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2052The Moral Rights and Wrongs of Online Dating and Hook-UpsIn Carissa Véliz (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Digital Ethics, Oxford University Press. 2023.In this chapter we identify three potentially morally problematic behaviours that are common among users of dating and hook-up apps (DHAs) and provide arguments as to why they may or may not be considered (a) in a category of their own, distinct from similar behaviours outside of DHAs; (b) caused or facilitated by affordances and business logic of DHAs; (c) as indeed morally wrong. We also consider ways in which morally problematic behaviours can be anticipated, mitigated, or even prevented by a…Read more
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2050Time, Unity, and Conscious ExperienceDissertation, CUNY Graduate Center. 2013.In my dissertation I critically survey existing theories of time consciousness, and draw on recent work in neuroscience and philosophy to develop an original theory. My view depends on a novel account of temporal perception based on the notion of temporal qualities, which are mental properties that are instantiated whenever we detect change in the environment. When we become aware of these temporal qualities in an appropriate way, our conscious experience will feature the distinct temporal phe…Read more
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1180Making metaethics work for AI: realism and anti-realismIn Mark Coeckelbergh, M. Loh, J. Funk, M. Seibt & J. Nørskov (eds.), Envisioning Robots in Society – Power, Politics, and Public Space, . pp. 311-318. 2018.Engineering an artificial intelligence to play an advisory role in morally charged decision making will inevitably introduce meta-ethical positions into the design. Some of these positions, by informing the design and operation of the AI, will introduce risks. This paper offers an analysis of these potential risks along the realism/anti-realism dimension in metaethics and reveals that realism poses greater risks, but, on the other hand, anti-realism undermines the motivation for engineering a mo…Read more
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1133Drugs and Hugs: Stimulating Moral Dispositions as a Method of Moral EnhancementRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 83 329-350. 2018.Advocates of moral enhancement through pharmacological, genetic, or other direct interventions sometimes explicitly argue, or assume without argument, that traditional moral education and development is insufficient to bring about moral enhancement. Traditional moral education grounded in a Kohlbergian theory of moral development is indeed unsuitable for that task; however, the psychology of moral development and education has come a long way since then. Recent studies support the view that mora…Read more
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1111Autonomous Weapon Systems, Asymmetrical Warfare, and MythCivitas. Studia Z Filozofii Polityki 23 179-195. 2018.Predictions about autonomous weapon systems are typically thought to channel fears that drove all the myths about intelligence embodied in matter. One of these is the idea that the technology can get out of control and ultimately lead to horrifi c consequences, as is the case in Mary Shelley’s classic Frankenstein. Given this, predictions about AWS are sometimes dismissed as science-fiction fear-mongering. This paper considers several analogies between AWS and other weapon systems and ultimately…Read more
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1073Robotic Nudges for Moral Improvement through Stoic PracticeTechné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 23 (3): 425-455. 2019.This paper offers a theoretical framework that can be used to derive viable engineering strategies for the design and development of robots that can nudge people towards moral improvement. The framework relies on research in developmental psychology and insights from Stoic ethics. Stoicism recommends contemplative practices that over time help one develop dispositions to behave in ways that improve the functioning of mechanisms that are constitutive of moral cognition. Robots can nudge individua…Read more
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881Autonomous Weapons Systems, the Frame Problem and Computer SecurityJournal of Military Ethics 14 (2): 162-176. 2015.Unlike human soldiers, autonomous weapons systems are unaffected by psychological factors that would cause them to act outside the chain of command. This is a compelling moral justification for their development and eventual deployment in war. To achieve this level of sophistication, the software that runs AWS will have to first solve two problems: the frame problem and the representation problem. Solutions to these problems will inevitably involve complex software. Complex software will create …Read more
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719The Ethics of Matching: Mobile and web-based dating and hook up platformsIn Brian D. Earp, Clare Chambers & Lori Watson (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Sex and Sexuality, Routledge. 2022.Dating and hookup apps (DHAs) are now widely used and may be transforming our intimate relationships. The apps are beneficial in fostering intimate connections among those who are lonely, who are members of minority or marginalized groups, or who live nomadic lifestyles because of work or recreational travel. However, the wider social and relational changes that DHAs portend are merely beginning to be seriously discussed by academics (Arias et al., 2017). In this chapter, we employ concepts from…Read more
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669Artificial Intelligence as a Means to Moral EnhancementStudies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric 48 (1): 171-187. 2016.This paper critically assesses the possibility of moral enhancement with ambient intelligence technologies and artificial intelligence presented in Savulescu and Maslen (2015). The main problem with their proposal is that it is not robust enough to play a normative role in users’ behavior. A more promising approach, and the one presented in the paper, relies on an artifi-cial moral reasoning engine, which is designed to present its users with moral arguments grounded in first-order normative theori…Read more
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629Ethical Issues with Artificial Ethics AssistantsIn Carissa Véliz (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Digital Ethics, Oxford University Press. 2023.This chapter examines the possibility of using AI technologies to improve human moral reasoning and decision-making, especially in the context of purchasing and consumer decisions. We characterize such AI technologies as artificial ethics assistants (AEAs). We focus on just one part of the AI-aided moral improvement question: the case of the individual who wants to improve their morality, where what constitutes an improvement is evaluated by the individual’s own values. We distinguish three broa…Read more
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592What Does Consciousness Have to Do With It? Quality of Life in Patients With Disorders of ConsciousnessAmerican Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 7 (1): 50-52. 2016.
