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2043Why We Should Create Artificial Offspring: Meaning and the Collective AfterlifeScience and Engineering Ethics 24 (4): 1097-1118. 2018.This article argues that the creation of artificial offspring could make our lives more meaningful. By ‘artificial offspring’ I mean beings that we construct, with a mix of human and non-human-like qualities. Robotic artificial intelligences are paradigmatic examples of the form. There are two reasons for thinking that the creation of such beings could make our lives more meaningful and valuable. The first is that the existence of a collective afterlife—i.e. a set of human-like lives that contin…Read more
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1931Robot Betrayal: a guide to the ethics of robotic deceptionEthics and Information Technology 22 (2): 117-128. 2020.If a robot sends a deceptive signal to a human user, is this always and everywhere an unethical act, or might it sometimes be ethically desirable? Building upon previous work in robot ethics, this article tries to clarify and refine our understanding of the ethics of robotic deception. It does so by making three arguments. First, it argues that we need to distinguish between three main forms of robotic deception (external state deception; superficial state deception; and hidden state deception) …Read more
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1761Technological Change and Human ObsolescenceTechné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 26 (1): 31-56. 2022.Can human life have value in a world in which humans are rendered obsolete by technological advances? This article answers this question by developing an extended analysis of the axiological impact of human obsolescence. In doing so, it makes four main arguments. First, it argues that human obsolescence is a complex phenomenon that can take on at least four distinct forms. Second, it argues that one of these forms of obsolescence is not a coherent concept and hence not a plausible threat to huma…Read more
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1752Common Knowledge, Pragmatic Enrichment and Thin OriginalismJurisprudence 7 (2): 267-296. 2016.The meaning of an utterance is often enriched by the pragmatic context in which it is uttered. This is because in ordinary conversations we routinely and uncontroversially compress what we say, safe in the knowledge that those interpreting us will ‘add in’ the content we intend to communicate. Does the same thing hold true in the case of legal utterances like ‘This constitution protects the personal rights of the citizen’ or ‘the parliament shall have the power to lay and collect taxes’? This ar…Read more
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1736The Ethics of Algorithmic Outsourcing in Everyday LifeIn Karen Yeung & Martin Lodge (eds.), Algorithmic Regulation, Oxford University Press. forthcoming.We live in a world in which ‘smart’ algorithmic tools are regularly used to structure and control our choice environments. They do so by affecting the options with which we are presented and the choices that we are encouraged or able to make. Many of us make use of these tools in our daily lives, using them to solve personal problems and fulfill goals and ambitions. What consequences does this have for individual autonomy and how should our legal and regulatory systems respond? This chapter defe…Read more
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1640Building a Postwork Utopia: Technological Unemployment, Life Extension and the Future of Human FlourishingIn Kevin Lagrandeur & James Hughes (eds.), Surviving the Machine Age, Palgrave-macmillan. pp. 63-82. 2017.Populations in developed societies are rapidly aging: fertility rates are at all-time lows while life expectancy creeps ever higher. This is triggering a social crisis in which shrinking youth populations are required to pay for the care and retirements of an aging majority. Some people argue that by investing in the right kinds of lifespan extension technology – the kind that extends the healthy and productive phases of life – we can avoid this crisis (thereby securing a ‘longevity dividend’). …Read more
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1631Why Internal Moral Enhancement Might Be politically Better than External Moral EnhancementNeuroethics 12 (1): 39-54. 2016.Technology could be used to improve morality but it could do so in different ways. Some technologies could augment and enhance moral behaviour externally by using external cues and signals to push and pull us towards morally appropriate behaviours. Other technologies could enhance moral behaviour internally by directly altering the way in which the brain captures and processes morally salient information or initiates moral action. The question is whether there is any reason to prefer one method …Read more
