I am a Regular (Tenured) Faculty Member in the Department of Philosophy at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and a Senior Fellow with the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy (to prevent confusion, I am not the self-help guru with the same name who goes around calling himself “personal Socrates”). I am also the Founder and Web Administrator of Certified AI-Free Skills and Knowledge, a non-profit grassroots web site that incentivizes genuine learning by removing artificial intelligence from all graded work.
Much of my current research is devoted to understanding judicious technology use and identifying what, if anything, distinguishes humans and human-made artifacts from digital simulacra. Technology can be useful. But, if forced to choose, I would pick meaningful inefficiency over meaningless efficiency. Unfortunately, questioning technological trends often gets dismissed as “Luddism.” As a philosopher trained to examine arguments on all sides of an issue, I do not find this lopsidedness helpful. Things would not turn out well for a driver if their car could not slow down, stop, or go in reverse. So, when it comes to technology, I aim to make those three moves respectable and feasible.
My work on technology and AI safety goes back in 2012, when I (along with my colleague Ryan Tonkens) contributed to The Machine Question: AI, Ethics and Moral Responsibility, edited by David Gunkel, Joanna Bryson, and Steve Torrance. My stance on the AI responsibility gap has since undergone refinement (see this and this) and branched into other issues. At the close of a 2016 paper in Cybernetics and Human Knowing, I called for “a respite from technological progress” and suggested that, in addition to Daniel Dennett’s “intentional stance,” we can “also adopt what might be called the contemplative stance.” In a 2024 piece on smartphone use and attention, I made good on that promissory note. Continuing this, I am presently drafting a manuscript titled Invasive Technologies and Endangered Experiences. You can receive monthly excerpts/updates by using the box below:
You will find most of my published papers (and even some courses) by clicking on the following platforms:
Before coming to KPU, I was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Trent University. I have a PhD in Philosophy from York University (2014), another PhD in Semiotics from the University of Quebec in Montreal (2008)—I was asked by Oxford to do an entry on that for their Bibliographies in Philosophy series—and did my Post-Doc at the University of Helsinki (2014–2015). My two PhDs mean that I am of mixed heritage, being a descendant of Quine, Ryle, and David Lewis on the “analytic” side, with Husserl, Heidegger, and Gadamer on the “continental” side (see my academic family tree).
To see where my views in philosophy of mind fit, look for my name under “Challenge” in this map. To see me go toe-to-toe with David Chalmers in the same journal, click here. For a recent wide-ranging interview, click here.
He is surely one of the best philosophers in his generation in Canada.
Serge Robert, Dept. of Philosophy, UQAM
Although I conduct my inquiries solely in English, I am also fluent in French and Joual (my native tongue). I was born in a working-class family near Montreal. I now reside on the outskirts of Vancouver, with my partner and our six beautiful children, living a low-tech lifestyle of hearty home-cooked meals, logical puzzles and board games at the kitchen table, nightly Québecois storytelling, and weekend farm or museum visits.
My male ancestors were farmers in the summer, lumberjacks in the winter, and draveurs in the spring. My female ancestors were multitasking super-moms, year-round. When the cold was at its coldest and the daylight was at its shortest, a dream would tempt those at home and at the logging camp — the dream of flying in a canoe, cutting across vast distances rapidly and without friction. Travel by such chasse-galerie, however, had the highest price of admission: the possible forfeiture of one’s soul. My ancestors coped with hardships and, being mostly illiterate, transmitted what they learned orally, by telling and retelling stories. The message conveyed across time is clear: do not succumb to the temptation of ease. Snowshoeing to one’s goal is harder and takes longer, but the alternative is not worth it. Wherever you are from, I am willing to bet that your culture tells you the same thing. Faced with new shortcuts, I am trying to make the most of this bequeath (click on my great-grandparents to gauge the signal degradation).