About Me

Daniel Estrada

EDUCATION

  • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IL Philosophy PhD 2014
  • Dissertation: “Rethinking Machines: Artificial Intelligence Beyond the Philosophy of Mind”
  • Committee: Profs. Jonathan Waskan, Daniel Korman, Steven Wagner, Andrew Arana
  • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IL, Philosophy MA 2005
  • University of California Riverside, CA Philosophy BA 2003
  • University of California Riverside, CA Computer Science BS 2003

RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS

SCHOLARLY PUBLICATIONS

  • “Conscious Enactive Computation” (2018) Link.
  • In AAAI SSS-19 Workshop Towards Conscious AI Systems
  • “Value Alignment, Fair Play, and the Rights of Service Robots” (2018) Link.
  • In 2018 AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society “
  • “Gaming the Attention Economy” (2013) with Jonathan Lawhead Link.
  • In The Handbook of Human Computation ed. Pietro Michelucci. Springer.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

  • “Human Supremacy as Posthuman Risk” (2019) forthcoming

    • Computer Ethics - Philosophical Inquiry (CEPE-19), Norfolk VA
  • “#botALLY: Chatbots as a vanguard of resistance” (2019) Slides

    • Gender, Bodies, and Technology (GBT-19), Roanoake VA
  • “Conscious Enactive Computation” (2019) Slides

    • AAAI SSS-19 Workshop Towards Conscious AI Systems (TOCAIS-19), Stanford CA
  • “Value Alignment, Fair Play, and the Rights of Service Robots” (2018) Slides

    • AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society (AIES-18), New Orleans LA
  • “Autonomy in Nonbiological Systems” (2015) Invited talk Slides

    • Nature and Norms: Values in a Material World Graduate Conference, Johns Hopkins University
  • “What’s Special About Biology? Autonomy and the System Individuation Problem” (2015) Slides

    • Conference on Complex Systems 2015 Tempe Az
  • “Gaming Communities as Educational Communities” (2014)

    • Middle Atlantic States Philosophy of Education Society, University of Scranton
  • “Technology in the Classroom” (2010)

    • Philosophy in Schools, Columbia University
  • “Sharing Existence: AI, Cyborgs, and the Phenomenology of Technology” (2007)

    • Interactions: Artifacts and Us, Virginia Tech
  • “Rethinking Machines: Artificial Intelligence Beyond the Philosophy of Mind”

    • Thinking Affect: Memory, Language, and Cognition, University of Illinois (2007)
    • PhilMilCog Conference, University of Western Ontario London, (2008)

SELECTED ONLINE WORK

  • “Conditions on StarCraft supremacy and fair play for AI” (2019) Link
  • “Major Positions on Conscious AI Systems” (2019) Link
  • “A Timeline of Western Philosophy” (2018) Link
  • “Hi friends. Let’s talk about the IPCC report” (2018) Link
  • “Sophia and Her Critics: The Ethics of Human Likeness I” (2018) Link
  • “Extinction Engineering” (2018) Link
  • “Robot Rights: Cheap Yo!” (2017) Video Essay. Link
  • “The Bot They Told You Not To Worry About” (2017) for Hackernoon Link
  • “Every time Boston Dynamics has abused a robot” (2017) Video. Link
  • “/r/place Shows How Identity Politics Works (Without All the Human Bullshit)” (2017) Video Essay. Link
  • “Fifteen Sober Reflections after the NYU Ethics and AI conference” (2016) Link
  • “The Minimal Agent” (2016) Link
  • “Teaching ANNs with Tensorflow” (2016) Link
  • “Radicalism as a Virtue” (2016) for Sweet Talk. Link
  • “Synereo: The Decentralized and Distributed Social Network” (2015) with Konforty, D., Adam, Y., & Meredith, L. G. Link
  • “Real Robot Movies” (2015) Link
  • “Yes, AI Should Be Open” (2015) Link
  • “Delusions about Eugene” (2015) Link
  • “Autism and Wargames: Turing’s Moral Character in “The Imitation Game” (2014) Link
  • “Field Guide from the Present on Organisms of the Future (2014) Link
  • “Strangecoin: a nonlinear currency” (2014) Link
  • “Fair Play for Machines: Chomsky’s misreading of Turing, and why it matters.” (2013) Link

IN PROGRESS

  • “Humans, robots, and other agential kinds” (in preparation)
  • “Floridi’s philosophy of information” (in preparation)
  • “Autonomy in Western Philosophy” (Video Essay, in production)

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark NJ
University Lecturer

2014 - Present

Courses:
  • PHIL 334 Engineering Ethics (3-4 regular sections, 35-60 students, some online)
  • STS 351 Minds and Machines (Spring, 30 students)
  • HSS 405 Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy (regular senior seminar, 25 students)
Center for Talented Youth, Johns Hopkins University
Instructor

2006 - Present, Summers

16 students, 14-18 y.o., 3 week academic summer camp, 100+ hours classroom instruction

Courses:
  • Human Nature and Technology (Princeton, NJ)
  • Philosophy of Mind (Lancaster, PA) through 2015
Illinois State University, Normal IL
Instructional Assistant Professor

2009 - 2012

Courses:
  • PHIL 101 Basic Issues in Philosophy (35 students, taught 1 time)
  • PHIL 112 Language, Logic, and Math (35 students, 4)
  • PHIL 210 Symbolic Logic I (35 students, 1)
  • PHIL 224 Meaning and Religious Belief (35 students, 2)
  • PHIL 238 Rights and Wrongs (35 students, 2)
  • PHIL 251 Visions of the Self (35 students, 5)
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL
Teaching Assistant, Grader, and Lead Instructor (for courses below)

2003 - 2010

Courses:
  • PHIL 101 Introduction to Philosophy (35 students, taught 5 times)
  • PHIL 102 Logic and Reasoning (35 students, 2)
  • PHIL 105 Introduction to Ethics (35 students, 2)
  • PHIL 199 Robots vs Zombies (16 students, special topics seminar, 1)

Other Instructional Positions

  • Adjunct Instructor, Fordham University (Fall 2013)
  • Adjunct Instructor, Kankakee Community College (Fall 2010)
  • Talented Youth Summer Program, Hong Kong UST (Summer 2010)
  • Tutor and Grader, University of California, Riverside (2000-2003)

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE AND MEMBERSHIPS

  • Associate Editor, Human Computation 2013-Present
  • Member Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence
  • Member American Philosophical Association - Eastern Division
  • Administrator, “Robot Rights Now!” Facebook Page Link.

AWARDS AND DISTINCTIONS

  • 2019 NJIT CSLA Award for Excellence in Scholarship by a University Lecturer
  • 2011 Advisor, Illinois State Secular Student Alliance
  • 2009 Teaching Excellence Award (Outstanding), U. Illinois Philosophy Dept.
  • 2008 Teaching Excellence Award (Excellent), U. Illinois Philosophy Dept.
  • 2008, 2011 Illinois Philosophy Graduate Colloquia Committee
  • 2007 U. Illinois Philosophy Graduate Student Conference Chair
  • 2006 Teaching Fellowship, U. Illinois Philosophy Dept.
  • 2004-2006 Graduate Student Faculty Representative
  • 2004-2006 Graduate Student Conference Committee
  • 2002 Best Male Tutor, Math and Sciences, Learning Center University of California, Riverside
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