^CategoryEthics

Ai identify person technology for recognize, classify and predict human behavior for safety. Futuristic artificial intelligence. Surveillance and data collection of citizens through city cameras.

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
November 6, 2020

Categorized
Data Privacy, Ethics, Global Technology, Surveillance

Tagged
Alexa, Amazon, Amazon Ring, Anonymization, COVID-19, Data buying, Deanonymizing data, Door cameras, Freedom House, Police surveillance, Smart TVs}

The Information We Just Give Away Obliterates Privacy

_{Privacy may turn out to be one of the biggest political issues of the new decade} _{News

November 6, 2020

6

Data Privacy, Ethics, Global Technology, Surveillance}

A story came to light at VICE in 2017, that the CIA spied on people through their smart TVs. Without getting into those weeds, note this conventional warning offered by manufacturers: “Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party through your use of Voice Recognition.” An old birdwatcher’s tip: If you can see them, assume they can see you. If the internet is wide open to us, we are potentially wide open to the internet. Here are three surveillance issues worth pondering, about the systems we take for granted: ➤ Alexa employees listen in: Amazon.com Inc. employs thousands of people Read More ›

With the global spread of the new coronavirus pneumonia, an automated line of disposable medical masks makes the masks ready for an epidemic 24 hours a day, COVID-19 outbreak

^{Type
post

Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
November 5, 2020

Categorized
Ethics, Global Technology, Medicine and Health, Surveillance

Tagged
Africa, Africans in China, China, COVID-19, Featured, Guangzhou, Racism}

COVID-19 Response Exposes Racism in China, amid Harmony Claims

_{The lid blew off when African leaders broke the accustomed silence imposed by their dependence on Chinese high-tech loans} _{Heather Zeiger

November 5, 2020

8

Ethics, Global Technology, Medicine and Health, Surveillance}

The coronavirus COVID-19 epidemic has exposed two longstanding ugly problems: underlying racist views of Africans living in China and the burden debt to China lays on several African countries. The key flashpoints creating tension between China and Africa are 1) Mistreatment of citizens of African countries living in China, particularly in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province (pictured) and 2) Beijing’s position on granting debt relief to countries in Africa so they can direct resources to dealing with the coronavirus. In one incident, Nigeria’s speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, posted a video of himself summoning Chinese Ambassador Zhou Pingjian to his office where he expressed his displeasure about a Nigerian man being evicted from his home. While nobody Read More ›

Smart car, Autonomous self-driving concept.

^{Type
post

Author
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
November 2, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Ethics

Tagged
Autonomous cars, Autonomous trucks, Daimler, driverless cars, Featured, Levels of autonomy (self-driving cars), self-driving cars, Voyage (automaker), Waymo}

Daimler, Waymo, and GM Make Big Gains in Level 4 Self-Driving

_{GM has been given a permit to test five driverless cars on streets in San Francisco later this year} _{Jonathan Bartlett

November 2, 2020

4

Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Ethics}

The Society for Automotive Engineering (SAE) has identified five levels of self-driving which describe how much a particular vehicle is able to handle its own driving tasks. Level 1 means that the vehicle handles either the speed or the steering, but not both, and it requires supervision. While ordinary cruise control technically falls into this level, most people associate cruise control with adaptive cruise control, which slows down or speeds up with traffic. A Level 2 car can control the speed and the steering but the driver must still maintain full vigilance. At Level 3, the driver need not maintain total vigilance but must still be able to take control upon request. Level 4 is “full self-driving” but limited to Read More ›

Liquid Nitrogen bank containing suspension of stem cells. Cell culture for the biomedical diagnostic

^{Type
post

Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
November 1, 2020

Categorized
Ethics, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
brain, Brain organoids, Brains in a dish, Consciousness, Curt Siodmak, Featured, Materialism, mind, Naturalism, Orson Wells, Sentience}

Can We Make Brains in a Dish? Can We Make MINDS in a Dish?

