Nature & Nurture #152: Dr. Webb Keane - Technology, Morality, & Narrative

Dr. Webb Keane is the George Herbert Mead Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Michigan.  He is an expert in the anthropology of religion and ethics; semiotics and language; material culture; gifts, commodities, and money; and media. He is the author of Animals, Robots, Gods: Adventures in the Moral Imagination. In this episode we discuss Webb’s central argument that ethical dilemmas posed by interactions with non-humans and near-humans, including animals and AI, share common themes reflected in narrative and mythology cross-culturally. We discuss these findings in relation to cultural anthropology, evolutionary psychology, AI and large language models, and video games.  00:23 Exploring the Book's Themes 01:04 AI and Moral Imagination 04:51 Religious Language and AI 08:29 Human-AI Interaction 17:32 Moral Dimensions of Hunting 22:01 Animal Emotions and Morality 31:10 AI as a Moral Entity 34:45 The Fear of AI and Human Intentions 35:38 The Moral Implications of AI Decisions 38:34 Ethics and Social Interaction 41:04 Language and Perception 47:19 Cultural Differences in Language 52:48 The Intersection of Technology and Identity 59:46 Mythology and Technology in Popular Culture