The surpassed human being. A critical discussion of Nick Bostrom’s concept of superintelligence

In the course of seemingly uninterrupted and unstoppable technological progress, the development of an artificial superintelligence based on artificial intelligences already realised today seems to be only a matter of time. This book takes up Nick Bostrom’s concept of artificial superintelligence, which can be considered one of the best known, in order to clarify the extent to which such a superintelligence fulfils its own definitional criterion of far surpassing humans in terms of cognitive performance. To this end, the fundamental assumptions about the comparability of humans and machines, on which Bostrom’s considerations on superintelligence are based, are scrutinised. In the course of weighing up the objections, it becomes clear that Bostrom’s idea of superintelligence is based on a functionalist-reductionist foundation, which only inadequately describes essential aspects of being human. This deficiency leads to an abbreviated and mechanised perspective on human cognitive abilities. Therefore, it cannot be assumed that an artificial superintelligence conceived in this way surpasses human beings or even equals them.

Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH and Springer VS