Ethical Technology

Backing into Eden: Chapter 1 &2 – We are Responsible / The Beasts of the Field

2013-05-23T15:50:+00:00

When I drive from home to work, none of the land I pass is wild. It’s lawns, or parks, or part of the city. On my drive in, I can see the Olympic Mountains as I crest the hill and head down toward the Kirkland waterfront. They are a mash up of native lands, national parks, and beach cities. Forks, the city of the Twilight books, is over there. The Olympics are largely wild, but they are managed carefully. I suspect there is no land in the whole mountain range that is not owned. Someone – a person, a government, a tribe, a company – someone manages everything I can see.

http://www.ieet.org/images/uploads/fronteden2013.jpg

Futurist Jamais Cascio envisions a sustainable, resilient world

2013-05-23T15:39:+00:00

Internationally renowned futurist Jamais Cascio, and IEET Fellow, explores the potential course of planet Earth over the next 50 years, painting a picture of what a sustainable, resilient world could look like. He says the choices we make today will shape the decades to come. This podcast took place on May 22, 2013 for MPR News.

What’s the Rational Choice? Risk, Values and the Politics of Geoengineering

2013-05-23T05:16:+00:00

Engineering a Cooler Earth: Can we do it? Shouold we try? Judy Layzer of MIT talks about the politics of geoengineering.

Prison Industrial Complex in America

2013-05-23T04:56:+00:00

An extremely problematic phenomenon in America today is the ever growing industry of privatized prisons across America, generally referred to as the Prison Industrial Complex, as well as skyrocketing rates of incarceration that leave the rest of the nations of the world trailing behind.

The issue ties together many social aspects such as the connection between the massive rate of imprisonment for non-violent drug use and rampant poverty, as well as the growing political influence of private prison industries and companies that thrive on inmate populations as cheap and economic forms of labor.

Engineering the Future: Geoengineering

2013-05-23T04:09:+00:00

Geoengineering has an image problem. Some proposed geoengineering projects, such as space mirrors or cloud seeding, seem like they come from the pages of a science fiction novel. Those who propose these projects are treated with belittling rhetoric. Other projects face a different type of imaging problem; the project’s proponents are accused of having vague or unspecified goals and timelines. Such projects are summarily dismissed as being idealistic, out of touch or nebulous.

http://www.ieet.org/images/uploads/geoengineering-wrenchfront.jpg

The American prison system

2013-05-22T21:04:+00:00

One of the things that has always struck me as different — and not in a good way — in the United States compared to other Western countries is the way Americans think (and act) about crime, particularly their prison system. Recently, my colleagues Ken Taylor (Stanford) and John Perry (University of California-Riverside) have tackled the issue on their wonderful podcast, Philosophy Talk (which comes with an associated blog, the tagline of which is cogito, ergo blog), causing me to ponder some more disturbing thoughts about it.

http://www.ieet.org/images/uploads/prisonsfront20130522.jpg

Fighting Facebook, a Campaign for a People’s Terms of Service

2013-05-22T21:00:+00:00

Social media companies say consumers’ loss of privacy is just the cost of doing business. But what would happen if they actually had to bargain with users on equal footing?

http://www.ieet.org/images/uploads/FBPrivacyimg001.jpg

Imagination Experiment: Visualizing Transformative Tech

2013-05-21T20:29:+00:00

Time for another thought experiment. Or, rather, a puzzle without a good answer yet.

http://www.ieet.org/images/uploads/cena_cxo_bigfront.jpg

From Mars to the Multiverse

2013-05-21T19:29:+00:00

2012 Newton Medal winner, Professor Martin Rees gives a one hour astronomy lecture titled From Mars to the Multiverse. Martin Rees is a Fellow of Trinity College and Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge. He holds the honorary title of Astronomer Royal and also Visiting Professor at Imperial College London and at Leicester University. In this lecture he touches on finding life on other planets, the science of stars, and all things universe.

The singularity: merging human/machine to achieve immortality

2013-05-21T14:36:+00:00

By around mid-century, many future followers predict the pace of technological progression in genetics, nanotechnology and artificial intelligence will become so fast that humans will undergo radical evolution. Advances that provide a forever youthful and healthy state of being could be realized.

http://www.ieet.org/images/uploads/frontpel20130521a.jpg