-
491Designing the Smart Operator 4.0 for Human Values: A Value Sensitive Design ApproachProcedia Manufacturing 42 219-226. 2020.Emerging technologies such as cloud computing, augmented and virtual reality, artificial intelligence and robotics, among others, are transforming the field of manufacturing and industry as a whole in unprecedent ways. This fourth industrial revolution is consequentially changing how operators that have been crucial to industry success go about their practices in industrial environments. This short paper briefly introduces the notion of the Operator 4.0 as well as how this novel way of conceptua…Read more
-
490Human Enhancement and Reproductive Ethics on Generation ShipsArgumenta 1-15. forthcoming.The past few years has seen a resurgence in the public interest in space flight and travel. Spurred mainly by the likes of technology billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, the topic poses both unique scientific as well as ethical challenges. This paper looks at the concept of generation ships, conceptual behemoth ships whose goal is to bring a group of human settlers to distant exoplanets. These ships are designed to host multiple generations of people who will be born, live, and die on th…Read more
-
487Values, Imagination, and Praxis : Towards a Value Sensitive Future with Technology (review)Science and Engineering Ethics 26 (1): 495-499. 2020.A new book by Batya Friedman and David G. Hendry, Value Sensitive Design: Shaping Technology with Moral Imagination, is reviewed. Value Sensitive Design is a project into the ethical and design issues that emerge during the engineering programs of new technologies. This book is intended to build on the over two decades of value sensitive design research, however with a greater emphasis on the developments of the theoretical underpinnings of the approach as well as initial steps that designers ca…Read more
-
482Leadership Strategy and Tactics: Field Manual (review)Journal of Military Ethics 20 (1): 82-83. 2021.A new book by Jocko Willink, "Leadership Strategy and Tactics: Field Manual", is reviewed. Leadership Strategy and Tactics explore the nature of leadership styles and strategies in both narrative forms as the author discusses past experiences in the military, as well as in real-world applications beyond the military domain. The author provides timely, yet timeless advice for aspiring leaders in an easily digestible form, with quick reference chapters and simple tactical points.
-
477Can Humans Dream of Electric Sheep? (review)Metascience 30 (2): 269-271. 2021.As an idea, transhumanism has received increasing attention in recent years and across numerous domains. Despite presidential candidates such as Zoltan Istvan, who ran on an explicitly Transhumanist platform in 2016 but later dropped out to endorse Hillary Clinton, transhumanism has taken root more recently in the conspiratorial imaginations of the dark web. Given the philosophy’s central emphasis on technology as an inherent good, imaginations in supposed alt-right internet circles have critici…Read more
-
461The Future of Value Sensitive DesignParadigm Shifts in ICT Ethics: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference ETHICOMP 2020. 2020.In this panel, we explore the future of value sensitive design (VSD). The stakes are high. Many in public and private sectors and in civil society are gradually realizing that taking our values seriously implies that we have to ensure that values effectively inform the design of technology which, in turn, shapes people’s lives. Value sensitive design offers a highly developed set of theory, tools, and methods to systematically do so.
-
412Lethal Autonomous Weapons: Designing War Machines with ValuesDelphi: Interdisciplinary Review of Emerging Technologies 1 (2): 30-34. 2019.Lethal Autonomous Weapons (LAWs) have becomes the subject of continuous debate both at national and international levels. Arguments have been proposed both for the development and use of LAWs as well as their prohibition from combat landscapes. Regardless, the development of LAWs continues in numerous nation-states. This paper builds upon previous philosophical arguments for the development and use of LAWs and proposes a design framework that can be used to ethically direct their development. Th…Read more
-
386The Role of Engineers in Harmonising Human Values for AI Systems DesignJournal of Responsible Technology 10 (July): 100031. 2022.Most engineers Fwork within social structures governing and governed by a set of values that primarily emphasise economic concerns. The majority of innovations derive from these loci. Given the effects of these innovations on various communities, it is imperative that the values they embody are aligned with those societies. Like other transformative technologies, artificial intelligence systems can be designed by a single organisation but be diffused globally, demonstrating impacts over time. Th…Read more
-
385Artificial intelligence (AI) profoundly influences a number of societal structures today, including religious dynamics. Using Bernard Lonergan’s critical realism as a lens, this article investigates the intersections of AI and religious traditions in their shared pursuit of the common good. Beginning with Lonergan’s principle that humans construct their understanding through cognitive processes, we examine how AI-mediated realities align with or challenge traditional religious tenets. By delving…Read more
-
361Conceptualizing Policy in Value Sensitive Design: A Machine Ethics ApproachIn Steven John Thompson (ed.), Machine Law, Ethics, and Morality in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, . pp. 108-125. 2021.The value sensitive design (VSD) approach to designing transformative technologies for human values is taken as the object of study in this chapter. VSD has traditionally been conceptualized as another type of technology or instrumentally as a tool. The various parts of VSD’s principled approach would then aim to discern the various policy requirements that any given technological artifact under consideration would implicate. Yet, little to no consideration has been given to how laws, regulation…Read more