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574Vertrouwen in de geneeskunde en kunstmatige intelligentiePodium Voor Bioethiek 3 (28): 37-42. 2021.Kunstmatige intelligentie (AI) en systemen die met machine learning (ML) werken, kunnen veel onderdelen van het medische besluitvormingsproces ondersteunen of vervangen. Ook zouden ze artsen kunnen helpen bij het omgaan met klinische, morele dilemma’s. AI/ML-beslissingen kunnen zo in de plaats komen van professionele beslissingen. We betogen dat dit belangrijke gevolgen heeft voor de relatie tussen een patiënt en de medische professie als instelling, en dat dit onvermijdelijk zal leiden tot uith…Read more
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538Consciousness Is More Complicated Than That: Theoretical Limitations of Interactive CapacityAmerican Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 4 (4): 38-39. 2013.
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523Conscious experience of time: Its significance and interpretation in neuroscience and philosophyConsciousness and Cognition 38 151-154. 2015.
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498Temporal Mental Qualities and Selective AttentionAvant: Trends in Interdisciplinary Studies 7 (2): 11-24. 2016.This article presents an argument for the view that we can perceive temporal features without awareness. Evidence for this claim comes from recent empirical work on selective visual attention. An interpretation of selective attention as a mechanism that processes high-level perceptual features is offered and defended against one particular objection. In conclusion, time perception likely has an unconscious dimension and temporal mental qualities can be instantiated without ever being conscious.
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479Genomic Obsolescence: What Constitutes an Ontological Threat to Human Nature?American Journal of Bioethics 19 (7): 39-40. 2019.Volume 19, Issue 7, July 2019, Page 39-40.
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382Understanding Perception of Time in Terms of Perception of ChangeProcedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 126 58-63. 2014.In this paper, I offer an account of the dependence relation between perception of change and the subjective flow of time that is consistent with some extant empirical evidence from priming by unconscious change. This view is inspired by the one offered by William James, but it is articulated in the framework of contemporary functionalist accounts of mental qualities and higher-order theories of consciousness. An additional advantage of this account of the relationship between perception of chan…Read more
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380Quality Space Model of Temporal PerceptionLecture Notes in Computer Science 6789 (Multidisciplinary Aspects of Tim): 230-245. 2010.Quality Space Theory is a holistic model of qualitative states. On this view, individual mental qualities are defined by their locations in a space of relations, which reflects a similar space of relations among perceptible properties. This paper offers an extension of Quality Space Theory to temporal perception. Unconscious segmentation of events, the involvement of early sensory areas, and asymmetries of dominance in multi-modal perception of time are presented as evidence for the view.
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358Swiping Left on the Quantified Relationship: Exploring the Potential Soft ImpactsAmerican Journal of Bioethics 18 (2): 27-28. 2018.