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1602Could There Ever be an App for that? Consent Apps and the Problem of Sexual AssaultCriminal Law and Philosophy 12 (1): 143-165. 2018.Rape and sexual assault are major problems. In the majority of sexual assault cases consent is the central issue. Consent is, to borrow a phrase, the ‘moral magic’ that converts an impermissible act into a permissible one. In recent years, a handful of companies have tried to launch consent apps which aim to educate young people about the nature of sexual consent and allow them to record signals of consent for future verification. Although ostensibly aimed at addressing the problems of rape and …Read more
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1462Skeptical Theism and Divine Permission - A Reply to AndersonInternational Journal for Philosophy of Religion 75 (2): 101-118. 2014.Skeptical theism (ST) may undercut the key inference in the evidential argument from evil, but it does so at a cost. If ST is true, then we lose our ability to assess the all things considered (ATC) value of natural events and states of affairs. And if we lose that ability, a whole slew of undesirable consequences follow. So goes a common consequential critique of ST. In a recent article, Anderson has argued that this consequential critique is flawed. Anderson claims that ST only has the consequ…Read more
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1417The Normativity of Linguistic Originalism: A Speech Act AnalysisLaw and Philosophy 34 (4): 397-431. 2015.The debate over the merits of originalism has advanced considerably in recent years, both in terms of its intellectual sophistication and its practical significance. In the process, some prominent originalists—Lawrence Solum and Jeffrey Goldsworthy being the two discussed here—have been at pains to separate out the linguistic and normative components of the theory. For these authors, while it is true that judges and other legal decision-makers ought to be originalists, it is also true that the c…Read more
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1414Axiological Futurism: The Systematic Study of the Future of ValuesFutures. forthcoming.Human values seem to vary across time and space. What implications does this have for the future of human value? Will our human and (perhaps) post-human offspring have very different values from our own? Can we study the future of human values in an insightful and systematic way? This article makes three contributions to the debate about the future of human values. First, it argues that the systematic study of future values is both necessary in and of itself and an important complement to other …Read more
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1383The Technological Future of LoveIn André Grahle, Natasha McKeever & Joe Saunders (eds.), Philosophy of Love in the Past, Present, and Future, Routledge. pp. 224-239. 2022.How might emerging and future technologies—sex robots, love drugs, anti-love drugs, or algorithms to track, quantify, and ‘gamify’ romantic relationships—change how we understand and value love? We canvass some of the main ethical worries posed by such technologies, while also considering whether there are reasons for “cautious optimism” about their implications for our lives. Along the way, we touch on some key ideas from the philosophies of love and technology.
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1310Techno-optimism: an Analysis, an Evaluation and a Modest DefencePhilosophy and Technology 35 (2): 1-29. 2022.What is techno-optimism and how can it be defended? Although techno-optimist views are widely espoused and critiqued, there have been few attempts to systematically analyse what it means to be a techno-optimist and how one might defend this view. This paper attempts to address this oversight by providing a comprehensive analysis and evaluation of techno-optimism. It is argued that techno-optimism is a pluralistic stance that comes in weak and strong forms. These vary along a number of key dimens…Read more
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1037Moral Enhancement and Moral Freedom: A Critique of the Little Alex ProblemRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 83 233-250. 2018.A common objection to moral enhancement is that it would undermine our moral freedom and that this is a bad thing because moral freedom is a great good. Michael Hauskeller has defended this view on a couple of occasions using an arresting thought experiment called the 'Little Alex' problem. In this paper, I reconstruct the argument Hauskeller derives from this thought experiment and subject it to critical scrutiny. I claim that the argument ultimately fails because (a) it assumes that moral free…Read more
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1037Should we use Commitment Contracts to Regulate Student use of Cognitive Enhancing Drugs?Bioethics 30 (7): 568-578. 2016.Are universities justified in trying to regulate student use of cognitive enhancing drugs? In this article I argue that they can be, but that the most appropriate kind of regulatory intervention is likely to be voluntary in nature. To be precise, I argue that universities could justifiably adopt a commitment contract system of regulation wherein students are encouraged to voluntarily commit to not using cognitive enhancing drugs. If they are found to breach that commitment, they should be penali…Read more
