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Part of UMass Boston’s Philosophy Department, the Applied Ethics Center promotes research, teaching, and awareness of ethics in public life. In this podcast, Applied Ethics Center Director Nir Eisikovits hosts conversations on the intersection of ethics, politics, and technology.
Episodes
Monday Sep 30, 2024
AI, Consciousness, and the Future Mind: A Conversation with Susan Schneider
Monday Sep 30, 2024
Monday Sep 30, 2024
In this second episode of our mini-series on brain-computer interfaces, we are joined by Susan Schneider. Dr. Schneider is the founding director of the Center for the Future Mind at Florida Atlantic University, where she is the William F. Dietrich Distinguished Professor of Philosophy. She specializes in the philosophy of mind, philosophy of artificial intelligence, metaphysics, and the philosophy of cognitive science. Dr. Schneider has written several influential books, including most recently Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind. In addition to being an academic philosopher, Dr. Schneider is a very successful public philosopher. She frequently writes opinion pieces for outlets like the New York Times and Scientific American, and appears on TV shows on stations such as PBS and The History Channel. This episode covers many topics, including philosophical questions about the self and consciousness in the context of future brain chips, the possibility of mind uploading, quantum mechanics and Susan’s new theory of consciousness that she calls ‘superpsychism’, surveillance capitalism and privacy concerns surrounding AI and brain-computer interfaces, AI digital twins, brain-to-brain interfaces and questions about the unity of consciousness, what Susan calls the Global Brain Hypothesis and the new control problem, AI regulation and the AI global arms race, the concept of AGI and what it takes to create it, and epistemological issues surrounding AI as they relate to the opacity of AI systems and the hallucination problem for large language models.
Friday Sep 27, 2024
Neuroimaging and Neurorights: A Conversation with Rafael Yuste
Friday Sep 27, 2024
Friday Sep 27, 2024
In this inaugural episode of our mini-series on brain-computer interfaces, we are joined by Rafael Yuste. Dr. Yuste is Professor of Biological Sciences and Neuroscience at Columbia University, where he directs the Neurotechnology Center. Dr. Yuste is known for his pioneering work on neural circuits and the development of cutting-edge neural imaging techniques, like two-photon calcium imaging. He also co-founded the NeuroRights Foundation to promote and protect neurorights such as mental privacy and cognitive liberty, and was one of the originators of the BRAIN Initiative, a large-scale scientific effort launched by the U.S. government in 2013 to advance understanding of the human brain. In this episode, we talk to Dr. Yuste about some of his empirical work, as well as his work related to neurorights advocacy and the BRAIN Initiative.
Tuesday Nov 14, 2023
The Case for a UBI: A Conversation with Scott Santens
Tuesday Nov 14, 2023
Tuesday Nov 14, 2023
In our final episode in our mini-series on the future of work, we are joined by universal basic income (UBI) advocate and writer Scott Santens. Scott is the founder and president of the Income To Support All Foundation (ITSA Foundation), the Senior Advisor for Humanity Forward, and he also serves on the board of directors of the Gerald Huff Fund for Humanity and as the editor of Basic Income Today. In this episode, we chat with Scott about the viability of a UBI, the philosophical and political arguments in favor of a UBI, and the importance of destigmatizing the concept of free money. Interested listeners should check out Scott's debut book about UBI and how to pay for it, Let There Be Money.
Thursday Nov 02, 2023
Breaking Things at Work: A Conversation with Gavin Mueller
Thursday Nov 02, 2023
Thursday Nov 02, 2023
Wednesday Oct 11, 2023
The Value of Idleness: A Conversation with Brian O’Connor
Wednesday Oct 11, 2023
Wednesday Oct 11, 2023
In the third episode of our mini-series on the future of work, we are joined by Brian O'Connor, Professor of Philosophy at University College Dublin. Brian and I discuss the value of idleness in our lives, the burnout caused by the work ethic, and the pressure to view oneself as a project to be continuously realized. We discuss the goods of learning to live more with more idleness - to place less emphasis on our contemporary obsession with purposeful, achievement-oriented pursuits. We encourage listeners to read Brian's excellent book Idleness for a rich discussion of the history of idleness and a vision of freedom in aimlessness.
Sunday Sep 24, 2023
Meaningful Work: A Conversation with Andrea Veltman
Sunday Sep 24, 2023
Sunday Sep 24, 2023
In our second episode of our mini-series on the future of work, we are joined by Andrea Veltman, Professor of Philosophy at James Madison University. We speak with Andrea about what it takes for work to be meaningful, if meaningful work is available to all, and what kinds of economic and social changes are necessary to help others find meaningful work. Please check out Andrea's excellent book Meaningful Work to learn more.
Sunday Sep 17, 2023
Making Light Work - A Conversation with David Spencer
Sunday Sep 17, 2023
Sunday Sep 17, 2023
In the first episode of our mini-series on the future of work, we are joined by University of Leeds economist David Spencer. We discuss the experience of alienated labor under contemporary capitalism, the importance of work for meaning and dignity in our lives, and the reduction of the working week. Spencer persuasively makes the case for less but better work and how we might imagine a better world of work. Check out his excellent new book Making Light Work: An End to Toil in the Twenty-First Century.
Tuesday Jun 20, 2023
Breaking up the United States: A Conversation with Chris Zurn
Tuesday Jun 20, 2023
Tuesday Jun 20, 2023
Political philosopher Chris Zurn has just published Splitsville USA, a bombshell book arguing for the dissolution of the US. We talk about why Chris thinks this has become necessary, how history unnecessarily prejudices us against such a split, and what a post Splitsville future might look like.
Draw your own new national maps!
Monday Mar 27, 2023
Regulating Virtual Reality: A Conversation with J Hughes and Alec Stubbs
Monday Mar 27, 2023
Monday Mar 27, 2023
The IEET and the UMB Applied Ethics Center recently released a White Paper on the political, moral and psychological questions involved in regulating the metaverse. J Hughes is the Executive Director of the IEET. Alec Stubbs is the Future of Work Post Doc at the UMB Applied Ethics Center. We discuss the main findings of the paper.
You can find the paper here
Tuesday Jun 07, 2022
Report from Kyiv: A Conversation with Journalist Alisa Sopova
Tuesday Jun 07, 2022
Tuesday Jun 07, 2022
We continue our series on the war in Ukraine. In this episode Vlado and I talk to journalist and anthropologist Alisa Sopova about what everyday life feels like in Ukraine as the war passes the 100 day mark. We discuss the regional differences in how the conflict is perceived, we ask whether Ukrainians have different views about Russian politicians and ordinary Russians, and we also talk about how Ukrainians perceive assistance from the west.
Alisa Sopova is an independent journalist from Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. She worked as a journalist and a news editor for the largest local newspaper, Donbass. When the war broke out, she was faced with the challenge of reporting on violence in her own city. With the local journalism collapsing, she began working for international media, including The New York Times and Time magazine where her coverage focused on the war and its humanitarian impact. Alisa is an author and co-founder of a #5Kfromthefrontline project (https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/5kfromthefrontline/) that aims to bring to light everyday experiences of civilian life at the frontlines. Alisa holds a BA in journalism from Moscow State University and an MA in Regional Studies from Harvard University. She is currently working on a doctorate in anthropology at Princeton.
Links to some of Alisa's pieces: