Lectures, readings & discussions

Author reading and discussion with Prof. Dr. Joachim Bauer: Loss of Reality - How AI and Virtual Worlds Take Possession of Us

Thursday, 22/06/2023 / 07:30 PM / St. Paul's Church

Rain or shine Wheelchair-accessible

Author reading and discussion - Prof. Dr. Joachim Bauer presents his latest book: "Realitätsverlust. How AI and virtual worlds take possession of us - and challenge humanity".

Children who find it difficult to contact their caregivers because they are under the spell of their smartphones. Millions of people who have transferred their sense of existence to their social media accounts. Millions more who seek escape from reality by gaming for hours a day. Physician, neuroscientist and psychotherapist Joachim Bauer sees a "loss of reality," the title of his latest book, in these highly visible phenomena of our present day. Bauer examines these suggestions emanating from devices and their applications.
According to Bauer, the philosophical superstructure of the phenomena described is formed by so-called transhumanism: digital simulations of our environment, but also of humans themselves, are to be equated with reality. And what we regard as reality is probably itself the result of a digital simulation (not recognized by us as such) on the part of a higher simulator. Man will be able to have his mind "uploaded" to a computer in the near future and thus become immortal.
Joachim Bauer presents arguments that unmask these narratives as a return behind the Enlightenment. Bauer counters the relativization of the human being only because he cannot compete with the fantastic potentials of artificial intelligence (which Bauer also does not question) with the renewed credo of the Enlightenment: Man does not derive his value from cognitive miracles, but from himself.

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