_{Experiments with brain organoids have left many wondering whether we should be concerned about creating brains-in-a-dish} _{Heather Zeiger

November 1, 2020

8

Ethics, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

In a recent report, Nature addressed several studies on disembodied brains grown in the lab. One of those studies, published last year by Alysson Muotri of the University of California, San Diego, showed that brain organoids (organized clusters of brain cells) displayed electrical signals reminiscent of a twenty-five-week-old pre-term baby. the electrical activity continued for several months until the experiment was eventually stopped. Experiments with such brain organoids have left many wondering whether we should be concerned about creating brains-in-a-dish. Organoids, such as those made of kidney or liver cells, have been used to study drug development and disease. They are made either from embryonic stem cells—an ethically problematic source because they involve the destruction of an embryo—or induced pluripotent Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
October 16, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Social Media, Technocracy

Tagged
Adam Garfinkle, Deepfake detection methods, Deepfakes, Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs)}

Are Deepfakes Too Deep for Us? Or Can We Fight Back?

_{Keeping up with the fakers is becoming more of a challenge} _{News

October 16, 2020

9

Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Social Media, Technocracy}

Since 2014, there has been a new twist to misrepresentation in politics: deepfakes—computer-generated images that seem quite real. Adam Garfinkle of Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University explains how the technology, generative adversarial networks (GANs), works: A GAN operator pits a generator (G) against a discriminator (D) in a gamelike environment in which G tries to fool D into incorrectly discriminating between fake and real data. The technology works by means of a series of incremental but rapid adjustments that allows D to discriminate data while G tries to fool it. Adam Garfinkle, ““Disinformed”” at Inference Review Once the problem is reduced to a giant calculation, a giant computer learns much more quickly than the rest of us. And it can then Read More ›

Analysis of a sample of water from a river or sea, ocean. The scientist in the glove took water in a test tube.

^{Type
post

Author
James C. Patterson II
Date
October 14, 2020

Categorized
Ethics, Information Theory, Medicine and Health, Social Media

Tagged
bias, Bias (in evaluating information), Bias (types listed), Communication, Featured, Freedom of speech, Polarization, truth}

Information Today Is Like Water in the Ocean. How Do We Test It?

_{Often, we must sort through many layers of bias in information to get at the facts that matter} _{James C. Patterson II

October 14, 2020

9

Ethics, Information Theory, Medicine and Health, Social Media}

Examining specific types of bias in our thinking will help us evaluate the information on key issues that inundates us today. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
September 20, 2020

Categorized
Ethics

Tagged
Audun Dahlis, children, free will, Moral choice, Naturalism, reason}

Psychologist: Children Use Reason, not Gut, for Moral Problems

_{Audun Dahlis thinks that the case against moral reasoning has begun to unravel} _{News

September 20, 2020

4

Ethics}

A psychology prof (pictured) at University of California, Santa Cruz offers us a surprising message about children: They do not rely merely on feelings, but rather reason, when making moral choices: For decades, research on children – unlike research on adults – has overwhelmingly concluded that participants do reason about moral issues. (Strangely, psychological research often portrays children more favourably than it does adults.) In one classic study from the 1980s, researchers interviewed six- to 10-year-old children in the United States. They asked about several fictional moral violations: for instance, a child who pushed another child off the top of a slide. When asked why pushing was wrong, children typically explained that it could hurt the victim. Accordingly, most children Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
September 19, 2020

Categorized
Ethics, Global Technology, Technocracy

Tagged
___longform, censorship, China, Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Disney, Featured, Jeannette Ng, Liu Yifei, Max Brooks, Mulan (film), Turpan, Uyghurs, World War Z (film), Ziba Murat}

Mulan: Disney Talks Freedom at Home, Toes the Line in China

_{Films we see get altered in subtle and not-so-subtle ways to conform to the requirements of CCP propaganda} _{Heather Zeiger

September 19, 2020

10

Ethics, Global Technology, Technocracy}

China’s government allows only about thirty-four Hollywood movies to be shown in Chinese theaters. As a result, entertainment companies like Disney go out of their way to make sure a film appeals to both North American crowds and Chinese Communist Party’s censors. Of course, what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) allows and doesn’t allow in films is vague and subject to change, which keeps foreign film-makers guessing. Mulan, Disney’s latest attempt to please both the North American and the Chinese market, has failed to do either, for a number of reasons. Financially, Disney is already hurting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Theaters in the U.S. either remain closed or permit only limited-capacity seating. In response, Disney released Mulan on its streaming Read More ›

