Akira Nakano
March 4, 2026
A thought experiment is a small experiment conducted in your mind.
It involves deliberately setting up a situation that could never happen in reality and asking, “What if it did?” It’s an extremely simple method, nothing more than that.
This book puts that thought experiment into practice, conducted with an AI.
From the multitude of famous thought experiments, including “Trolley Problem”, we have carefully selected 30 essential themes you absolutely must grasp.
What will become of the dialogue between the author and the AI surrounding these thought experiments? Be sure to check the main text to find out.
【From the content introduction】
【Table of Contents】
Episode 1 The Trolley Problem ──How did AI respond to the ultimate choice?──
Episode 2 The Footbridge Problem ──Is it acceptable to push someone off a footbridge to save five people?─
Episode 3 The Ultimatum Game ──Does AI truly judge based on rationality alone?──
Episode 4 The Molyneux’s Problem ──Can AI experience qualia?──
Episode 5 Achilles and the Tortoise ──Can time and space be divided to infinity?──
Episode 6 The Ship of Theseus ──What does “authentic” mean?──
Episode 7 Philosophical Zombie ──Is AI a duplicate of a philosophical zombie?──
Episode 8 The Monty Hall Problem ──Why do intuition and probability disagree?──
Episode 9 The Liar Paradox ──What’s AI’s answer to this famous puzzle?──
Episode 10 The Sandpile Paradox ──Is the definition of “words” truly clear?──
Episode 11 Autonomous Driving and Responsibility ──What if an autonomous vehicle causes an accident?──
Episode 12 The Chinese Room ──Does AI understand the meaning of translation?──
Episode 13 Choice Paralysis ──Is outsourcing to AI also a form of decision-making?──
Episode 14 Kant’s Copernican Revolution in epistemology ──Must objects conform to our cognition?──
Episode 15 Brain in a Vat ──Could reality be virtual?──
Episode 16 What Does It Mean to Be a Bat ──Can we truly understand others?──
Episode 17 Episode 17 Pascal’s Wager ──Is believing in God rational?──
Episode 18 The Beetle in the Box ──Can words convey the human inner self?──
Episode 19 Experience Machines ──Is Pleasure the Ultimate Good?──
Episode 20 The Omnipotence Paradox ──Can an all-powerful God create a stone he cannot lift?──
Episode 21 The Two Children Who Moved in ──What’s the probability they’re both girls?──
Episode 22 The River Flows Ceaselessly, Yet the Water is Never the Same ──Does the present or identity truly exist?──
Episode 23 God is dead ──Where does Nietzsche’s true meaning lie?──
Episode 24 The Fountain of Youth ──Is “immortality” truly happiness?──
Episode 25 The State of Nature ──Would humans kill each other without a state?──
Episode 26 The Prime Minister and Five Criminals ──Is there a hierarchy of life?──
Episode 27 The Mars Teleportation Device ──Are the transferred being and the original me the same person?──
Episode 28 Bribes of Public Good ──Is evil permissible if the goal is good?──
Episode 29 Free Will ──Are humans capable of free decision-making?──
Episode 30 A Philosophical Zombie with Consciousness ──AImmanuel Kant possess consciousness?──