Some time in the near future your cat Tybalt, while sunning himself on the lawn, suffers a hair-raising experience which scars him for life. The first you know about it are the catcalls that alert you to a standoff between feline and machine, just before you glimpse Tybalt haring it for the catflap. Examining your poor moggy you realise that next door’s automated lawnmower, after forcing its way through a gap in the fence, has mistaken your cat for an unruly patch of couch grass, giving him the fade cut he never wanted.
You decide to sue. Poor Tybalt! His coat will never be the same; and there’s the PTSD to think about. The case seems cut and dried. Your lawyer, though, face like a prune, sighs and tells it straight. Things have changed, he says. The problem is not whether to sue, but who to sue. In the past you might have claimed that the manufacturer had overlooked a dangerous flaw in the lawnmower, or worse, seen one and ignored it. Tybalt would be rolling in catnip. Alternatively, your neighbour might be at fault if they had used the mower inappropriately, just like if they set off a firework and burned your shed down, or drove their car into your 4x4 while intoxicated. Tua culpa. But neither of those situations applies anymore. You see, he explains, your machine is a snowflake. Not the atmosphere-susceptible delinquent of teenage parlance, he qualifies. He means an actual snowflake.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der August/September 2020-Ausgabe von Philosophy Now.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der August/September 2020-Ausgabe von Philosophy Now.
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Anselm (1033-1109)
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The Funnel of Righteousness
Peter Worley tells us how to be right, righter, rightest.
We're as Smart as the Universe Gets
James Miles argues, among other things, that E.T. will be like Kim Kardashian, and that the real threat of advanced AI has been misunderstood.
Managing the Mind
Roger Haines contemplates how we consciously manage our minds.
lain McGilchrist's Naturalized Metaphysics
Rogério Severo looks at the brain to see the world anew.
Love & Metaphysics
Peter Graarup Westergaard explains why love is never just physical, with the aid of Donald Davidson's anomalous monism.
Mary Leaves Her Room
Nigel Hems asks, does Mary see colours differently outside her room?
From Birds To Brains
Jonathan Moens considers whether emergence can explain minds from brains.