Ethics Integrity Fairness Ideals Behavior Values Concept

^{Type
post

Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
September 15, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Ethics

Tagged
Autonomous weapons, bias, Design ethics, End-user ethics, Featured, HARPY missile, IEEE Code of Ethics, self-driving cars, The Case for Killer Robots}

AI: Design Ethics vs. End User Ethics — the Difference Is Important

_{Robert J. Marks

September 15, 2020

5

Artificial Intelligence, Ethics}

The major ethical challenge in AI design is unintended consequences. It’s up to end users to debate which consequences SHOULD be intended. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
September 13, 2020

Categorized
Ethics, Religion, Social Media

Tagged
BlessU-2, Buddhism, David O'Hara, Facebook, Japan, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Bird, Robots, Virtual Ifta}

Will We Outsource Religion and Spirituality to AI ?

_{A philosopher makes the case. But he worries, are we really outsourcing caring about others?} _{News

September 13, 2020

6

Ethics, Religion, Social Media}

Last Sunday, we looked at the question raised by Professor David O’Hara of Augustana University (South Dakota) as to whether AI could someday have mystical experiences. Of course, a lot depends on whether AI can have any experiences at all. An agnostic himself, O’Hara has also asked us to consider how robot priests will “change human spirituality”: What matters is not whether we have invented true artificial intelligence, but whether we believe we have invented it. If we trust the machine, we might let it function as a mystic or a priest, even if it isn’t one. This raises the interesting question of what to do when someone makes a machine that is actually intended to play the role of Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
September 12, 2020

Categorized
Arts & Culture, Ethics

Tagged
Extraterrestrials (ET), Matt Williams, Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), Prime Directive, Return of the Archons (Star Trek), Science fiction, Square Kilometer Array, Star Trek, Symbiosis (Star Trek), Technosignatures, Uncyclopedia}

Are the Aliens We Never See Obeying Star Trek’s Prime Directive?

_{The Directive is, don’t interfere in the evolution of alien societies, even if you have good intentions} _{News

September 12, 2020

7

Arts & Culture, Ethics}

Using the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope, astronomers recently scoured a part of the sky known to contain at least 10 million star systems for evidence of alien technology (“techno signatures”). And the result? “With this dataset, we found no technosignatures — no sign of intelligent life.” Professor Tingay said even though this was the broadest search yet, he was not shocked by the result. “As Douglas Adams noted in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, ‘space is big, really big’.” International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, “Australian telescope finds no signs of alien technology in 10 million star systems” at ScienceDaily The paper is open access. Various sources offer explanations for the absent aliens; the most popular is that Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
September 7, 2020

Categorized
Education, Ethics

Tagged
Academic dishonesty, Cell phone, Cheating (on exams), Chegg, COVID-19, Featured, Virtual exams}

What’s To Be Done About Cheating with Chegg in the COVID era?

_{College-level solutions to specific problems can be texted, for a fee, to students writing exams} _{Robert J. Marks

September 7, 2020

3

Education, Ethics}

Academic dishonesty is a fancy term for cheating. With profit-motivated websites like Chegg.com, cheating is now easier than ever. When taking an exam, take a photo of a problem that stumps you and send it to Chegg. In literally minutes, you’ll be sent the answer over your cell phone. How do they do it? Often they employ smart nerds from poor countries who, by local standards, are paid big bucks for their efforts.Chegg, which charges $14.95 per month for its service, does not see itself as a site for cheaters but as a resource to help with homework. It advertises: With over 21 million homework solutions, you can also search our library to find similar homework problems & solutions. Browsing Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
August 18, 2020

Categorized
Ethics, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
___longform, Aggression, Empathy, Molly Crockett, Morality Pill, Noa Eren, Oxytocin, Patricia Churchland, Paul Crutchfield}

The “Morality Pill” Hormone Does Not Make People “Nicer”

_{After an initial buzz as a “love hormone” we should all be dosed with, oxytocin started to reveal a big down side} _{News