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983Stumbling on the Threshold: A Reply to Gwiazda on Threshold ObligationsReligious Studies 48 (4): 469-478. 2012.Bayne and Nagasawa have argued that the properties traditionally attributed to God provide an insufficient grounding for the obligation to worship God. They do so partly because the same properties, when possessed in lesser quantities by human beings, do not give rise to similar obligations. In a recent paper, Jeremy Gwiazda challenges this line of argument. He does so because it neglects the possible existence of a threshold obligation to worship, i.e. an obligation that only kicks in when the …Read more
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849The Comparative Advantages of Brain-Based Lie Detection: The P300 Concealed Information Test and Pre-trial BargainingInternational Journal of Evidence and Proof 19 (1). 2015.The lie detector test has long been treated with suspicion by the law. Recently, several authors have called this suspicion into question. They argue that the lie detector test may have considerable forensic benefits, particularly if we move past the classic, false-positive prone, autonomic nervous system-based (ANS-based) control question test, to the more reliable, brain-based, concealed information test. These authors typically rely on a “comparative advantage” argument to make their case. Ac…Read more
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838An evaluative conservative case for biomedical enhancementJournal of Medical Ethics 42 (9): 611-618. 2016.It is widely believed that a conservative moral outlook is opposed to biomedical forms of human enhancement. In this paper, I argue that this widespread belief is incorrect. Using Cohen’s evaluative conservatism as my starting point, I argue that there are strong conservative reasons to prioritise the development of biomedical enhancements. In particular, I suggest that biomedical enhancement may be essential if we are to maintain our current evaluative equilibrium (i.e. the set of values that u…Read more
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811What Matters for Moral Status: Behavioral or Cognitive Equivalence?Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 30 (3): 472-478. 2021.Henry Shevlin’s paper—“How could we know when a robot was a moral patient?” – argues that we should recognize robots and artificial intelligence (AI) as psychological moral patients if they are cognitively equivalent to other beings that we already recognize as psychological moral patients (i.e., humans and, at least some, animals). In defending this cognitive equivalence strategy, Shevlin draws inspiration from the “behavioral equivalence” strategy that I have defended in previous work but argu…Read more
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804Responsible Innovation in Social Epistemic Systems: The P300 Memory Detection Test and the Legal TrialIn Van den Hoven (ed.), Responsible Innovation Volume II: Concepts, Approaches, Applications, Springer. forthcoming.Memory Detection Tests (MDTs) are a general class of psychophysiological tests that can be used to determine whether someone remembers a particular fact or datum. The P300 MDT is a type of MDT that relies on a presumed correlation between the presence of a detectable neural signal (the P300 “brainwave”) in a test subject, and the recognition of those facts in the subject’s mind. As such, the P300 MDT belongs to a class of brain-based forensic technologies which have proved popular and controvers…Read more
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800In Defense of the Post-Work Future: Withdrawal and the Ludic LifeIn Michael Cholbi & Michael Weber (eds.), The Future of Work, Technology, and Basic Income, Routledge. pp. 99-116. forthcoming.A basic income might be able to correct for the income related losses of unemployment, but what about the meaning/purpose related losses? For better or worse, many people derive meaning and fulfillment from the jobs they do; if their jobs are taken away, they lose this source of meaning. If we are about the enter an era of rampant job loss as a result of advances in technology, is there a danger that it will also be an era of rampant meaninglessness? In this chapter, I offer counsel against any …Read more
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724On the Need for Epistemic EnhancementLaw, Innovation and Technology 5 (1): 85-112. 2013.Klaming and Vedder (2010) have argued that enhancement technologies that improve the epistemic efficiency of the legal system (“epistemic enhancements”) would benefit the common good. But there are two flaws to Klaming and Vedder’s argument. First, they rely on an under-theorised and under-specified conception of the common good. When theory and specification are supplied, their CGJ for enhancing eyewitness memory and recall becomes significantly less persuasive. And second, although aware of su…Read more
