Entries tagged with: Ethics

15 result(s) displayed (1 - 15 of 15):

"To Prevail"

The following is my essay for Joel Garreau's Prevail Project. I have in front of me a late 1960s advertisement from the Burroughs Corporation. It shows a sketch of a guy — in a snappy suit and crisp haircut —...

Posted on November 29, 2011 5:24 AM

The Prevail Project

Joel Garreau has one of the most sensitive radars for big changes of anyone that I know. I first met him back at GBN, and I quickly came to realize that I should pay very close attention to whatever he's...

Posted on November 29, 2011 5:15 AM

OtF Core: Ethical Futurism (from 2006)

(This is the original Ethical Futurism piece I wrote for Futurismic in 2006; I intend to update and build on it, but I wanted to make sure the original could be found in its entirety here.) What does it mean...

Posted on May 18, 2010 2:14 PM

Getting it Right

A Survival Guide to Geoengineering, my essay for Momentum, the journal of the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment, is now available online and via PDF. It's an exploration of what would be necessary to reduce the risks...

Posted on March 22, 2010 10:49 AM

Hacking the Earth (Without Voiding the Warranty)

The talk I gave at the State of Green Business Forum last week is now available on video. Runs about 22 minutes. (There are some inexplicably lengthy shots of the static presentation images, but other than that, it looks pretty...

Posted on February 10, 2010 11:40 AM

....and another FC: APIs Are Not A Substitute for Ethics

Building on a Twitter post from the other day, my latest Fast Company essay looks at what happens when we try to limit misbehavior through tools, not rules. The best kind of rules are those we apply to ourselves, those...

Posted on September 10, 2009 1:54 PM

New Fast Company Column: Machine Ethics

My latest Fast Company column is up. "Machine Ethics" explores the question of what kinds of responsibilities we have with regards to the increasingly autonomous systems we create. It's based on the "Laws of Robotics" talk I gave a few...

Posted on April 9, 2009 10:16 AM

Nanopolitics

Two reports out this week hint at a new political alignment in the coming decades. Both reports focus on nanotechnology, but have implications well beyond. Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison shows a strong correlation between moral doubts about nanotechnology...

Posted on December 11, 2008 3:27 PM

Responsibility to the Future

It's a troubling sign of the modern political culture that being repeatedly and horrifically wrong about important subjects doesn't seem to make one less popular as an advisor. In fields where the subjects of professional analysis are granular and readily...

Posted on April 30, 2007 3:58 PM

A Life or A Person?

Well, that didn't take long. Back in September, I pointed to news that the sleeping drug zolpidem (sold in the US as Ambien) could awaken patients in persistent vegetative states about 2/3s of the time; that post led to ensuing...

Posted on November 20, 2006 3:34 PM

New Futurismic Column: Ethical Futurism

My November column for Futurismic is now up, asking the question, what does it mean to be an ethical futurist? ...the first duty of an ethical futurist is to act in the interests of the stakeholders yet to come --...

Posted on November 5, 2006 5:12 PM

A Last Comment on New Awakenings

I've found it fascinating the kinds of emotions the story about the zolpidem treatment for persistent vegetative state elicits in people. This is clearly a story that hits us in the gut even more powerfully than in the mind. It's...

Posted on September 14, 2006 2:44 PM

Further Thoughts on New Awakenings

It's clear from the details in the Guardian article that application of zolpidem to treat PVS does not need to happen immediately, nor only to "mildly" damaged individuals. One of the recipients described in the piece was brain damaged at...

Posted on September 12, 2006 11:17 AM

New Awakenings

This is astounding. The sleeping pill zolpidem (sold in the US as Ambien) awakens people in persistent vegetative states as often as 60% of the time. Across three continents, brain-damaged patients are reporting remarkable improvements after taking a pill that...

Posted on September 12, 2006 10:03 AM

Monday Topsight, June 12 2006

"Topsight" is one of those words that deserves wider use, especially within the scenario/futurist/early indicators community. It means a view, or understanding, of all aspects of a problem or situation: the components, the context, the drivers, the participants... everything. The...

Posted on June 12, 2006 3:00 PM

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