August 18, 2020

8

Ethics, Philosophy of Mind}

Recently, we looked at the revival of enthusiasm for a morality pill on the grounds that it could make people do what authorities say with respect to COVID-19. Many of these proposals focus on the neuropeptide oxytocin. As a current advocate explains, These substances interact directly with the psychological underpinnings of moral behavior; others that make you more rational could also help. Then, perhaps, the people who choose to go maskless or flout social distancing guidelines would better understand that everyone, including them, is better off when they contribute, and rationalize that the best thing to do is cooperate. Paul Crutchfield, The Conversation, “‘Morality pills’ may be the US’s best shot at ending the coronavirus pandemic, according to one ethicist” Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
August 16, 2020

Categorized
Ethics

Tagged
___longform, Agata Sagan, Daniel Munro, Julian Savulescu, Molly Crockett, Parker Crutchfield, Peter Singer, Richard Weikart}

COVID-19 Drives the Latest Proposal for a “Morality Pill”

_{Those who don't comply with government policy would be urged or forced to take it} _{News

August 16, 2020

9

Ethics}

University of Western Michigan philosophy professor Parker Crutchfield (pictured) recently suggested getting people to take a pill to promote more “pro-social” behavior in order to better fight off COVID-19. He argues that the United States is not equipped for a fight against the disease just by expecting everyone to work together, as in, say, World Wars I and II: It seems that the U.S. is not currently equipped to cooperatively lower the risk confronting us. Many are instead pinning their hopes on the rapid development and distribution of an enhancement to the immune system—a vaccine. But I believe society may be better off, both in the short term as well as the long, by boosting not the body’s ability to Read More ›

Incognito warrior in iron helmet and red cloak.

^{Type
post

Author
Michael Egnor
Date
August 3, 2020

Categorized
Ethics, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
___longform, Aristocracy, Aristotle, Darwinism, democracy, Edward Feser, Featured, government, Hannah Arendt, Karl Marx, Mob rule, Oligarchy, Plato, Republic (book), soul, Spirit, Timocracy, totalitarianism, Tyranny}

What would Plato Say About Antifa? Or Darwin?

_{A careful reading of Plato and Arendt goes a long way toward explaining the current scene—but it is unsettling reading} _{Michael Egnor

August 3, 2020

8

Ethics, Philosophy of Mind}

In college, I hated Plato. We read his Republic, and, as a patriot and an idealistic young (small “d”) democrat, I was appalled at the hegemony of the Guardians and at Plato’s disdain for democracy. It seemed to me that his Guardians were the archetypal totalitarians, and that it was a fundamental human right — enshrined in the Constitution — to be ruled only by consent of the governed. In my dotage, I am more sympathetic to Plato — it’s remarkable how much smarter the old philosopher has gotten in the past 40 years! I am still uncomfortable with Guardians, at least of the secular sort. But I think John Adams got it right when he observed that “our Constitution Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
July 31, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Ethics, Technocracy

Tagged
Bob Kelly, China, Featured, Gary Rieschel, George Gilder, Jay Richards, Trade, Trade war, United States, Wendy Liu}

Tech Investment Analysts Strategize How to Deal With China Today

_{China’s assertions of power in recent years have left many uncertain about the future of business relationships} _{News

July 31, 2020

5

Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Ethics, Technocracy}

Recently, Jay Richards interviewed Dr. Bob Kelly, Managing Partner of Ignition Partners, focusing on the panel he moderated at COSM 2019,“The Crisis of Big Tech: The US and China.” They explored the technological competition between the U.S. and China and what it means for the future. The panelists were futurist George Gilder, Wendy Liu, China market strategy analyst at multinational investment bank UBS, and Gary Rieschel, a venture capitalist in China and the United States. From the interview: Jay Richards: So what was the core controversy if you had to summarize it neutrally? Bob Kelly: I guess I’d say the core controversy really is what stance do we as Americans, or in the technology arena, take towards China? And there’s Read More ›

Man In A Tesla Car. Behind The Wheel Concept.