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691Automation and Utopia: Human Flourishing in an Age Without WorkHarvard University Press. 2019.Human obsolescence is imminent. We are living through an era in which our activity is becoming less and less relevant to our well-being and to the fate of our planet. This trend toward increased obsolescence is likely to continue in the future, and we must do our best to prepare ourselves and our societies for this reality. Far from being a cause for despair, this is in fact an opportunity for optimism. Harnessed in the right way, the technology that hastens our obsolescence can open us up to ne…Read more
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647SexualityIn Markus Dubber, Frank Pasquale & Sunit Das (eds.), Oxford Handbook of the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, Oxford University Press. forthcoming.Sex is an important part of human life. It is a source of pleasure and intimacy, and is integral to many people’s self-identity. This chapter examines the opportunities and challenges posed by the use of AI in how humans express and enact their sexualities. It does so by focusing on three main issues. First, it considers the idea of digisexuality, which according to McArthur and Twist (2017) is the label that should be applied to those ‘whose primary sexual identity comes through the use of tech…Read more
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640The Vice of In-Principlism and the Harmfulness of LoveAmerican Journal of Bioethics 13 (11): 19-21. 2013.This is a response to Earp and colleagues' target article "If I could just stop loving you: Anti-love biotechnology and the ethics of a chemical break-up". I argue that the authors may indulge in the vice of in-principlism when presenting their ethical framework for dealing with anti-love biotechnology, and that they mis-apply the concept of harm.
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631Moral Uncertainty and Our Relationships with Unknown MindsCambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 32 (4): 482-495. 2023.We are sometimes unsure of the moral status of our relationships with other entities. Recent case studies in this uncertainty include our relationships with artificial agents (robots, assistant AI, etc.), animals, and patients with “locked-in” syndrome. Do these entities have basic moral standing? Could they count as true friends or lovers? What should we do when we do not know the answer to these questions? An influential line of reasoning suggests that, in such cases of moral uncertainty, we n…Read more
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622Tragic Choices and the Virtue of Techno-Responsibility GapsPhilosophy and Technology 35 (2): 1-26. 2022.There is a concern that the widespread deployment of autonomous machines will open up a number of ‘responsibility gaps’ throughout society. Various articulations of such techno-responsibility gaps have been proposed over the years, along with several potential solutions. Most of these solutions focus on ‘plugging’ or ‘dissolving’ the gaps. This paper offers an alternative perspective. It argues that techno-responsibility gaps are, sometimes, to be welcomed and that one of the advantages of auton…Read more
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578Automation, Work and the Achievement GapAI and Ethics 1 (3). 2021.Rapid advances in AI-based automation have led to a number of existential and economic concerns. In particular, as automating technologies develop enhanced competency they seem to threaten the values associated with meaningful work. In this article, we focus on one such value: the value of achievement. We argue that achievement is a key part of what makes work meaningful and that advances in AI and automation give rise to a number achievement gaps in the workplace. This could limit people’s abil…Read more
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515Leading digital platform providers such as Google and Uber construct marketplaces in which algorithms set prices. The efficiency-maximising free market credentials of this approach are touted by the companies involved and by legislators, policy makers and marketers. They have also taken root in the public imagination. In this article we challenge this understanding of algorithmically constructed marketplaces. We do so by returning to Hayek’s (1945) classic defence of the price mechanism, and by …Read more
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345Robot Sex: Social and Ethical ImplicationsMIT Press. 2017.Sexbots are coming. Given the pace of technological advances, it is inevitable that realistic robots specifically designed for people's sexual gratification will be developed in the not-too-distant future. Despite popular culture's fascination with the topic, and the emergence of the much-publicized Campaign Against Sex Robots, there has been little academic research on the social, philosophical, moral, and legal implications of robot sex. This book fills the gap, offering perspectives from phil…Read more
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