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353Causal Inferences in Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Research: Challenges and PerspectivesFrontiers in Human Neuroscience 14 574. 2021.Transcranial magnetic stimulation is used to make inferences about relationships between brain areas and their functions because, in contrast to neuroimaging tools, it modulates neuronal activity. The central aim of this article is to critically evaluate to what extent it is possible to draw causal inferences from repetitive TMS data. To that end, we describe the logical limitations of inferences based on rTMS experiments. The presented analysis suggests that rTMS alone does not provide the sort…Read more
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343The Temperature of Morality: A Behavioral Study Concerning the Effect of Moral Decisions on Facial Thermal Variations in Video Games16th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG2021) 45. 2021.In this paper, we report on an experiment with The Walking Dead (TWD), which is a narrative-driven adventure game with morally charged decisions set in a post-apocalyptic world filled with zombies. This study aimed to identify physiological markers of moral decisions and non-moral decisions using infrared thermal imaging (ITI). ITI is a non-invasive tool used to capture thermal variations due to blood flow in specific body regions that might be caused by sympathetic activity. Results show that m…Read more
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333Institutional Trust in Medicine in the Age of Artificial IntelligenceIn David Collins, Mark Alfano & Iris Jovanovic (eds.), The Moral Psychology of Trust, Rowman and Littlefield/lexington Books. 2023.It is easier to talk frankly to a person whom one trusts. It is also easier to agree with a scientist whom one trusts. Even though in both cases the psychological state that underlies the behavior is called ‘trust’, it is controversial whether it is a token of the same psychological type. Trust can serve an affective, epistemic, or other social function, and comes to interact with other psychological states in a variety of ways. The way that the functional role of trust changes across contexts a…Read more
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324Consequences of unexplainable machine learning for the notions of a trusted doctor and patient autonomyProceedings of the 2nd EXplainable AI in Law Workshop (XAILA 2019) Co-Located with 32nd International Conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems (JURIX 2019). 2020.This paper provides an analysis of the way in which two foundational principles of medical ethics–the trusted doctor and patient autonomy–can be undermined by the use of machine learning (ML) algorithms and addresses its legal significance. This paper can be a guide to both health care providers and other stakeholders about how to anticipate and in some cases mitigate ethical conflicts caused by the use of ML in healthcare. It can also be read as a road map as to what needs to be done to achieve…Read more
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304Face in the Game: Using Facial Action Units to Track Expertise in Competitive Video Game PlayIn Gianluca Guglielmo, Paris Mavromoustakos Blom, Michał Klincewicz, Boris Čule & Pieter Spronck (eds.), IEEE Transactions on Games (Conference on Games 2022, Beijing, China), Acm. 2022.In this study, we extracted facial action units (AUs) data during a Hearthstone tournament to investigate behavioural differences between expert, intermediate, and novice players. Our aim was to obtain insights into the nature of expertise and how it may be tracked using non-invasive methods such as AUs. These insights may shed light on the endogenous responses in the player and at the same time may provide information to the opponents during a competition. Our results show that player expertise…Read more
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288Tracking Early Differences in Tetris Perfomance Using Eye Aspect Ratio Extracted BlinksIEEE Transactions on Games 1 1-8. 2023.This study aimed to evaluate if eye blinks can be used to discriminate players with different performance in a session of Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) Tetris. To that end, we developed a state-of-the-art method for blink extraction from EAR measures, which is robust enough to be used with data collected by a low-grade webcam such as the ones widely available on laptop computers. Our results show a significant decrease in blink rate per minute (blinks/m) during the first minute of playing …Read more
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264It is not clear to what the projects of creating an artificial intelligence (AI) that does ethics, is moral, or makes moral judgments amounts. In this paper we discuss some of the extant metaethical theories and debates in moral philosophy by which such projects should be informed, specifically focusing on the project of creating an AI that makes moral judgments. We argue that the scope and aims of that project depend a great deal on antecedent metaethical commitments. Metaethics, therefore, pla…Read more
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244Uses and Abuses of AI EthicsIn David J. Gunkel (ed.), Handbook of the Ethics of AI, Edward Elgar Publishing. forthcoming.In this chapter we take stock of some of the complexities of the sprawling field of AI ethics. We consider questions like "what is the proper scope of AI ethics?" And "who counts as an AI ethicist?" At the same time, we flag several potential uses and abuses of AI ethics. These include challenges for the AI ethicist, including what qualifications they should have; the proper place and extent of futuring and speculation in the field; and the dilemmas concerning how we use our public and academic …Read more
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220Blink To Win: Blink Patterns of Video Game Players Are Connected to ExpertiseACM 17th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (FDG) 12. 2022.In this study, we analyzed the blinking behavior of players in a video game tournament. Our aim was to test whether spontaneous blink patterns differ across levels of expertise. We used blink rate, blink duration, blink frequency, and eyelid movements represented by the Eye Aspect Ratio (EAR) to train a machine learning classifier to discriminate between different levels of expertise. Classifier performance was highly influenced by features such as the mean, standard deviation and median EAR. Mo…Read more
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178New laws of robotics: defending human expertise in the age of AI, by Frank Pasquale (review)Prometheus. forthcoming.
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