Eco-utopia or eco-catastrophe? Re-imagining California as an ecological utopia

Perceiving an Internet Community as a “Utopia”

This chapter reports on some of the key findings from a larger study, focusing specifically on how participation in a senior-oriented Internet community affects many older Chinese persons’ beliefs and norms

Ambient Utopia

This chapter presents an analysis of the ambitions that lie behind the concept of Ambient Intelligence as it is presented by the advocates and researchers working in the field. In particular it looks at the ideas regarding the forms of natural and intuitive forms of interaction that are envisaged including agents and robots from a philosophical perspective. The views on interaction are analysed...

Engineering Utopia

The likely advent of AGI and the long-established trend of improving computational hardware promise a dual revolution in coming decades: machines which are both more intelligent and more numerous than human beings. This possibility raises substantial concern over the moral nature of such intelligent machines, and of the changes they will cause in society. Will we have the chance to determine th...

Utopia Rising

Artificial Consciousness: Utopia or Real Possibility?

24 Computer Artificial Consciousness: Utopia or Real Possibility? S ince the beginnings of computer technology, researchers have speculated about the possibility of building smart machines that could compete with human intelligence. Given the current pace of advances in artificial intelligence and neural computing, such an evolution seems to be a more concrete possibility. Many people now belie...