What is real? What makes us who we are? Can machines ever be persons? Should science pursue everything it can, or only what it should? These timeless questions have fascinated philosophers, scientists, and storytellers for centuries. In this course, students explore these debates through the imaginative lens of science fiction, where speculative futures and extraordinary scenarios put abstract ideas to the test. Students will engage with core philosophical questions about reality, personal identity, personhood, and the ethics of science, learning how thinkers from Plato and Descartes to contemporary philosophers have framed them. At the same time, they will study bioscience concepts—from the neuroscience of perception and memory to genetics, biotechnology, and public health—that reveal how these philosophical debates are tied to our everyday lives and our shared future. Science fiction provides the common ground: films and texts serve as laboratories of thought, where philosophy and bioscience meet. From The Matrix and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to Robocop and Children of Men, students will analyze how speculative stories dramatize questions of truth, identity, enhancement, and responsibility. By combining conceptual analysis (philosophy), empirical inquiry (bioscience), and cultural imagination(science fiction), this course empowers students to think critically and creatively about the role of science and technology in shaping human life. It is both intellectually engaging and urgently relevant, preparing students to become informed, reflective participants in debates about the future of science, technology, and humanity.
