Hi-Phi Nation: Zombies

Slate Daily Feed

Slate Podcasts

News, Business, Society & Culture

4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2022

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The second in a three-part series on monsters in philosophy. We trace the cultural history of zombies from voodoo folklore, George Romero films, and the zombies used in philosophical thought experiments. Folklore, film and philosophy seem to converge on the idea that consciousness above all else is what a creature needs to have to be worthy of moral concern, something a zombie lacks. But we have no idea when something crosses over from being a zombie to being conscious, particularly current AI systems. What happens then? Guest speakers are Christina van Dyke (Columbia), David Chalmers (NYU), and John Edgar Browning (Savannah College of Art and Design), and Eric Schwitzgebel (UC Riverside). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	It's the opening scene of George Romero's Night of the Living Dead, 1968.
0:17.3	The first zombie movie in modern American cinema.
0:22.0	John and Barbara, a brother and sister in their early 20s, have just made a 200 mile drive
0:28.0	from Pittsburgh on an annual visit to their father's grave.
0:33.2	At the cemetery, the brother John decides to have a little fun and spook his sister.
0:38.8	Back coming to get you, Barbara.
0:42.4	Stop it.
0:43.4	You're ignorant.
0:44.4	They're coming for you, Barbara.
0:47.6	Meanwhile, a tall, very thin man in a tattered suit is off in the distance, slowly closing
0:54.9	in on their location.
0:57.6	They notice him, but don't pay him any attention until he's close enough to pounce.
1:09.2	That's the first rule of zombie dumb.
1:11.6	A zombie has to be slow.
1:14.6	Any living person has to be able to outrun it.
1:17.7	But it has to make up for it by being strong and gross looking.
1:23.0	The ghoulish zombie with rotting teeth kills John by throwing him onto the ground as his
1:28.9	head hits a gravestone.
1:31.5	Then he chases Barbara into the car.
1:34.1	She locks it.
1:35.5	And the zombie, inexpertly, pounds on the door and windows trying to get in.
1:45.4	The second rule is that the zombie has to be dumb.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Slate Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.