^{Type
post

Author
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
July 15, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Ethics

Tagged
Autopilot, Elon Musk, Featured, Germany, self-driving cars}

German Court Rules: Tesla Autopilot Is False Advertising

_{In America, for reasons many people can’t quite comprehend, the regulatory agencies haven’t said much about the inflated claims} _{Jonathan Bartlett

July 15, 2020

4

Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Ethics}

Here at Mind Matters News, we have long been critics of Elon Musk’s claims about his “self-driving” Teslas. Autopilot is a cool feature but marketing it as “full self-driving” is simply a lie, and a dangerous one at that. Musk (right) has been making false claims about Autopilot for almost half a decade now. He claimed in 2016 that all Teslas that left the factory were equipped with the hardware for Level 5 full self-driving. If you’re not aware of the levels of self-driving defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), Level 5 means that the car will take you wherever you want to go and you can sleep in the back. Level 4 means that, in some situations Read More ›

Shaved male nape and a lot of usb cables connected to it. Concept of dependence in thinking and information

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
July 14, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
___longform, Bagging, Boosting, David Watson, Deep neural networks (DNNs), Lasso penalties, Wisdom of Crowds (book)}

AI Expert: Artificial Intelligences Are NOT Electronic People

_{AI makes mistakes no human makes, so some experts are trying to adapt human cognitive psychology to machines} _{News

July 14, 2020

9

Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

David Watson of the Oxford Internet Institute and the Alan Turing Institute has published an interesting and quite readable paper in Minds and Machines on the way in which artificial intelligence experts often endow their creations — mistakenly — with human characteristics. In his open access paper, “The Rhetoric and Reality of Anthropomorphism in Artificial Intelligence,” he fills us in on some of the limitations of AI and proposes fixes based on human thinking. First, thinking that AI is like a human or about to become like a human is not new: The biomimetic approach to AI has always inspired the popular imagination. Writing about Rosenblatt’s perceptron, the New York Times declared in 1958 that “The Navy has revealed the Read More ›

iron chain and castle on the silk national flag of Hong Kong with beautiful folds, the concept of a ban on tourism, political repression, crime, violation of the rights and freedoms of citizens

^{Type
post

Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
July 9, 2020

Categorized
Business and Finance, Data Privacy, Ethics, Global Technology, Surveillance, Technocracy

Tagged
___longform, Apple (company), China, Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Facebook, Featured, Google, Great Firewall, Hong Kong, Hong Kong National Security Law, Instagram, Microsoft, Telegram, Tik Tok, Twitter, WhatsApp, Zoom}

Hong Kong: Tech Companies Face Serious Ethical Decisions

_{As Hong Kong is transformed into a police state, Western companies, faced with demands for snitching on users, are rethinking cozy relationships with China} _{Heather Zeiger

July 9, 2020

7

Business and Finance, Data Privacy, Ethics, Global Technology, Surveillance, Technocracy}

The semi-autonomous region of Hong Kong is no longer semi-autonomous, at least in practice. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), circumventing Hong Kong’s parliament and courts, passed the Hong Kong National Security Law on June 30 that effectively abolishes the “one country, two systems” regime outlined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration. The law was passed one day before the anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong to China (July 1, 1997), in time to quash any pro-democracy candidates who would likely win in the September elections. Although the CCP justifies its moves from the Hong Kong Basic Law and claims that Hong Kong will maintain autonomy, in practice, it has already arrested dissidents and formed a secretive agency called the Office Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Gary Smith
Date
July 7, 2020

Categorized
Business and Finance, Ethics

Tagged
Charles Ponzi, Featured, Ponzi scheme, stock market, Tan Lui, Tim Denning}

Stocks Are Not a Ponzi Scheme and Here’s Why Not

_{Gary Smith

July 7, 2020

7

Business and Finance, Ethics}

When you mail a letter to someone in another country, you can enclose an international reply coupon (IRC) that can be exchanged for that country’s postage stamps and used to mail a letter back to you. It is like enclosing a self-addressed stamped envelope except that you do not need to figure out how to buy foreign postage stamps. It is the polite thing to do but also the source of the most famous swindle in history. In 1920, a Massachusetts man named Charles Ponzi (right, in 1920) promised to pay investors 50 percent interest every 45 days. Compounded eight times a year, the effective annual rate of return was 2,463 percent! He said that his profits would come from Read More ›