David J. Gunkel (@David

David J. Gunkel

27.1K posts

David J. Gunkel

@David_Gunkel

Professor - Northern Illinois University (USA). Author of the books The Machine Question, Robot Rights, Person-Thing-Robot, Of Remixology, and Deconstruction.

Chicago USA

Joined February 2013

Pinned
David J. Gunkel
@David_Gunkel
Aug 14, 2022
Professional Raison d'être: I apply the theory and practice of #Deconstruction to emerging technology (#Algorithms, #AI, #robots, etc.), overturning and disrupting the traditional binary oppositions by which we have made sense of our tools and ourselves. mitpress.mit.edu/9780262542470/…
David J. Gunkel
@David_Gunkel
Jun 20, 2025
In response to the recent "Your Brain on ChatGPT" pre-print that is making the rounds, here's a short history of tech-induced brain rot.
2.4M
David J. Gunkel
@David_Gunkel
May 9, 2023
Words Matter. Because it was called "artificial intelligence" (#AI), we are now forced into debating whether #LLMs are conscious, sentient or intelligent. Had we gone with "Cybernetics," we'd only have to address and decide questions concerning communication and control.
104K
David J. Gunkel
@David_Gunkel
Sep 9, 2024
Pleased to announce the book that @MCoeckelbergh and I have been furiously writing over the summer months has gone into production at @politybooks We are aiming to get this out ASAP. And if you know your Plato (esp. the "Phaedrus"), you'll get the Egyptian imagery.
29K
David J. Gunkel
@David_Gunkel
Mar 11, 2023
#Derrida was right (again)! What makes #ChatGPT so disturbing and disorienting is that it interrupts the fundamental belief of (Western) logocentric metaphysics. It writes without speaking. It therefore disconnects the written word from the living voice of the speaker.
77K
David J. Gunkel
@David_Gunkel
Jul 19, 2024
It's publication day! With brilliant contributions from: @SvenNyholm @EileenMHunt @voxbec @CindyFriedman23 @ElkeSchwarz @ProfChesterman @JoshGellers @profjecker @Lilyfrank16 @klincewiczm @DrSyedMustafaA1 @Sonamsangbo @eduardfosch @JcMalgieri @romelealberto @Wolven et al.
25K
David J. Gunkel
@David_Gunkel
Mar 5, 2023
Only #Cybernetics can save us now (with apologies to Martin Heidegger): One way to disrupt/interrupt the #ChatGPT hype and moral outrage...don't call the technology #AI or (what is worse) nascent #AGI. Call it what it is: a machine of communication and control.
33K
David J. Gunkel
@David_Gunkel
Jun 8, 2023
Book cover reveal: We just finalized the cover image for "Person, Thing, Robot: A Moral and Legal Ontology for the 21st Century and Beyond" @mitpress Coming this September. mitpress.mit.edu/9780262546157/
23K
David J. Gunkel
@David_Gunkel
May 20, 2023
#Longtermism is what happens when the privileged white-kid in your moral philosophy class takes it upon himself to embrace utilitarianism as the ONLY moral theory that makes sense and then decides that everyone else should also drink the KoolAid.
Don’t Go Down That AI Longtermism Rabbit Hole
From bloomberg.com
119K
David J. Gunkel
@David_Gunkel
May 13, 2024
If what is called "education" is restricted to the transmission of existing knowledge, then this might be accurate. If, however, education is understood as cultivating critical thinkers who can question existing knowledge, then this is not going to get the job done.
Derya Unutmaz, MD
@DeryaTR_
May 13, 2024
OpenAI's GPT-4o has just revolutionized and dramatically democratized education! Now, every student can have a perfect teacher on any imaginable topic!
Mckay Wrigley
00:00
Mckay Wrigley
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David J. Gunkel
@David_Gunkel
Jan 25, 2021
#Robot--the word and the concept--is 100-years old today. 25 January marks the centenary of the first public performance of Karel Čapek's "R.U.R." (Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti), the stage play that first fabricated and introduced the word #Robot to the world. #WorldRobotDay
David J. Gunkel
@David_Gunkel
Jun 28, 2020
Shift in Perspective: #ArtificialIntelligence is not a #technology; it is an ideology. And the idea that #AI is a technology is itself part and parcel of its ideological formation--that part that conceals the fact that it is ideology.
David J. Gunkel
@David_Gunkel
Mar 14, 2024
"The Handbook on the #Ethics of #AI" @ElgarPublishing has a cover. Coming soon with contributions from @SvenNyholm @JoshGellers @EileenMHunt @ElkeSchwarz @CindyFriedman23 @Lilyfrank16 @ProfChesterman @profjecker @DrSyedMustafaA1 @minsunkim @Wolven @Sonamsangbo @eduardfosch et al.
15K
David J. Gunkel
@David_Gunkel
Aug 12, 2024
While philosophers and linguistics mainly talk about "stochastic parrots" and argue that LLMs do not use language like humans, neuroscientists seem to have an altogether different approach to things. doi.org/10.1146/annure…
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