-
345Space travel does not constitute a condition of moral exceptionality. That which obtains in space obtains also on Earth!Medicina E Morale 71 (3): 311-321. 2022.There is a growing body of scholarship that is addressing the ethics, in particular, the bioethics of space travel and colonisation. Naturally, a variety of perspectives concerning the ethical issues and moral permissibility of different technological strategies for confronting the rigours of space travel and colonisation have emerged in the debate. Approaches ranging from genetically enhancing human astronauts to modifying the environments of planets to make them hospitable have been proposed a…Read more
-
342Explorative Nanophilosophy as Tecnoscienza: An Italian Perspective on the Role of Speculation in NanoindustryTECNOSCIENZA: Italian Journal of Science and Technology Studies 10 (1): 71-88. 2019.There are two primary camps in which nanotechnology today can be categorized normal nanotechnology and speculative nanotechnology. The birth of nanotechnology proper was conceived through discourses of speculative nanotechnology. However, current nanotech-nology research has detracted from its speculative promises in favour of more attainable material products. Nonetheless, normal nanotechnology has leveraged the popular support and consequential funding it needs to conduct research and developm…Read more
-
341Modifying the Environment or Human Nature? What is the Right Choice for Space Travel and Mars Colonisation?NanoEthics 17 (1): 1-13. 2023.As space travel and intentions to colonise other planets are becoming the norm in public debate and scholarship, we must also confront the technical and survival challenges that emerge from these hostile environments. This paper aims to evaluate the various arguments proposed to meet the challenges of human space travel and extraterrestrial planetary colonisation. In particular, two primary solutions have been present in the literature as the most straightforward solutions to the rigours of extr…Read more
-
338Meaningful Human Control over Smart Home Systems: A Value Sensitive Design ApproachHumana.Mente Journal of Philosophical Studies 13 (37): 40-65. 2020.The last decade has witnessed the mass distribution and adoption of smart home systems and devices powered by artificial intelligence systems ranging from household appliances like fridges and toasters to more background systems such as air and water quality controllers. The pervasiveness of these sociotechnical systems makes analyzing their ethical implications necessary during the design phases of these devices to ensure not only sociotechnical resilience, but to design them for human values i…Read more
-
323Robot Care Ethics Between Autonomy and Vulnerability: Coupling Principles and Practices in Autonomous Systems for CareFrontiers in Robotics and AI 8 (654298): 1-11. 2021.Technological developments involving robotics and artificial intelligence devices are being employed evermore in elderly care and the healthcare sector more generally, raising ethical issues and practical questions warranting closer considerations of what we mean by “care” and, subsequently, how to design such software coherently with the chosen definition. This paper starts by critically examining the existing approaches to the ethical design of care robots provided by Aimee van Wynsberghe, who…Read more
-
313Designing Genetic Engineering Technologies For Human ValuesEtica E Politica (2): 481-510. 2022.Genetic engineering technologies are a subclass of the biotechnology family, and are concerned with the use of laboratory-based technologies to intervene with a given organism at the genetic level, i.e., the level of its DNA. This class of technologies could feasibly be used to treat diseases and disabilities, create disease-resistant crops, or even be used to enhance humans to make them more resistant to certain environmental conditions. However, both therapeutic and enhancement applications of…Read more
-
300Autonomous Weapons Systems and the Contextual Nature of Hors de Combat StatusInformation 12 (5): 216. 2021.Autonomous weapons systems (AWS), sometimes referred to as “killer robots”, are receiving evermore attention, both in public discourse as well as by scholars and policymakers. Much of this interest is connected with emerging ethical and legal problems linked to increasing autonomy in weapons systems, but there is a general underappreciation for the ways in which existing law might impact on these new technologies. In this paper, we argue that as AWS become more sophisticated and increasingly mor…Read more
-
295Maurizio Balistreri, Sex robot. L’amore al tempo delle macchine (review)Filosofia 2020 (65): 191-193. 2020.A new book by Maurizio Balistreri, "Sex robot. L’amore al tempo delle macchine", is reviewed. Sex robots not only exacerbate social, ethical and cultural issues that already exist, but also come with emergent and novel ones. This book is intended to build on the recent research on both robotics and the growing scholarship on sex robots more generally, however with greater attention to the developments of the philosophical issues of how to deal with these new artefacts and steps for living among …Read more
-
292Reckoning with assessment: Can we responsibly innovate? (review)Metascience 30 (1): 41-43. 2021.A new edited volume by Emad Yaghmaei and Ibo van de Poel, Assessment of Responsible Innovation: Methods and Practices, is reviewed. Responsible innovation (RI) is a project into the ethical and design issues that emerge during the engineering programs of new technologies. This volume is intended to determine how if at all, RI practices can be validated and assessed for success in context.
