are they and why should we still be concerned?
Are the new weapons of mass destruction, the “New WMD” that Joy writes about, still a danger to our society? What can be done to protect us from these new WMD?
Now that seventeen years have passed since Bill Joy wrote his article, has he missed anything about what the future would bring?
By the year 2045, predict what you foresee will be happening based on what you know about technology today and how it will be used in the future.

Write a three- to five-page (600-900 word) response to the following question:

In “Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us” (pp. 285-301), Bill Joy expresses a powerful pessimism about the dangers of technologies that may be developed later in our century. Joy also a muted optimism about humans’ ability to use ethical principles to avoid those dangers. What are Joy’s best reasons for being pessimistic? What are his strongest reasons for expressing optimism? As you consider the relative strengths and weaknesses of those reasons, explain whether and why you find yourself more pessimistic or more optimistic about the issues that Joy raises.

Write a three- to five-page (600-900 word) response to the following question:

In “Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us” (pp. 285-301), Bill Joy expresses a powerful pessimism about the dangers of technologies that may be developed later in our century. Joy also a muted optimism about humans’ ability to use ethical principles to avoid those dangers. What are Joy’s best reasons for being pessimistic? What are his strongest reasons for expressing optimism? As you consider the relative strengths and weaknesses of those reasons, explain whether and why you find yourself more pessimistic or more optimistic about the issues that Joy raises.