-
284Steps to Designing AI-Empowered Nanotechnology: A Value Sensitive Design ApproachDelphi - Interdisciplinary Review of Emerging Technologies 2 (2): 79-83. 2019.Advanced nanotechnology promises to be one of the fundamental transformational emerging technologies alongside others such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and other informational and cognitive technologies. Although scholarship on nanotechnology, particularly advanced nanotechnology such as molecular manufacturing has nearly ceased in the last decade, normal nanotechnology that is building the foundations for more advanced versions has permeated many industries and commercial products…Read more
-
264Designed for Death: Controlling Killer RobotsTrivent Publishing. 2022.Autonomous weapons systems, often referred to as ‘killer robots’, have been a hallmark of popular imagination for decades. However, with the inexorable advance of artificial intelligence systems (AI) and robotics, killer robots are quickly becoming a reality. These lethal technologies can learn, adapt, and potentially make life and death decisions on the battlefield with little-to-no human involvement. This naturally leads to not only legal but ethical concerns as to whether we can meaningful co…Read more
-
261Since the early 1990's the value sensitive design (VSD) approach has been a continually burgeoning design methodology for technological innovation. VSD is commonly described as a "principled approach" to technology design, given that it is explicitly orientated towards designing technologies for human values, rather than sidelining them to ad hoc and/or ex post facto design. However, in much of its near three-decades-long development, the VSD approach has mostly been adopted as a conceptual fram…Read more
-
257Combinatory and Complementary Practices of Values and Virtues in Design: A Reply to Reijers and GordijnFilosofia 2020 (65): 107-121. 2020.The purpose of this paper is to review and critique Wessel Reijers and Bert Gordijn’s paper Moving from value sensitive design to virtuous practice design. In doing so, it draws on recent literature on developing value sensitive design (VSD) to show how the authors’ virtuous practice design (VPD), at minimum, is not mutually exclusive to VSD. This paper argues that virtuous practice is not exclusive to the basic methodological underpinnings of VSD. This can therefore strengthen, rather than excl…Read more
-
254Evolution Science and Ethics in the Third Millennium: Challenges and Choices for Humankind (review)World Futures 75 (5): 191-193. 2019.Evolution Science and Ethics in the Third Millennium is one of the most lucid academic texts on the subject of evolutionary morality to be published in the last decade. While the book does have some problematic aspects, discussed below, it nonetheless provides what is none other than a comprehensive and rational basis to substantiate the notion that evolutionary science can provide a foundation for the understanding of morality. Cliquet and Avramov take a wholly interdisciplinary approach, encro…Read more
-
250Designing a Nano-Safe FutureSolutions Journal 9 (4): 1-3. 2018.A short position paper on how we can preemptively anticipate and design nanotechnology-safe futures.
-
248Democratization of quantum technologiesQuantum Science and Technology 8 024005. 2023.As quantum technologies (QT) advance, their potential impact on and relation with society has been developing into an important issue for exploration. In this paper, we investigate the topic of democratization in the context of QT, particularly quantum computing. The paper contains three main sections. First, we briefly introduce different theories of democracy (participatory, representative, and deliberative) and how the concept of democratization can be formulated with respect to whether democ…Read more
-
246Star Trek’s Stoics: The VulcansPhilosophy Now 106 29. 2015.In 1966 Gene Roddenberry, then a relatively unknown TV writer, created what was to become a cultural sensation. From cell phones and tablets, to MRI machines and medical jet injectors, Star Trek has undoubtedly anticipated much of the technology that we take for granted today. Moreover, the disagreements, fights and jokes between Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Dr Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy (DeForest Kelley) and Mr Spock (Leonard Nimoy) were expertly crafted for dramatic impact. But I’m not writing t…Read more
-
233Presentism and RelativityThe Oxford Philosopher. 2015.In this short paper I will be explicating and evaluating the arguments presented by Keller and Nelson in their paper, Presentists Should Believe in Time-Travel. I will show that their presuppositions, which are essential to their arguments, have the potential to devastate their position. We will see that one of these presuppositions comes into conflict with the General Theory of Relativity, and I will demonstrate that this endangers both their own agenda and presentism as a whole.
-
227Values for a Post-Pandemic FutureIn Matthew J. Dennis, Georgy Ishmaev, Steven Umbrello & Jeroen van den Hoven (eds.), Values for a Post-Pandemic Future, Springer. pp. 1-19. 2022.The costs of the COVID-19 pandemic are yet to be calculated, but they include the loss of millions of lives and the destruction of countless livelihoods. What is certain is that the SARS-CoV-2 virus has changed the way we live for the foreseeable future. It has forced many to live in ways they would have previously thought impossible. As well as challenging scientists and medical professionals to address urgent value conflicts in the short term, COVID-19 has raised slower-burning value questions…Read more
-
222From speculation to reality: enhancing anticipatory ethics for emerging technologies (ATE) in practiceTechnology in Society 74 1-11. 2023.Various approaches have emerged over the last several decades to meet the challenges and complexities of anticipating and responding to the potential impacts of emerging technologies. Although many of the existing approaches share similarities, they each have shortfalls. This paper takes as the object of its study Anticipatory Ethics for Emerging Technologies (ATE) to technology assessment, given that it was formatted to address many of the privations characterising parallel approaches. The ATE …Read more
Steven Umbrello
Institute For Ethics And Emerging Technology
-
Institute For Ethics And Emerging TechnologyAdministrator
Turin, Piedmont, Italy
Areas of Specialization
Applied Ethics |
Technology Ethics |
Areas of Interest
Applied Ethics |
Technology Ethics |